Consider Jeremiah’s Character
Jeremiah 11: 18-20 September 22, 2002
JEREMIAH 11:18-20
18Because the LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. 19I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more."
20But, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Probably at one time or another in our lives, we have thought or maybe even spoken, “Woe is me!” Woe is me. Maybe if things got bad enough we might even say, “Woe is the world around me!” or “Woe is my family, church or nation!” Even in the wickedness of our day and age we want to realize we have it no worse than what Jesus did. Jesus, who came to this earth and was innocent His whole life, never said a bad word, never had an evil thought, never did anything wrong--yet was put to death for being God’s Son. He was put to death for being perfect. We might be tempted from time to time and say “Woe is me!” and yet the scripture reminds us that when we look at the life of Jesus, not once did He say, “Woe is me!” As we look at the life of Je-sus, we see that that is our example, that our ‘lot’ or path in life as a believer is to face suffering and persecution. Peter writes: "To this (suffering) you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps"(1 PETER 2:21). We may say, “Woe is me!” but that is part of our Christian life, a part of our Christian calling, that we were called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. This morning we:
CONSIDER JEREMIAH’S CHARACTER
I. Obedience in service
II. Humility in obedience
I. Obedience in service
It is true. Jeremiah lived during one of the most terrible times for the children of Israel. Kings had ruled them. As kings came and went, some were good, some were bad. They had more bad kings than good kings. When Jeremiah started prophesying, there was a good king, Josiah. Because of Josiah, the Word of God came back to life. After Josiah left, the Word of God was once again covered up.
Jeremiah began to prophesy. He prophesied that if they thought they were in terrible times now, there were worse times yet to come. In fact, the Lord even told Jeremiah, “Don’t get mar-ried, because your children will be destroyed.” The next generation was going to be wiped out. That’s how bad it was going to be. It was terrible times, if we want to call them that. First of all, Jeremiah had a terrible message to deliver…God’s judgement. It was terrible times because God’s people didn’t listen and because even Jeremiahs’ friends didn’t listen. They turned against Jeremiah thinking they were going to defeat God’s judgement. He says: 18Because the LORD re-vealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing.
In his own hometown of Anahoth, the people plotted to get rid of Jeremiah. They thought, “If we get rid of Jeremiah, we’re not going to have to listen to his words anymore. If we don’t have to listen to his words anymore, we’re not going to have to listen to God’s judgement.” Jeremiah didn’t know a thing about it. He was surprised. He simply went on preaching God’s word. That’s what he knew how to do. That’s what God had instructed him to do. That’s what God’s people rejected.
He says: 19I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me. He didn’t understand why they didn’t want to listen to what God had to say to them. It wasn’t pleasant to listen to and they certainly wouldn’t want to hear it day after day, year after year. In fact, Jeremiahs’ prophesy lasted over a generation. He was able to tell the parents and the children. They did get tired of it, but the message was still the same. They weren’t going to wipe out that message. They plotted against him saying, "Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more." They thought, “Well, get rid of Jeremiah, the tree. Get rid of his fruit, his message. Let’s wipe out his name forever, and we’ll live in peace and safety rather than destruction and judgment.” You and I know that Jeremiah wasn’t talking and prophesying his words, but was proclaiming what God had revealed to him to proclaim. They couldn’t cut out the words of the Lord. They couldn’t cover them up. They couldn’t destroy them. God’s word/judgment was there to stay.
God’s Word is still here to stay today, isn’t it? We might think, “ Woe is me!” As we look around us and woe is the world in which we live. We would be right. The word of the Lord is so under-rated or undervalued by anyone beyond the believers in this world. It certainly seems as if there are less and less believers as time goes on. It would be easy for us to point to the world around us and say: “See, they don’t care. They don’t want to listen. They try to cover up God’s word, they try to dismiss it.” We would be right to a certain degree.
