Jeremiah
Jeremiah; Hebrews 11
INTRODUCTION:
We’re in the middle of a series called “The Story,” where we’re going through some stories in the Old Testament in about 20 weeks. We started with Creation, then Abraham, to Moses, through the Judges and the two greatest Kings, David and Solomon. We’ve talked about the divided Kingdom, some of the prophets. At this point, the Northern Tribes of Israel have been conquered by Assyria. Only the Southern tribes of Judah remain.
We can cover these stories in just a few weeks, but thousands of years went by! 500 years went by between Abraham and Moses. Another 500 years went by between Moses and Solomon. In the next 500 years both Israel Judah will be conquered and finally allowed to return and rebuild Jerusalem.
Throughout all these stories, there’s a common thread. The Old Testament is a story of God accomplishing His purposes through people of FAITH. Hebrews 11 walks through a long list of Old Testament characters, showing how God was able to have a relationship with every one of them… not because of their worthiness or perfection … but solely because of their FAITH. Hebrews 11:39 says, These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
That is certainly true for the Prophets who lived during the time of the divided Kingdom. It’s true for those who lived through the years when Israel was conquered by Assyria … and over a hundred years later when Jerusalem was destroyed and the remaining tribes of Judah was taken captive by Babylon.
But even in those dark days, God sent His prophets to give His Word to His people …. Prophets like Jeremiah. Jeremiah is often called “the weeping prophet” because his message was tragic from beginning to end. The book of Jeremiah … and the poetic book of Lamentations that follows it … both tell the terrible story of how God was forced to turn His back on His people because they had turned away from God.
Hebrews 11:6 explains, Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
This is the kind of faith Jeremiah had … faith that God exists, and faith that God rewards those who earnestly seek him. Jeremiah had this faith even though he saw nothing but tragedy and suffering during his life time. We can learn a lot from this “weeping prophet” about the nature of saving FAITH. For one thing, Jeremiah shows us that …
1. Faith can last a lifetime
Jeremiah 1:4: The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart … Those are powerful words! Do you have any doubt about how God views a pre-born baby? Is there really any question about “when life begins” according to the Creator of life?
You may have heard about a case against an abortion doctor in Philadelphia recently … you may not have heard about it since it’s not getting a lot of news coverage. Among other charges, the doctor at this abortion clinic is accused of killing viable babies AFTER then have been born. That is murder in anyone’s book. It’s unspeakably horrible.
But think of this question: In God’s eyes, would it have been okay if the doctor had killed the baby BEFORE it left the mother’s body? That question is the reason pro-abortion people want to ignore this court case.
FAITH in God means we believe in the value HE puts on human life … on ALL human life … from the beginning of life through the final days. The pre-born child to the elderly patient in the hospital bed. Every person has value to God and every life has value to those who believe in God.
Jeremiah was very young --- maybe an adolescent --- when God called him to be a Prophet. Here’s the conversation young Jeremiah had with God:
“Alas, Sovereign Lord, I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 1:5-8
Jeremiah believed that God would keep this promise. And He became one of the boldest Prophets in the Bible. Don’t discount the faith of young people. I look around at the children and teens in our church, and I SEE God using them! I love it on those Sundays when our children participate in the service, helping to lead worship and serve communion … because these children are already loving and serving God in a way that builds the church.
This is the way I was raised. I came to know and love God at the same time I came to know and love my parents. There’s nothing more valuable you can give your children than to bring them to church and to teach them about God in your home. That’s why our church spends time and money on children and teenagers. We’re here to help parents pass along the blessing of faith to the next generation!
Jeremiah started prophesying while good King Josiah was on the throne. (And, by the way, Josiah was only 8 years old when he became King!) Four more Kings ruled … none of them were good.
By the end of Jeremiah’s life, Jerusalem was completely annihilated by the Babylonian army. It looked like the nation of Israel was gone forever. The cities all lay in ruins. The people of Judah and Israel were either dead or in exile.
Jeremiah himself stayed in the ruins of his home town for a while before he finally escaped to Egypt. He lived in obscurity, but he continued to prophecy the Words of the Lord. God promised that after 70 years of exile, God would restore Israel to her home … and that He would eventually send judgment on all of Israel’s enemies.
That’s exactly what happened, but Jeremiah didn’t live long enough to see it. As Hebrews 11:1 says, Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is the kind of AUTHENTIC faith that Jeremiah had.
2. Faith must be authentic
Faith HAS to be authentic --- because faith WILL be tested. Jesus said, in John 16:33: In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. God never promised anyone a trouble-free life. Everyone experiences pain and tragedy at some time in their lives. Shallow faith won’t survive that kind of test.
In 2 Timothy 3:12 Paul wrote: In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. That sure proved true for Jeremiah. He was ridiculed and imprisoned … and at one point even thrown in a pit … all because of his faith.
But no amount of persecution could keep Jeremiah quiet. Here’s how Jeremiah put it:
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. But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. Jeremiah 20:8-9
That is authentic faith. During this series we’ve talked about the Lower Story and the Upper Story. The Lower Story is our physical reality on earth. The Upper Story is what God is accomplishing in His eternal reality. Faith means we focus our attention on God’s Upper Story.
Authentic Faith doesn’t ignore reality. In both good times AND in bad, a person of FAITH will always turn to God. That’s what Jeremiah did.
At one point, Jeremiah got up his courage to question God. You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? Jeremiah 12:1
Have you ever felt like that? Why does God let the world run like it does? Why does evil win out while good people suffer?
Here’s how God answered Jeremiah: “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5
That seems like no answer at all … when you first read it. But that actually WAS an answer to Jeremiah’s question.
In paraphrase, God said, “Jeremiah, you’re in over your head with that question. You get winded when you race with other humans. You couldn’t even BEGIN to race alongside horses. You simply don’t have the capacity to understand my ways. If I explained, you couldn’t understand. So … just TRUST me.”
When our youngest daughter, Kimberly, was one year old, she had spinal meningitis and was in the hospital for two weeks. For a couple of days they had to come in every 4 hours and give her a shot of strong antibiotics in her leg. When they did that, Susan or I would have to hold her in our lap… and … of course … she would scream like everything.
The hardest thing about that whole experience was that there was no way for her to understand why we were letting this happen to her. I could have told her, “Honey, we have to do this because they can’t keep the IV in you, and if you don’t have strong antibiotics right away you can’t get well. So you see, this is for your own good.” But what good would that do? As a little one-year-old, she didn’t have the capacity to understand why this had to happen.
That’s just a tiny example of how big the difference is between the mind of a human and the mind of God. So many times, we want to ask WHY … but the truth is, we couldn’t comprehend the answer. We simply need to TRUST that our Heavenly Father knows the reasons … and that He cares for us.
3. Faith centers on Jesus
When people have been through trouble, I’ve often heard them say, “My faith carried me through.”
I know what they mean by that --- but I usually think, “It’s really GOD that carries us through … not our faith.”
You see, Faith is much more than the power of positive thinking. Authentic Faith does more that just vaguely believe “everything has a purpose” or “everything will be okay.”
It’s the OBJECT of our faith that really matters … not the faith itself. And the object of Saving Faith is Jesus.
Hebrews 1:1-2 explains, In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.
The Prophets of the Old Testament believed that one day … in the future … God would send the promised Messiah. This was God’s plan from the beginning. It was a promise he made repeatedly through the Prophets.
In Jeremiah 23 we read this prophecy of the coming Savior:
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.” Jeremiah 23:5-6
All the Old Testament heroes looked FORWARD to a promised Savior.
Today, our faith looks BACK two thousand years to our Savior, Jesus Christ. And we also look Forward to His second coming when EVERY promise will be finally fulfilled.
CONCLUSION:
We can look back at the list of Old Testament heroes in Hebrews 11: These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Hebrews11:39-40
These ancient stories that we’ve been studying every week this spring are not just old tales. These stories are connected to our own life story. The faith of these Old Testament characters is of the same fabric as our faith today.
The whole Bible from beginning to end … Old Testament and New … is held together by this great theme of FAITH --- Faith that God will always do what He has promised.
