Claudette's Blog

I have been observing the tasks that Jeremiah had to go through in the bible, as a Prophet of God, while looking through different scenarios Jeremiah came against, I thought about his troubles. Jeremiah had troubles, he could not trust his friends in Jeremiah 9:4 he was told not to trust his family Jeremiah 12:6. Have you ever felt like you had or have Jeremiah’s trouble?

Jeremiah was boxed in and surrounded by deception on all sides with family and friends.  Jeremiah was betrayed and slander against, talk about rejection in the third degree. Ponder it, for a moment, a friend ask you out to lunch and then behind your back they have you for lunch (slandering you), your brother or sister comes over to visit, just to go off and turn on you, does not sound promising does it, but you understand Jeremiah’s trouble when you yourselves have been through it.  I know I understand Jeremiah’s weeping, I know scholars say he was the weeping prophet for his country I think his weeping went much deeper than just for his country.

Many teach us that if you do not keep the proper attitude you’re going to go around the mountain again and again, but Jeremiah blew his top, he had gotten angry Jeremiah had it with all the trouble, speaking to people who did not want to listen to reason, always confronting and never seeing anything change.

In fact, Jeremiah records his frustrations.

Jeremiah 20:7-18

O LORD, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You have overcome me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
Everyone mocks me.
⁸ For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long.
⁹ But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in,
And I cannot endure it.
¹⁰ For I have heard the whispering of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”
All my trusted friends,
Watching for my fall, say:
“Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him
And take our revenge on him.”
¹¹ But the LORD is with me like a dread champion;
Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,
With an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
¹² Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous,
Who see the mind and the heart;
Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For to You I have set forth my cause.
¹³ Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD!
For He has delivered the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴ Cursed be the day when I was born;
Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!
¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought the news
To my father, saying,
“A baby boy has been born to you!”
And made him very happy.
¹⁶ But let that man be like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew without relenting,
And let him hear an outcry in the morning
And a shout of alarm at noon;
¹⁷ Because he did not kill me before birth,
So that my mother would have been my grave,
And her womb ever pregnant.
¹⁸ Why did I ever come forth from the womb
To look on trouble and sorrow,
So that my days have been spent in shame?

When I read this I see a real man with emotions, he spoke in the beginning saying to the Lord in anger and frustration “you deceived me” then Jeremiah talks about how the fire of God burns in his bones and how it wearies him to hold back the word of God.  Jeremiah goes on to say how his friends wait for his fall, and then he proceeds with praise proclaiming God is with him. However, when we get towards the end of his frustrations, he really pours out about how cursed he is sense the day he was born. Jeremiah wanted to die.

I look at Jeremiah as one of the true warriors of faith.  Sometimes we have to be honest and deeply search ourselves, he didn’t hold it in, he vented it all out before the Lord, sometimes it don’t seem fair, and we don’t understand, because the Lords ways are higher than are ways, but there will be times where we will have to get it off our chest (sort of speak) to move forward, despite Jeremiahs trouble he had to move forward, he still had to complete the tasks in front of him, because the fire of God could not be quenched.

My conclusion, we do have a sovereign God that is with us and will not leave us, in fact he promises to guide us through. In all the trouble Jeremiah faced he made it through, and you will too!

The Lord is a God of Retribution he will pay in full   Jeremiah 51:56

Pay day is coming, in the name of the Lord!

Blessings

Claudette