Jeremiah 15:15-18
“You know where I am, GOD! Remember what I’m doing here! Take my side against my detractors. Don’t stand back while they ruin me. Just look at the abuse I’m taking! When your words showed up, I ate them— swallowed them whole. What a feast! What delight I took in being yours, O GOD, GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies! I never joined the party crowd in their laughter and their fun. Led by you, I went off by myself. You’d filled me with indignation. Their sin had me seething. But why, why this chronic pain, this ever worsening wound and no healing in sight? You’re nothing, GOD, but a mirage, a lovely oasis in the distance—and then nothing!”
“Then I said, “LORD, you know what’s happening to me. Please step in and help me. Punish my persecutors! Please give me time; don’t let me die young. It’s for your sake that I am suffering. When I discovered your words, I devoured them. They are my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God of Heaven’s Armies. I never joined the people in their merry feasts. I sat alone because your hand was on me. I was filled with indignation at their sins. Why then does my suffering continue? Why is my wound so incurable? Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook, like a spring that has gone dry.”
It is so good to see this humanity in one of God’s great prophets. Jeremiah has been pressed to the limit and is having a little breakdown in faith. How often we find ourselves in the same circumstance! The Bible is not full of perfect, super human people. They are just like us and I’m grateful for this honesty in God’s Word.
Lord, thank you for this comfort and lesson. It is OK to feel and think these thoughts if I take them to you. May I always do just that, never turning inward upon them, stewing with anger and resentment. Keep me close, always following you in the stress of life.