Encouragement from Jeremiah

I have been reading Jeremiah. He pronounces judgments on God’s people for their sins. They sinned against God both personally and nationally. God was calling them to repent knowing they would not. The doom of the nation was to be severe and sure. Jeremiah understood all this yet could not change it. The righteous man was a lonely voice speaking to a hard hearted people. The encouraging part (yes, I am getting to that) that has captured my attention is found in chapter 17. Here, even as Jeremiah sees the nation being cursed, he calls on the Lord as his personal protection and deliverance…’Heal me oh Lord and I will be healed, save me and I will be saved’… ‘I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after Thee’…’Thou art my refuge in the day of disaster’…’let me not be put to shame’…let me not be dismayed’… ’Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord, for he will be like a tree planted by the water…’ Jeremiah believed it was fitting and right to ask for personal deliverance in the midst of national judgment. The Old Testament heroes are given as examples for us. We are to learn from them. That is the point of the stories. Therefore, we the redeemed, may rightly pray for God’s deliverance for us personally in spite of what is falling on our nation. And that is what I found uplifting to my soul.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach