Basic HTML Version
188
Royalty and Ruin
prophets would gladly have seen him put to death on the charge of
stirring up revolt against the authorities.
To the close of his ministry, Jeremiah stood as “a fortress”
(
Jeremiah 6:27
) against which human wrath could not prevail. “They
will fight against you,” the Lord had forewarned His servant, “but
they shall not prevail against you.”
Jeremiah 15:20
.
Jeremiah’s Peaceful, Shrinking Disposition
Jeremiah was naturally timid, and he longed for a place of quiet
seclusion where he would not need to witness the continued rebellion
of his beloved nation. His heart was broken with anguish over the
ruin that sin had brought. “Oh, that my head were waters, and my
eyes a fountain of tears,” he mourned, “that I might weep day and
night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh, that I had in
the wilderness a lodging place for travelers; that I might leave my
people, and go from them!”
Jeremiah 9:1, 2
.
The arrows of scorn hurled at him pierced his sensitive soul. “I
have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.”
“‘Let us denounce him!’ All my close friends are watching for me
to stumble. ‘Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against
him.’”
Jeremiah 20:7, 10
, NRSV.
But the faithful prophet was strengthened daily. “The Lord is
with me as a mighty, awesome One,” he declared in faith. “Therefore
my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail. They will be
greatly ashamed.”
Jeremiah 20:11
. He learned to pray, “O Lord,
correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to
nothing.”
Jeremiah 10:24
.
When tempted in his misery to say, “My strength and my hope
have perished from the Lord” (
Lamentations 3:18
), Jeremiah recalled
the workings of God in his behalf and exclaimed: “Through the
Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail
not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The
Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’ The
Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of
the Lord.”
Lamentations 3:22-26
.
[150]