Jeremiah 1
Everyone curses me. You understand, O LORD; remember me and care for me. 15:10,15 I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long. I hear many whispering, “Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!” All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.” But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. Cursed be the day I was born! Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame? 20:7-11,14,18 My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble. 23:9
©SuzanneStelling
God’s persecuted people know Him more intimately because they need Him more desperately.
Lessons and Questions How would you feel if you had to pronounce judgment, challenge wickedness, and confront liars, all at the expense of others’ opinion of you? Consider this for a minute: put yourself in Jeremiah’s sandals. Jeremiah’s call from God drove him to his knees in tears, in prayer--even in mud (chapter 38). He was rejected by his own people, made fun of, called a liar (by liars), put in prison, and mistreated, all because he was speaking God’s truth to God’s people. There was nothing easy about it. Is God’s call on your life difficult? Be encouraged by Jeremiah’s life to persevere. Because Jeremiah was emotionally invested and involved with his countrymen, he had strong emotional responses
to what he witnessed. He also prayed, voicing his frustrations as well as his devotion to God. He is known as “the weeping prophet,” bemoaning God’s judgment in his book called Lamentations. So can we be honest with God in prayer? Read Jeremiah 12:1-4 and see if Jeremiah felt freedom to respectfully voice a complaint about God’s justice. God’s answer is in 12:5-13. You will note that God also has a tone of grief as He talks about His inheritance, the people of Israel. Jeremiah voiced another complaint in chapter 20. He sounds absolutely, unreservedly depressed. The cost of obedience was high. In chapter 36, all of Jeremiah’s written work was burned, slowly and intentionally, by the king. How frustrating! Jeremiah was imprisoned in chapter 37, and then dropped
into a cistern to die in chapter 38. Jeremiah continued to be faithful under tremendous pressure from the royals and administration, and God kept him safe (40:2-4). The good man with whom he stayed was killed (chapter 40), and then God asked Jeremiah to expand his prophetic confrontations to the entire volatile region (chapters 45-51)! Jeremiah laments, “My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed . . . Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?” (Lamentations 2:11,13b). “Oh Lord, You are emotional, and we are made in Your image. When we despair, console us; when we weep, be our comforter. We ask for grace to be able to do and feel what You call us to do and feel. Amen.”
My little guide’s shoes in a tent city in Haiti. Oh my. No one should live this way..
Lesson Eight
JEREMIAH’S PRAYERS & EMOTIONS
©SuzanneStelling
God’s persecuted people know Him more intimately because they need Him more desperately.
Lessons and Questions How would you feel if you had to pronounce judgment, challenge wickedness, and confront liars, all at the expense of others’ opinion of you? Consider this for a minute: put yourself in Jeremiah’s sandals. Jeremiah’s call from God drove him to his knees in tears, in prayer--even in mud (chapter 38). He was rejected by his own people, made fun of, called a liar (by liars), put in prison, and mistreated, all because he was speaking God’s truth to God’s people. There was nothing easy about it. Is God’s call on your life difficult? Be encouraged by Jeremiah’s life to persevere. Because Jeremiah was emotionally invested and involved with his countrymen, he had strong emotional responses
to what he witnessed. He also prayed, voicing his frustrations as well as his devotion to God. He is known as “the weeping prophet,” bemoaning God’s judgment in his book called Lamentations. So can we be honest with God in prayer? Read Jeremiah 12:1-4 and see if Jeremiah felt freedom to respectfully voice a complaint about God’s justice. God’s answer is in 12:5-13. You will note that God also has a tone of grief as He talks about His inheritance, the people of Israel. Jeremiah voiced another complaint in chapter 20. He sounds absolutely, unreservedly depressed. The cost of obedience was high. In chapter 36, all of Jeremiah’s written work was burned, slowly and intentionally, by the king. How frustrating! Jeremiah was imprisoned in chapter 37, and then dropped
into a cistern to die in chapter 38. Jeremiah continued to be faithful under tremendous pressure from the royals and administration, and God kept him safe (40:2-4). The good man with whom he stayed was killed (chapter 40), and then God asked Jeremiah to expand his prophetic confrontations to the entire volatile region (chapters 45-51)! Jeremiah laments, “My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed . . . Your wound is as deep as the sea. Who can heal you?” (Lamentations 2:11,13b). “Oh Lord, You are emotional, and we are made in Your image. When we despair, console us; when we weep, be our comforter. We ask for grace to be able to do and feel what You call us to do and feel. Amen.”
My little guide’s shoes in a tent city in Haiti. Oh my. No one should live this way..
Lesson Eight
JEREMIAH’S PRAYERS & EMOTIONS