Paul says in Corinthians: "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God"(2 CORINTHIANS 4:4). Paul writes that not only do they not even try to not listen to God’s law, but; they don’t even hear the gospel anymore. It brings no joy to them. Then we would say, ‘See that world.’ As we point fingers we always want to remember, who are we? Are we people of the world? Are we God’s children? Both? Probably both. It does matter how we live our lives—as children of God or people of the world? Sometimes the gods of this age blind our minds too, don’t they? Sometimes success, wealth and honor, fame, glory and riches, and the long list of the things of this world can blind our eyes to God’s glory. Sometimes we take the gospel and convert it into a law saying, ‘You’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that.’ It’s an easy thing to do, and then we, too, forget to see the image of the glory of Christ.
Moses, as he led God’s people into the Promised Land, realized they were going to be tempted by the things there; the success, prosperity, the comfort in which they were going to live, the people whom they were going to dwell among. He gave them this warning (the same one he gives us). "When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there"(DEUTERONOMY 18:9). We come back to the fact that we imitate the detestable ways of the nation. We become like the world around us. We become very concerned about ourselves and how things affect us, rather than looking at the big picture of building up others, building up the kingdom of God. We’ve fallen into the ways of the world. Are we children of God or people of the world? Sometimes it’s easier to believe that, or say that, but to do that and live it becomes difficult. That’s why our text says, consider Jeremiahs’ character. The people didn’t want to believe him. They plotted to take his life. He could have easily changed his message, but he didn’t. He couldn’t because it was God’s word. It’s pretty hard to change that if you’re going to be truthful and honest to God’s calling. He didn’t say, ‘Woe is me!’ Jeremiah simply realized that he had to be obedient in God’s service.
We look at Jesus. It’s the very same thing. Certainly we can consider Jeremiahs’ character, but he stands as a predecessor of Jesus, who was to come. Jesus, God’s own Son, was also obe-dient in service to his Father’s will. He gathered His disciples together for a meal and fellowship. Before they ate, He washed their feet. It was one of the humblest tasks to do, one of the most menial tasks to do, to wash the dusty feet of the travelers of the time of Jesus’ day. Some of the disciples objected. They realized that Jesus shouldn’t be doing that; they should be doing it. Je-sus said to them, "I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them"(JOHN 13:16,17). Jesus said, ‘I’m not greater than my Father who sent me, I’m in His service.’ Every believer is in the blessed service of our Savior.
We consider Jeremiahs’ character. He was obedient in service. In his obedience, we see his humility.
II. Humility in obedience
Now Jeremiah, we would think, would be scared to death. None of the people like him, the
kings don’t like him anymore either (they were wicked kings to begin with). They don’t want to hear anything about God’s word. The town in which he lives doesn’t like him. In fact, the priests in that town don’t like him anymore. They, too, are tired of hearing that message. The priests were his friends and colleagues. Sadly they were also the ones who set up the plot against him. What does Jeremiah do? Does he shake and tremble? He says, 20But, O LORD Almighty, you judge righteously. He doesn’t look to his friends for help, he doesn’t look to the people who are all against him, he doesn’t look to himself, doesn’t trust in his own wisdom or strength. He turns to the Lord and says, ‘Lord, you are almighty. You know what is right and wrong. You judge right-eously.’ Why does the Lord know what is right and wrong? He says, ‘O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind,’ He knew what was in Jeremiah’s heart and mind. He knew what was in the heart and minds of the people. He says, ‘O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind…for to you I have committed my cause.’ Basically, he was saying almost the same things as Jesus on the cross…’into your hands I commit my spirit’. Jeremiah says, ‘I have committed my cause to you, O Lord. Certainly, you will do all things well.’
Talking about doing all things well, there comes a phrase that doesn’t sound too much like humility. Jeremiah says, ‘O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them’. Now it almost sounds like Jeremiah saying, ‘you’d better get even with these people. Then, let me see that.’ But is he saying that? He says, ‘Let me see your vengeance on them…to you I commit my cause.’ He’s really saying, ‘It’s out of my hands. Lord, you will do what is right. You will carry out your Word whether that’s vengeance or not.’ Jeremiah is asking the Lord for himself to stay alive long enough, if that vengeance comes, to see those words of terrible prophecy come true. We see that it was an act of humility, not of his righteous anger, but of turning everything into the Lord’s hands, realizing that the Lord was in control.
