2. Key Text:
“O Lord, thou hast
deceived me, and I
was deceived: thou
art stronger than I,
and hast prevailed: I
am in derision daily,
everyone mocketh
me”
(Jeremiah 20:7)
3. One thing anyone who has followed the Lord for any length of time
will learn is that being a believer in Jesus and seeking to do His will
do not guarantee an easy passage through life. After all, as we have
been told, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will
suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12, NKJV). This is a truth that Jeremiah
was surely learning for himself.
4. At the same time, however,
what our faith can do for us
in times of trial is give us a
broader understanding u-
pon which we can steady
ourselves amid our strug-
gles. That is, when unfair
and unjust sufferings and
trials come (and no question, so many of them are unfair and
unjust), we don’t have to be left alone with a sense of
meaninglessness and purposelessness that people who don’t know
the Lord often feel. We can know something of the big picture, and
the ultimate hope God offers us, no matter how dismal the present
is, and from this knowledge—and hope—we can draw strength.
Jeremiah knew something of this context, though at times he
seemed to forget it and instead focused only on his woes.
5. Message against the priests and the prophets (Jeremiah 23:14-15; 5:26-31)
Reaction of the priests: Whipping Jeremiah and the stocks (Jeremiah 20:1-6)
Reaction of the people: Killing Jeremiah (Jeremiah 18:18-23)
Reaction of Jeremiah:
• “Like a burning fire shut up in my bones” (Jer. 20:7-13)
• “Cursed be the day in which I was born!”
(Jer. 20:14-18)
A conditional message (Jeremiah 18:7-11)
This lesson we studied the messages that Jeremiah
received from God, and the reactions to them:
6. “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule
by their own power; and My people love to have it so.
But what will you do in the end?” (Jeremiah 5:31)
Which was the sin of the prophets? (see Jeremiah 23:14-15)
• Adultery, lies and hypocrisy. Above everything, they
“strengthened the hands of evildoers” (Jeremiah 23:14); they
didn’t condemn sin.
• No one repented form their sins because of them. Evil was
spread throughout the country.
Which was the sin of the people? (see Jeremiah 5:26-30)
• They grew fat by doing evil. They also benefited from
the orphans and the poor.
Which was the sin of the priests? (see Jeremiah 5:31)
• The priests should have taught God’s ways. Nevertheless,
they let the false prophets guide them.
7. “Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the
prophet, and put him in the stocks that
were in the high gate of Benjamin, which
was by the house of the Lord.” (Jeremiah 20:2)
Jeremiah was called to prophesy at the atrium of the temple. It was a harsh
message: God would bring “a catastrophe on this place” (Jer. 19:3). He would let
His people “fall by the sword” and their corpses would be eaten by “birds and
beasts” (Jer. 19:7). He would turn the Jews into cannibals (Jer. 19:9).
Most messages the prophets passed on in the Bible were not happily received. In
this case, the priest Pashhur attacked the messenger; he flogged him and locked
him up in stocks.
The next day,
Pashhur received a
personal message.
He and his friends
would be exiled and
would die in
Babylon, since they
rejected God’s
message
(Jeremiah 20:6).
8. Though no one would
have been too happy
to be the focus of such
a prophecy, as a leader,
Pashur was especially
offended.
As with most people,
his initial reaction was
to reject the message;
after all, who would
want to believe some-
thing that horrible? More than that, using his position, Pashur made
the mistake of punishing the messenger. He had Jeremiah beaten
according to the law (Deut. 25:1–3) and locked him up in stocks.
9. “Then they said, ‘Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall
not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the
prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to
any of his words.’” (Jeremiah 18:18)
“In self-deception the people believed that the popular
priest and prophets had given them sufficient instruction
in the law, and that they could trust in this instruction
despite Jeremiah’s warnings of the coming crisis.”
(SDA Bible Commentary, on Jeremiah 18:18).
The plans against Jeremiah that the
people devised included murdering
him (Jer. 18:23).
Jeremiah’s attitude contrasted with
the people’s. He interceded with
God on the people’s behalf, asking
for their sin to be forgiven
(Jeremiah 14:7).
Wouldn’t God protect him?
10. “Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His
name.’ But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my
bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.” (Jeremiah 20:9)
Jeremiah complained at God only
giving him messages about violence
and destruction, causing him great
trouble.
Jeremiah had already been warned
about the consequences of his
message (Jeremiah 1:19).
Nevertheless, he accused God of
having deceived him. He decided
not to deliver more messages from
God.
But he was unable to resist the call
of the Holy Spirit. His message was
a matter of life and death. How
could he let them perish without
warning them?
11. A Fire in His Bones
Jeremiah’s harsh
words to Pashur and
the nation (Jer. 20:4–
6) weren’t his own;
they were not uttered
out of his anger at
having been locked in
the stocks for a day.
They were the Lord’s
words to him for the
people.
What comes after, though, comes directly from Jeremiah’s
own heart, written down under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. It is the heartfelt cry of a human being who simply
doesn’t like the situation he is in and is crying out about it.
12. “Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let
the day not be blessed in which my mother
bore me!” (Jeremiah 20:14)
Jeremiah still trusted God. Like Job, he didn’t let
his problems overwhelm him, but relied on God.
“casting all your care upon Him,
for He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7)
Jeremiah was very confused. He was praising God (Jer.
20:13) and suddenly he felt deeply desperate (Jer. 20:14).
The problems and
weaknesses of those heroes
of faith encourage us to
cast our cares on the Lord.
We can find comfort in Him
when we can’t find a
solution for our problems.
13. Jeremiah 18:7-8
“The instant I speak
concerning a nation and
concerning a kingdom, to
pluck up, to pull down, and
to destroy it,”
“if that nation against
whom I have spoken
turns from its evil,”
“I will relent of the
disaster that I thought to
bring upon it.”
Jeremiah 18:9-10
“And the instant I speak
concerning a nation and
concerning a kingdom, to
build and to plant it,”
“if it does evil in My sight
so that it does not obey
My voice,”
“then I will relent
concerning the good with
which I said I would
benefit it.”
“Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a
disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his
evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”’” (Jeremiah 18:11)
14. “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I am fashioning a
disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his
evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.”’” (Jeremiah 18:11)
God shows us the result of
our acts so we can choose to
change our destiny.
God, “by no means clearing
the guilty,” (Exodus 34:7) is
willing to forgive those who
sincerely repent from their
sins.
Jeremiah’s message is still
valid: Don’t walk by the
roads of your sins towards
death; walk by the path of
Calvary towards eternal life.
15. “The fact that we are called upon to endure
trial shows that the Lord Jesus sees in us
something precious which He desires to
develop. If He saw in us nothing whereby He
might glorify His name, He would not spend
time in refining us. He does not cast worthless
stones into His furnace. It is valuable ore that
He refines. The blacksmith puts the iron and
steel into the fire that he may know what
manner of metal they are. The Lord allows His
chosen ones to be placed in the furnace of
affliction to prove what temper they are of and
whether they can be fashioned for His work.”
E.G.W. (The ministry of Healing, cp. 40, pg. 471)
