Jeremiah

Poor Jeremiah. He had the unenviable task of being the “prophet of doom” trying to get a stiff-necked, hard-hearted people to repent and avoid the consequences of their sins – the destruction of Jerusalem and being hauled off into exile in Babylon. They didn’t much like his prophecy of gloom and treated him poorly for it. Being a God-fearing man from a line of priests, he had no other choice but to do what God told him to do. 

The words of God are harsh, but the people need to hear them. And here is what God told Jeremiah to tell them (16:10-13):

“And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me; therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

Whew! Losing God’s favor, how terrible must that be. And it isn’t just the people in general. He has some specific nits to pick with the religious leaders (23:1-4):

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock, and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil doings, says the Lord. Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and shall be fruitful and multiply. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, says the Lord.

Historically, we are reading about the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people and their enslavement by Nebuchadnezzar. But, as we know, many things that happened in the Old Testament were a foreshadowing of things that happened later. Can we say that we are better than the Israelites, more righteous? Let’s think about some of the evils that are being perpetrated right now. And what about some of the shepherds who are leading us. Are they all leading us in the true paths of righteousness or are some of them leading us astray?

Perhaps now would be a good time to make Jeremiah our friend and heed his advice.