If you were shipwrecked on a deserted island, what book would you most want to have? Maybe Ship-Building for Beginners! But to survive the storms of life, we need God’s revelation. Karl Barth said, “We must read the Bible through the eyes of shipwrecked people for whom everything has gone overboard.”
The Bible is not given to make us feel good, but to make us good. We read it for reformation. God gave the prophet Jeremiah a message; it wasn’t a soothing word but a sober warning of judgment and a call for national repentance. When we sin, we repair or repeat.
We find both good and bad news in the Bible. God gives us commandments and expects us to obey them. Scripture is serious about sin; it doesn’t make light of our wrong-doings. Yet promises of pardon are on nearly every page of the Bible.
In Jeremiah 26:2-3, God tells the prophet not to diminish a single word of the divine message, even if it seems harsh. Jeremiah might be tempted to tone down the stern rhetoric. Being prophetic isn’t only foretelling but forth-telling: issuing rebuke, telling people things they’d rather not hear, exposing their sin. Don’t become a prophet if you have a need for being liked!
Jeremiah’s message did not please his audience. In spite of faithfully preaching for over two decades, he was unable to persuade Israel to return to righteousness. We see in verse 5 that Jeremiah was barred from the Temple, so he sent his scribe Baruch to publicly read his message. The people resented Jeremiah’s concern for them. Yet Jeremiah wasn’t an angry prophet like Jonah. His warnings were given with tearful compassion. Nonetheless, his concerns were interpreted as condemnations.
Jeremiah is called “the weeping prophet.” In the same way, Jesus wept over Jerusalem and their rejection of the Way, Truth, and Life. Jesus cared about us, all the way to the cross. Nonbelievers try to suppress their knowledge of God by inventing all sorts of objections and alternative explanations for the world. Most of the people who reject God know little of what they are rejecting. They claim to be agnostic when they are apathetic. They are spiritually blind and deaf, of their own doing.
I wonder--how do we respond to people we see headed on the wrong path, one that can only lead to misery and destruction? Do we care enough to confront them? It would be heartless to ignore harmful behavior without warning. The goal of correction is to help, not hurt. Yet we can’t fix people’s problems; that is their responsibility. We can only encourage them to accept God’s solutions. We can’t prevent the consequences of their choices. In the end, we need to let people have whatever kind of life they choose to have. After giving advice, we accept that they may choose not to accept our views or values.
Jeremiah gave Israel correction but his intent was to heal, not harm. His appraisal came from Above. Scripture is like a mirror, and we may not like what we see when we look in it. Mark Twain said, “It’s not the things I don’t understand about the Bible that disturb me, it’s the things I do know that trouble me, and which I find very difficult to measure up to.” The Bible tells us who we are. God’s word is also like a health checkup, and sometimes the doctor’s diagnosis is unwelcome news. We’re told what’s wrong and we may resist the treatment. The disease is sin, and the Great Physician wants to heal us.
Jeremiah was told to take a scroll and write on it God’s assessment of Israel. God breathed into these words His power. The prophet’s message was charged with God’s Spirit and became a double-edged sword--piercing façades, uncovering hypocrisy, pride, and unholy desires.
We hear of senseless murders committed by people with no moral restraint. They simply do what they please, whatever is right in their own eyes. Without a moral compass, a sense of right-and-wrong, people can justify anything.
Jeremiah’s uncompromising message wasn’t just doom and gloom; it included how to avoid the disastrous consequences of sin. Verse 3: “Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, each of them will turn from their wickedness and sin.” They might repent.
Repentance is a resolve to walk in a new direction, to pick ourselves up and begin anew. However, Tim Keller cautions, “When we repent out of fear of consequences, we are not really sorry for the sin, but for ourselves.” We should seek change because we care what God thinks of our sin, and because we’re sick of how our choices have ruined our lives. Madeline L’Engle says “Repentance is neither easy nor cheap. It hurts. It costs us all our pride and self-will. It means letting go completely and handing ourselves back to God.”
If we reject the Bible as our moral authority, we will become our own god and make our own truth--which is relativism. If truth is relative then there is no truth and nothing is true. If life is an accident and if there is no God, there are no absolutes, no right or wrong. All we’re left with are personal, arbitrary preferences.
The public reading of Jeremiah’s message by Baruch produced a storm that swept into the palace. Jehoiakim, the king of Israel, was not pleased with God’s appraisal. He seized the offending manuscript, cut it into pieces, and tossed it into the fire. No fear of God, no sorrow over sin; only contempt. In verses 29-30 this ruler paid the price for his indifference. “You don’t have to give up your intellect to trust the Bible. You have to give up your pride” (R.C. Sproul).
We may reject God, but He can overrule us. It is a fearful thing to reject the life-giving word of God. To accept means to follow. We only believe the parts of the Bible that we do. Does the Bible’s teaching make a difference in how we live? The Bible is light for the soul but whoever rejects it remains stuck in spiritual darkness.
Bibles can be burned, but God’s word cannot be destroyed. Isaiah declares, “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord stands forever,” 40:8. Jesus said, “Heaven and Earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away,” Matthew 24:35. The Apostle Paul wrote in a Roman prison, “God’s word is not chained,” II Timothy 2:9. The truth cannot be suppressed. Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch put together a second draft, adding to the original message, verse 32. This is the most detailed account we have of the writing of any part of Scripture. Now a revised version was circulating throughout the streets of Jerusalem.
Over the centuries people have tried to destroy God’s word. There have been many Jehoiakims. In the 1500s, William Tyndale translated the Bible into English using simple, everyday words to make the text clear to the average reader. The result was a Bible both readable and accurate. The Bishop of London was so enraged by this that he purchased scores of copies of Tyndale’s Bible, which he then publicly burned. What he didn’t know was that the money he used to buy these Bibles helped finance Tyndale’s revised second edition. When the printers were later questioned as to who financed the printing, they answered, “It was the Bishop!”
Psalm 2 states, “Why do the nations conspire and the people plot in vain?” No one can hinder the plan and purpose of God. Jehoiakim thought he had put an end to Jeremiah’s prophecy. The message endured. And Jeremiah withstood significant abuse without becoming bitter.
“God gave us the Bible to inform, transform, and give us a counter-cultural consciousness” (John Jefferson Davis). The book Jeremiah wrote is not merely a boat-building kind of boat. It is a book about survival. The prophet Jeremiah explains how a life is constructed that gets us where we ought to be. He gives hope to shipwrecked souls, showing us the way back to God.
Prayer: Healer of our souls, we get stranded by sin when we disregard Your truth. Rescue us with Your word and persuade us to guide our lives by Your direction. May we turn our hearts to You and rely upon Your word to bring healing and wholeness to our lives. You have the words of everlasting life. In Your thrice-holy Name we pray, Amen.
