In Jeremiah Chapter 1 Verse 1-10 we read of Jeremiahs calling by God and of his timid reluctance, but nevertheless he accepts.
Jeremiah Chapter 1-10 Jer 1:1 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: Jer 1:2 To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his rule. Jer 1:3 And it came again in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, up to the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah; till Jerusalem was taken away in the fifth month. Jer 1:4 now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Jer 1:5 Before you were formed in the body of your mother I had knowledge of you, and before your birth I made you holy; I have given you the work of being a prophet to the nations. Jer 1:6 Then said I, O Lord God! see, I have no power of words, for I am a child. Jer 1:7 But the Lord said to me, Do not say, I am a child: for wherever I send you, you are to go, and whatever I give you orders to say, you are to say. Jer 1:8 have no fear because of them: for I am with you, to keep you safe, says the Lord. Jer 1:9 Then the Lord put out his hand, touching my mouth; and the Lord said to me, See, I have put my words in your mouth: Jer 1:10 See, this day I have put you over the nations and over the kingdoms, for uprooting and smashing down, for destruction and overturning, for building up and planting.
Lamentations is of course concerned with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the captivity and exile of the people.The previous 2 chapters have seen Jeremiad's lament or sadness of what he’s witnessing, what’s happening to Jerusalem and the nation of Israel and it isn’t nice. A fortified city surrounded for I think it was 2 years. Food runs out, waste has no-where to go, the stench of human and food waste, no-where to bury the dead, they decay and smell, in the end they are turning to cannibalism for survival.Children wasting away, dying in the arms of their mothers.
In Chapter 3, He turns to his own suffering. The book of Lamentations is written as a poem in Hebrew, with Chapters 1, 2 and 4 having 22 verses, each verse beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and in order, just like our a, b, c. Chapter 3 however has 66 verses set in triplets, with each triplet starting with the same letter of the alphabet, so the 3 verses x 22 = 66. So the book has been written very, very carefully indeed according to Hebrew poetry rules and apparently it’s read in Synagogues on the ninth of the month of Ab, which is a fast for the destruction of the Holy City.
In Chapter 3 from verses 1-18 we can see that Jeremiah, clearly acknowledges and knows that the source of his suffering is from God’s own hand. He knows that the Babylonians were nothing more the God’s foot soldiers, the unknowing agents of His Judgement and retribution. Sometimes we have Christian leaders and teachers who will tell you that if you are suffering, then it’s because you don’t have enough faith and that’s clearly not true. To clarify, I’m using a wider net in using the term Christian teachers with no accusations to Church of Christ ones. You know they are out there, telling you that if you’re faith is enough, then you’d have NO suffering; all would be healthy, wealthy and happy. I think that apart from being wrong, they are putting unfair pressure on Christians. You know the ones also those who are usually in large halls and have people in wheelchairs and saying to them, ‘If you have faith, get up and walk’. Mary, the mother of Jesus is recorded in the Bible as being called “blessed” by God and she was, but do you think she always felt that way? She had to make a long journey while pregnant, give birth in a barn amongst straw and the smell and excrement of animals. Had to flee to a foreign country when she found out the government was sending soldiers to kill her son. What about when her other children made fun of Him or when the Jewish hierarchy went after him as a heretic. What about he nephew’s head being chopped off or when her own son was tortured and put on a cross to die. Do you think she thought how blessed am I?
Was Mary blessed, of course she was but according to the kind of teachers we mentioned, if her faith was enough, none of this would have happened!!!! One of the problems I feel there is, is that while we are suffering our blessings may not be immediately apparent, we may never be really aware of them. Spiritual growth can be a slow and sometimes painful process. I hope that I am learning and growing but I may not see it in me the way that I see it in my fellow brothers and sisters. I found it interesting what one of Rebecca’s teachers said at a parent’s evening a few months ago. Rebecca is bright and clever and works hard but when she makes a mistake she gets really upset about it but her teacher said that she needs to learn that it’s aright to make mistakes, it’s a good thing because in making mistakes it helps with the whole learning and thinking process. Something perhaps to take away and think about.
We are also caught up with this instant generation. The I want it and I want it now. Our food has to be ready in 5 minutes, not 50; our computers need to download encyclopaedias in 20 seconds because 2 minutes is too long to wait, people start losing patience if they have to wait 10 minutes to be served in a queue in any kind of shop. Even our medicines have to be ’Super ’ this and ’Maxi’ that to get us better just that 10 minutes quicker. To help us in this, what I feel we need to do is adjust our thinking and our approach in our heads when things happen to us and perhaps then the worry of the questions of why is this happening lessen and also the need to ’see’ the blessings gained. When things happen to us, one of the first questions into our heads is ’why has this happened to me?’ In and of itself it’s not a wrong question to ask. Depending on what it is a little time of thinking and quiet introspection might show you that perhaps yes, you may have brought something on your own head. There will be situations where it isn’t your own making and perhaps you will never know the answer on this side of the curtain. Where we lose ourselves is if we sit and mourn saying, ’if only things were as they were before’. If we sit and cry to God saying, ’restore me to my former glory and then I’ll do better’, that’s when we start to lose the place.
The point is to not look back. Those days have gone for whatever reason and as I’ve said they may never be known. What we need to attend to is the here and now. If you’ve spent sometime in reflection and can find no cause within yourself leave it and ask the next question. ’What is it that God wants me to do in those new circumstances, ones that you have placed me in?’ For some that meant settling down and working as normally as possible in Babylonian exile. God has brought me to where I am, so how do I serve Him from here? If you are suffering then take heart it is doing you good. Easy words to say, but they are true words. In Lamentations Chapter 3 verse 27 it says, “It’s good for a man to undergo the yoke when he is young.” You’ve seen the pictures of oxen, cattle etc with yolks on. To be in that situation’s a good thing? Are you sure? Yes it is, if God has chosen to put a yolk upon you, of whatever it may be and you submit yourself to it, then you gain righteousness. Righteousness is yours if you take on and submit to whatever God chooses for you.
For some like Jeremiah it meant watching Jerusalem suffer, him with it, to the point where women cooked children to survive Chapter 4 verse 10. Even if we have been given a yolk to carry, we can do more than just stare at the ground we trample over, we can look to the future and that’s what Jeremiah could do. He knew these times wouldn’t last forever and could see blessing both in the present and in the future. God prefers to show mercy, so times of Judgment or suffering called for are going to be outnumbered by the days of mercy, grace and blessing. Has God ever been pleaded with and implored with to lessen a punishment? Answer - Yes, Has He done it? Answer – Yes. It’s perfectly right and natural to weep or mourn for the loss of something that was dear to you and no one can take that away from you. This morning I’m showing you a way to help and to remember what you have already.
Visual images are great and can help us picture things more clearly in our minds. So I’m going to try it with this. We’ve all seen the pictures of what happened to the twin towers, it might have been a couple of years ago but we’ve seen them often enough to make them easy to recall. Put yourself in the place of the one with videotape in the street looking up towards the buildings. The planes crash, the buildings start to collapse, you standing there still while the dust settles. And you say to yourself. The Lords, loving, kindness indeed never cease, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Is there something in your life you thought like Jerusalem, like the twin towers was out of reach, unassailable? Jeremiah was able to go from acknowledging God as the author of his pain to also the author of his blessing. Because His blessings are new every day. Each day is a new day, blessed by the fact that we are alive and able to continue to both share still in God’s blessing and to be part of His plan, to grown in faith, to be an example. To meet the challenges of each new day.
I’ll end with this thought.
We do not need to know why we must suffer as much as we need someone to lean on when we do.
1 Peter Chapter 5 Verses 6&7