Jeremiah described his personal struggles as he conversed with God in Jeremiah 20:7-18. Here he candidly expressed his personal dilemma concerning his experience as God’s messenger. It was only human of him to desire a smooth and trouble-free ministry and to have an audience that would give attentive ears and be obedient to what would be said. It is undeniable that as a messenger of God, he had loyally and faithfully proclaimed His message honestly and frankly. He had served God as best as he knew how. But he could not fully comprehend the immense suffering he had to endure doing it. What he did here show us that God will not begrudge his people from honestly expressing their hearts to him in time of their struggles.
Jeremiah felt that God was not being fair to him. Although he did
resist the call initially, he finally also gave in willingly and serve him
unreservedly. When he gave himself to serve Him, he did not cower but
unflinchingly declared all that he was told to proclaim. At great personal cost
faithfully announced God’s message. He was often mocked and jeered and even
beaten and scorned. Even when he tried to keep quiet and shut up so
as not to invite opposition, he found he couldn’t shut up God’s message. For
the truth would be stirring so deeply within him like burning fire being stoked
making it needful for him to proclaim them. The friends he thought would
be sympathetic also turned against him. They even plotted his downfall.
In his inner struggles concerning with his own bitter experience
in life, he despairingly wished in verses 14-18 that he was never born.
However, in his deep anguish and struggles, Jeremiah knew deep within his heart
that God could be trusted and that he would never fail. He felt that his
experiences were just God’s testing his righteousness to ascertain how his
heart was for Him. He was sure that God would ultimately avenge him and that
his opposers would be routed and defeated. That thought did engender moments of
praise to the Lord such
as what is s described in verse 13. Here, he burst out in a soliloquy saying:
“Sing to the Lord, praise
the Lord!
For He has delivered the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.”
Walking and serving God does not free us from suffering. If
anything, they would seem to increase them. We need to know that God
uses all our experiences in life to develop us. We have said this before and it
bears repetition, “God will never lead us to where His grace cannot sustain
us.” While suffering would make a man, it would also reveal the substance
and character of the man are made up of.
There are deep and profound lessons to be learned when God allows
us to go through suffering. Robert Browning Hamilton had this to say:
I
walked a mile with Pleasure;
She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with Sorrow
And ne'er a word said she;
But oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me!
When we are struggling in life just abandon ourselves to the Lord.
We don’t need to try to understand everything because the secret things belong
to God. Tuck in our hearts what He said in Isaiah 55:7-8:
“For My thoughts are
not your thoughts,
Nor are your
ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the
earth,
So are My ways
higher than your ways
And My thoughts
than your thoughts.
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