Staying Broken (Jer. 1-9)

God raised up the prophet Jeremiah to speak truth to His stubborn, wayward people.  When God told Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you” (1:5), He already knew that this youth would struggle in speaking the terribly hard truths that God would require of him, the truths that no one wanted to hear. Before his first assignment, God reassured Jeremiah that He had put His words in his mouth and that He had appointed him to speak His words (1:9-10) and that He was watching over His word “to perform it” (1:12).  Jeremiah’s job according to God was  “to pluck up and break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (1:10). How’s that for a calling?

In light of that, I should have nothing to fear in God’s calling of my husband (and thus my family) to ministry, to shepherd His sheep wherever He will call us. No enemy armies will come against my people and camp at the gates of my city to destroy it (as far as I know). Neither will my own people set themselves against me in order to attempt to destroy God’s truth that we speak (maybe). I don’t have to be a “fortified city” or a “pillar of iron” (1:18) against those around me (hopefully). I have found most of the time, people are open, willing to hear God’s truth, but not always.

Like Israel during Jeremiah’s time, we have a sin problem in this nation—one whose shadows have even crept silently into the church. We too have often failed to hear His word spoken to us, having exchanged the glory of God for our own glory, “for that which does not profit” (2:11), for the corruptible.  We are concerned with the small things, things that do not honor Him but instead make us comfortable. We are concerned with the recognition, the honor, the glory, the power, the strength, the fill-in-the-blank variety of worship that displeases Him because it is made in our own image instead of in His. We are consumed by the things of the world, having hewn for ourselves “cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold not water” (2:13). God said to His people through Jeremiah, “Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the Lord your God, and the dread of Me is not in you” (2:19). This too is a bitter thing for our nation that has proclaimed in the past to follow the One true God but now does not.

The thing is, God planted faithful seed, a choice vine, in Israel when He established it. He has planted the same faithful seed in us—we’re grafted in through Jesus when we are saved. We can look at the Old Testament and think it has no relevance for our own lives, or we can see the truth that just like them, we have choices to make, and the same powerful God still sits on His throne. If we are not trusting in Him, we are trusting in idols, things we have placed more value in than God. Be it money, security, tradition, family, politics, education, health, it will all fail. As God said to His own people, “The Lord has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them” (2:37).

So what is the answer? What do we do to turn away from what we’ve become?

God invites us to repent (3:12). He describes Himself as gracious and tells us that His anger won’t last forever (3:12). He tells us to acknowledge our sin and disobedience (3:13). He tells us to return (3:14) so that He can give us shepherds after His own heart who will feed us with knowledge and understanding (3:15). God gently calls us back from the evil we bring on ourselves when we turn from Him. He calls us back from the precipice of destruction and the shameful things that consume our time, our energy, and our resources.

Personally, I find so much of my own faithlessness when I read and study the book of Jeremiah. I find that like them I am stupid, stubborn, rebellious, hard-hearted, turning aside, knowing without doing, greedy, false, broken . . . yet God.

God has redeemed me from the pits I have dug for myself. God has offered hope to me when I have been hopeless. God has given me salvation in His son. God has placed me where He wants me. God has provided my needs. God. Not me.

As a result, I will “stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it” (6:16). If I do this, I am assured to find rest for my restless soul. Like the watchmen set over Israel, God has set His spirit in me to remind me, to turn me, to draw me to Him. If I walk in “all the way” He has shown me in His word, it will be well with me regardless of my circumstances. Yes. I said it. Regardless. Of. My. Circumstance. (Sigh!)

And if (Who am I kidding? When . . . ) pride rears its ugly head if I am walking in His way, God’s word reminds me, “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might; let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things (9:23).”

The best thing about being broken is knowing that God can put me back together the way He wants me. The best thing for me would be to stay broken. God, help me!