Jeremiah 15-17
God has a purpose to achieve, and He chose Israel, the children of Abraham to help Him bring it to pass. He is going to bring a Savior (His own Son) into the world through this nation. For their part, they have to remain worthy of the charge. They have to be faithful to Him, as He is to them – like in a marriage.
In the meantime, we have the enemy on the scene, Satan, trying to thwart the plan. (He actually doesn’t know God’s plan, but He knows that these are His people, so the devil tries to infiltrate their culture).
The way the devil works is that he tempts God’s people to be like the culture around them. In doing so, they follow him, and not God. They get into pride and trust in themselves, rather than God.
Their unfaithfulness takes the Israelites out of the covenant, and God’s people will become a mockery to all the world.
Jeremiah has the hardest job possible. He has to tell these people the truth, even when they don’t want to hear it. They are angered against him, and want him to be quiet. But God has given him a job to do, and he must do it!
He complains to God. “Everyone curses me.”(15:10)
God says to him, “If you extract the precious from the vile, you will become My spokesperson.” (15:19) Jeremiah is to stop complaining and trust in the Lord. “They may turn to you, but you are not to turn to them.” … “I will deliver you from their hand.” (15:20)
Jeremiah gets refreshed and restored, and is ready to go again.
Sometimes, as we are doing God’s will, things get tough. Of course, His grace is with us, but we are human, and sometimes we get tired and weary. Yet He is with us, and will always refresh us, if we allow Him to.
The rewards of walking with God are great, if we continue with Him. He is faithful to restore us to a place of peace and confidence.
I want to be faithful to Him, don’t you?
II Timothy 2
“Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (V. 3)
After spending time in Jeremiah, our hardship doesn’t seem like such a big deal, does it? Yet we can get tired of the antagonistic attitude of those who don’t want to walk with God. And the sinful lifestyles of those who walk away from Him.
We will be misunderstood and even maligned by those who don’t know Him.
The key here is to remain in fellowship with our Father and to remain true to what He tells us to do.
The energy which our Father brings to us is beyond anything we can imagine. He comforts us, renews us, and puts us back in the game. God’s grace is sufficient for anything that comes our way. We just have to stay in that grace – through spending time with Him and His word.
As we “handle accurately the Word of truth” (V.15), we will grow in our ability to understand and overcome the opposition we face.
The rewards are great – both here on earth, and in the hereafter.
