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Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Jeremiah 14

We all love convenience. If we live in a nation with a strong free economy and a good infrastructure, we may find it hard to relate to what people face in a land where drought is a constant threat. How would we react if there were really no water anywhere? How would we live if lack of food and drink was not just an inconvenience that could be easily solved by a trip to a store? What if our need for supplies was actually a matter of survival?

Jeremiah spoke to the people in a day of drought. Even the rich people in the land could not get water. Of course the farmers could not grow their crops, and even the wild animals, resourceful as they are, had nowhere to go where they could drink. In such a situation, death is a present danger for all.

Without the Lord saying a word, the consciences of the people seem to accuse them. They consider their many iniquities. They know the power of the Lord over the elements. They know the way that God can save people in days of the greatest trouble, but where is He now? Has he abandoned His people? The more faithful ones may remember His promise to dwell in the midst of His people, and they call out for His immediate aid.

God is not impressed by their pleas, and He tells Jeremiah not to intercede on their behalf. The people have loved to wander with their feet. Now they may have to travel beyond their borders to preserve their lives. Like Naomi and her husband when they traveled to Moab because of a famine in the land, or Jacob’s sons who went down to Egypt to buy grain, the Lord’s people may soon be refugees in order to preserve their lives. The Lord will not accept them. He will consume them through war, through hunger, and through disease.

Jeremiah points to the message of some of his contemporaries who claim the name “prophet.” These men say that no such disasters are coming. The Lord says that these men are lying prophets. Though they may use the name of the Lord, He never sent them. Their punishment will be that the very disasters that they claim are not coming will in fact overtake them particularly. These false prophets will die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

God would have the true prophet Jeremiah cry intently for the fate of the people. As one who sees the fate of the young women in a wounded and diseased condition before his eyes, he is to weep for the people. The prophets and priests sell their souls throughout the land. They give false messages and do not stand with the Lord in the correction of the people. They have no knowledge, and they could only lead the blind as those who are blind guides themselves.

The remainder of the chapter is the heartfelt plea of the prophet on behalf of his desperate people. He wonders aloud as to whether Judah has been utterly and finally rejected. They need peace and healing, but terror is overtaking them on every side. They acknowledge their guilt and the guilt of their fathers. The false gods that they have worshipped surely cannot bring rain. They profess to set their full hope in the Lord, who alone can do what is necessary to save them.

Where do you turn in the day of great need? They needed water, and saw the connection between that need and the sovereign provision that comes from the Lord God Almighty. What would we do if we have a desperate need for something as basic as water? A truly thirsty man would have great trouble thinking of anything else other than some life-giving drink at a time like this. As much as we need water, we need the Lord’s provision of relief from spiritual bondage even more. We want true forgiveness and a secure way of hope.

Where can we turn? The woman at the well in Samaria had the great privilege of giving a drink of water to a thirsty Jewish man. If she knew who it was that asked her for a drink, she would have asked him for a different kind of water – water that springs up from the temple of the Lord Himself like a fountain of eternal life. In the true city of God above there is an unending water supply of the flowing refreshment of the Holy Spirit. Only Jesus Christ, our Messiah, could send forth the waters that we need for spiritual life, not just for a few days, but forever.

How could one man do this for so many people? His resources are connected to his atoning ministry for us. We can only have living water through Jesus because He is the only source of sinless perfection, like a spring from an inexhaustible source. Our most desperate drought comes not from a dry well, but from our complete lack of perfect holiness. The Lord has seen our greatest need. He has richly supplied us with His life, and has taken away our guilt through the shedding of His blood on the cross. May we thirst for the waters that He provides to His children as they ask Him for His Spirit, and may the Lord grant to us living water so that we can have new life that never ends.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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