July 10, 2023 - Jeremiah 20-23

Wow, Jeremiah was blunt in his conversations with God! Pashur, the priest, had beaten Jeremiah and put him in stocks. Jeremiah cried out, “O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’ For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long” (20:7-8). The Christian ministry, and the Christian life itself, is hard because we live in the midst of a fallen world that rejects the gospel and aims to please itself, refusing to heed God’s direction.

In the face of such great opposition, what is the prophet to do? Jeremiah declares, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot” (20:9). Jeremiah, and we, can do nothing else but proclaim the Word of God and call people to the Lord. That’s the lot of the Christian. But here’s the thing, we look forward to hearing from the Lord these words: “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). Oh, to hear those words! Charles Wesley looked to that day:

Servant of God, well done!

Thy glorious warfare’s past;

The battle’s fought, the race is won,

And thou art crowned at last.

Of all thy heart’s desire

Triumphantly possessed;

Lodged by the ministerial choir

In thy Redeemer’s breast. –Charles Wesley (1833)