While Judah faced an invading force from the north, this
was not their only difficulty. Jeremiah 14 begins with these words:
“The Word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the
drought.” We cannot know the exact date of the problem referred to
here. We do know that such difficulties could be devastating, and
that they were not uncommon.
In the midst of this divine oracle delivered by the
prophet, Jeremiah interceded for the Lord's people—not based on
their own merit, but pleading for the glory of God's own reputation.
“Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for Your
Name's sake.”
God's reply included an acknowledgment of the guilt of
the chosen nation, for “they have loved to wander.” The Lord
often exercises His fatherly discipline with words that underscore
the seriousness of their fault. In this case He said to Jeremiah, “Do
not pray for the welfare of this people.” He added, “I will
consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
When Jeremiah sought to excuse the people based on the
words of some of the other contemporary prophets, the response of the
Almighty was clear: “The prophets are prophesying lies in My Name.
I did not send them.”
We should not conclude that the Lord had no feelings for
the troubles of His chosen people. He instructed Jeremiah to speak
these words of mourning to Judah: “Let My eyes run down with tears
night and day, and let them not cease, for the virgin daughter of My
people is shattered with a great wound, with a very grievous blow.”
Jeremiah questioned God: “Have You utterly rejected
Judah?” He knew that none of the false gods of the nations could
bring the rain that they so desperately needed. The prophet's
conclusion: “Are You not He, O Lord our God? We set our hope on
You.”
Who is this God, in whom His people hope? He is not a
flatterer. He has no interest in false representatives teaching His
people inaccurate words. When He came to help His elect, He did not
come with lies. Jesus said, “I am the truth,” (John 14:6). By His
Word of truth, we have been granted eternal life.
The Lord of glory knows how to supply the best water to
His children. He surely cares about our physical needs for food and
drink, but He also recognizes our deeper thirst for “living water.”
(John 4:10). He intends to provide a refreshing spring within our
souls. Though He is aware of our guilt, He has given a gift to us
that no one else could ever have provided. This is the reason we “set
our hope” on Him.
Father God, hear
our cry to You, for we are still Your children. We have been marked
with the waters of baptism, and named with Your holy Triune Name. We
know that our iniquities testify against us. Act on our behalf for
the glory of Your own Name. You are in the midst of us. Do not leave
us. We confess that we have loved to wander, yet surely nothing can
separate us from Your love that has come to us in Christ Jesus our
Lord. The prophets have spoken to us of a real peace—not the lying
peace of false prophets that You have not sent, but the full peace
spoken of by true prophets who saw in shadows Your glorious plan of
redemption. They wondered how You could every justify the ungodly and
retain Your own righteousness. We now see in Christ what they longed
to see. Your Son has come as our Substitute. You have kept Your
covenant, vindicated Your righteousness, and poured forth Your
abundant mercy to sinners who are called by Your Name. We repent of
our sins, and we pray for Your church.
If you wanted someone to plead your case before God, to
whom would you turn? From an Old Testament perspective, you could not
do much better than Moses or Samuel. Moses was the Mediator of the
Sinai Covenant. On many occasions he was brought to plead before God
for the life of God’s people. The Lord suggested at one point that
Moses should get out of the way and God would destroy the people in
the wilderness and start all over again with Moses as the beginning
of a new nation. Yet Moses interceded on behalf of Israel. Samuel
warned the people about the dangers of turning away from God as King,
and was distraught as the people insisted that they would have a king
like the other nations. God comforted him by saying that the people
had not rejected Samuel. They had rejected the Lord.
These two men were highly favored by God and were
examples of unusual integrity. Yet here in speaking through Jeremiah
at this late stage in the Lord’s dealings with Judah, God indicated
that He would not listen to even Moses or Samuel if they asked Him to
turn His heart again toward Judah and rescue them from the coming
disaster. His message was simple: “Send them out of my sight.”
These were devastating words. They would face disease,
warfare, hunger, and slavery. The wild animals would be appointed to
tear them apart, and the name of one king was cited as the reason:
Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a great king of Judah
during the time when the Assyrians had conquered the northern kingdom
and were threatening the destruction of Jerusalem. God heard the
petition of the king and the prophet Isaiah, and He gave Judah a
reprieve from exile until the days of Jeremiah. Hezekiah’s son
Manasseh, who reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem, did great
evil in the eyes of the Lord. He went about reversing the good
spiritual faithfulness of His father, rebuilding places of idolatrous
worship that his father had destroyed. Even though he repented at the
end of his life, it would be based on the evidence of the reign of
Manasseh that the mind of the Lord would be settled upon the exile of
His people.
It was not as if God had been a weak Father. He had
disciplined His chosen ones over and over again. God has sent Judah
times of great affliction, but they would not listen. The day had
finally come for their removal to Babylon. Perhaps there they would
learn the lessons that they seemed so unwilling to hear while in
their Father’s land.
Jeremiah had reached a point of despair in this hard
ministry. Speaking as if to his mother, he wondered why he was ever
born. He was considered a man of strife and contention by everyone,
and for what reason? Because he was the one who had brought the true
Word of God to the people.
God heard the cry of His prophet and called him to
renewed faithfulness. He promised to make him like a “wall of
bronze” to his enemies, provided that he would not try to be a
popular preacher in the eyes of an utterly unfaithful people.
When Jesus came, He endured disrespect at every turn. He
was completely faithful in speaking the message of His Father, and it
cost Him everything in terms of the applause of men. It is this
divine Messiah who now intercedes for us before the same Father who
said He would not listen to even Moses and Samuel if they pleaded for
Judah in the days of Jeremiah. But we have One who is better than
Moses and Samuel pleading for us on high. Our Father always hears His
Son's voice, and He will surely grant Him His every request.
Lord God, we have a
better Mediator than even Moses or Samuel. There is One who now
pleads for transgressors. Surely there is no peace for Your people
through the Law, but in Christ there is abundant and eternal peace.
We have great trouble among us, O Lord. We acknowledge our shameful
behavior. We deserve every frightening discipline that could come
upon us now. Though we serve as slaves for our enemies, Your Son came
from above not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a
ransom for many. We are part of the many that He has saved from
worthlessness and destruction. Do not let the wicked prevail over us
forever, O Lord.