We think of Abraham pleading for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He pleads before God, starting with a big number(50), and says, ‘If there’s that many righteous, spare them.’ He keeps bargaining until he gets to only 10. There’s still not that many righteous in Sodom and Go-morrah, yet Abraham says, ‘Lord, I know you will do what is right.’ What was right was the de-struction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord says again that we learn of His righteous judge-ments, His vengeance. It is a sign of humility. In our society, everyone likes to ‘get even.’ We like to take vengeance especially if we think we’ve been wronged against. In essence, we try to take the place of God himself.
We see in our news, over and over, the most recent developments. Israel is going in and tearing down Arafat’s last office space. They’ve been working on it all night. Why is that? Vengeance! They are angry that there were car bombs in Israel. Arafat is angry that the Israel-ites don’t like him. Vengeance and vengeance--ever since Jacob and Esau. Vengeance and vengeance! Taking things into their own hands, thinking they will get done what they want to get done. The Lord says, ‘What about me?’ In our Bible study last week we learned that the Lord said, ‘Vengeance is mine.’ We don’t repay vengeance with vengeance, but with blessing.
When the Lord takes His vengeance against time, He is slow. In Nahum we read, The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet"(NAHUM 1:3). Just as we can’t understand the whirlwind and the storm, so His vengeance is beyond our understanding. We know He will do what is right.
When we look at the parts of our sermon this morning and we see obedience, service, and humility, those are words that the world around us would dismiss. They would say, ‘you can’t get ahead in this life, you can’t be successful, you can’t even enjoy life if you’re going to be a servant. You can’t appreciate all the blessings if you are going to be obedient. If you are going to be hum-ble, how are you going to get ahead in life?’ Those words stand in direct opposition in the world in which we live. For us as believers, they need to be our watchwords as we consider the charac-ter of Jeremiah. As we consider the world around us, which doesn’t care about anyone else ex-cept himself or herself, we are left as believers who care for others. We know the Lord will take care of us. "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others bet-ter than yourselves"(PHILIPPIANS 2:3). That is humility and obedience. We look to the benefit of others rather than ourselves.
As we consider Jeremiahs’ character, he stood steadfast on God’s Word. We see it again in the life of Jesus. That example was that He humbled Himself, became obedient to death, even death on the cross. Paul puts it in a different way in Corinthians: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich"(2 CORINTHIANS 8:9). That ought to astound us every day of our lives…that this Jesus, who created all things, who lived in the glories of heaven where there was no sin, no weeping, no anguish, came down to this earth full of sin, full of people who put Him to death, gave it all up, became poverty stricken so that you and I who had nothing, ex-cept eternal punishment, were given eternal life. God’s gift.
Consider Jeremiah’s character. He was just another prophet of God, doing what God wanted him to do, even though the people didn’t want him to do it. It didn’t seem politically cor-rect. They even tried to put him to death and get rid of him. From time to time we might say, ‘Woe is me!’ but think of Jeremiah. Woe was Jeremiah, but he never felt that way. We might think, ‘woe is me!’ but think of Jesus. Woe was Jesus, but He never felt that way. Instead, they found the joy of their salvation, which motivated them to be obedient in service, and then humble in obedience. So as we consider Jeremiah’s character, let that inspire us. We also look beyond Jeremiah to the example of Jesus and realize that we are followers of Christ, our true inspiration.
Paul reminds us in Ephesians: "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children…’ (Not children of the world, but children of God). As we struggle this week to live in this world, may we always remember we are God’s children. "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant of-fering and sacrifice to God"(EPHESIANS 5:1,2). We consider Jeremiah’s character; we imitate Christ as our example, being obedient in service and humble in obedience. Amen.
Pastor Timm O. Meyer
