Day 230: Facing the inevitable – Jeremiah 10 vs 17 – 25
17-18 Pack your bags and prepare to leave; the siege is about to begin. For this is what the Lord says: “Suddenly, I will fling out all you who live in this land. I will pour great troubles upon you, and at last you will feel my anger.”
19-20 My wound is severe, and my grief is great. My sickness is incurable, but I must bear it. My home is gone, and no one is left to help me rebuild it. My children have been taken away, and I will never see them again. 21-22 The shepherds of my people have lost their senses. They no longer seek wisdom from the Lord. Therefore, they fail completely, and their flocks are scattered. Listen! Hear the terrifying roar of great armies as they roll down from the north. The towns of Judah will be destroyed and become a haunt for jackals.
23-24 I know, Lord, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. 25 Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you - on the peoples that do not call upon your name. For they have devoured your people Israel; they have devoured and consumed them, making the land a desolate wilderness. Jeremiah 10:17-25 New Living Translation ( English Standard Version link )
Sometimes in life we have to face the inevitable. The dictionary defines that word as 'unavoidable and bound to happen'. In the case of school goers it would be exams. In the case of the elderly it will be some aches and pains that come with old age. In the case of the people of Israel in Jeremiah's time it was the coming Babylonian army and captivity. So in vs 17-18 Jeremiah tells them they had better start preparing themselves for that event. Their rebellious ways had reached a point where God was going to let them feel his anger. How did Jeremiah feel as he delivered this sad news to the people? (vs 19-20)
I don't know if he was speaking only for himself and the personal loss of home and children, or if he was expressing the anguish the people would experience when their land was in ruins. Whichever it was, he was showing what we refer to as empathy. He felt for what the people were going to go through. Over 600 years later the Lord Jesus Christ also grieved over what was going to happen to Jerusalem and it's people and said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. And now, look, your house is abandoned and desolate.” (Matthew 23:37-38) We've noticed before in these studies that God doesn't take delight in punishing rebels. He would rather that they were sorry for the wrong they do, turn away from their sins, and seek His forgiveness. What was a big reason why the nation had gone astray and become so wicked? (vs 21-22)
The people who should’ve been guiding them in God's truth were no longer looking to God for guidance themselves. They didn’t remind the people of how holy God is, or warn them anymore of sin's danger. It's like Church leaders today who no longer believe the Bible is God's word, and so they don't challenge the wrong things people in their flock get up to. They become useless shepherds. But a question we can ask ourselves is, how should I respond if I am faced with an inevitable sad situation? Can Jeremiah's words in vs 23-24 help?
Jeremiah acknowledged that his life was in God's hands. He also acknowledged that there may be times when an inevitable difficult situation may be God's way of correcting us from something in our life that needed to be changed. So he submitted to it, but asked that God would not correct him in anger – but with tenderness. The good news is that the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is a shepherd who won't crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle. (Matthew 12:20) God's discipline might bruise us, but He will not break us. He will bring us through the inevitable situation which He brought upon us.