July 16, 2025 - Jeremiah 9-12

Jeremiah:  a singular, lone voice; faithful; persevering; telling the truth.  Here, however, is no calloused, hard-hearted truth teller:  “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (9:1).  And previously:  “My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me” (8:18).  And again:  “Woe is me because of my hurt!  My wound is grievous.  But I said, ‘Truly this is an affliction, and I must bear it.’” (10:19).

Rightly does Jeremiah cry out.  It is said of Judah:  “For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars that you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal” (11:13).  Because of her sins, the Lord instructs Jeremiah to not even pray for the people (11:14).  But God himself cannot ultimately reject his people:  “Behold, I will pluck them up from their land . . . and after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again each to his heritage and each to his land” (12:14,15). The news is bad.  The people have sinned, and they continue to sin.  But rejection and judgment are not the end of the story.  The prophet’s heart breaks, and the tears flow, but will there be a day, one day, of rejoicing?  It seems so.  Like the people of Judah, with all our failures, we are so absolutely dependent upon God’s grace.  And he bestows that grace lavishly.

When the storms of life are raging, stand by me;

when the storms of life are raging, stand by me;

when the world is tossing me like a ship upon the sea,

Thou who rulest the wind and water, stand by me.

In the midst of tribulation, stand by me;

in the midst of tribulation, stand by me;

when the host of hell assail, and my strength begins to fail,

Thou who never lost a battle, stand by me.

In the midst of faults and failures, stand by me;

in the midst of faults and failures, stand by me;

when I’ve done the best I can, and my friends misunderstand,

Thou who knowest all about me, stand by me.   -- Charles Albert Tindley (1905)