After discussing it with my lovely wife, we decided that it would be good for me to post some devotionals on our blog from time to time. I'm going to try really hard to make this a weekly event, so if you like what you read today, come back next week for some more!Jeremiah 1:1-3
The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people went into exile.
It is often so easy to skip right over the beginning of some of the books of the Bible. I know it is for me. I tend to think, "Eh, this is boring...I want to get to the good stuff. Feed me!" But I think that is a mistake. One of the best sermons that I remember Joe Bailey, the pastor of Speegleville Baptist Church near Waco, TX, preaching during the four years Alida and I were there was on the introduction to one of Paul's letters. In other words, the Bible is God's Word...all of it, not just that parts that we like or that interest us. So our challenge as Christians is to open our ears to hear God's Word in a text like this. So what is this text telling us?
One way that this text communicates to me is that Jeremiah's message is deeply rooted in a historical situation. Did you catch that? Read the verses again and listen for the detail that is there. Now, we aren't all sons or daughters of a priest of Anathoth, but we are all rooted in our histories too. God has placed us where we are for a reason -- perhaps to be a prophet in that very place! That might sound daunting but a prophet is simply a person who speaks for God, that is, God's representative. So being a prophet is something that all of us can do, as ambassadors for Christ who are filled with the Holy Spirit. You may be thinking, "But Matt, you don't know my family, you aren't seeing my job for what it is, you don't understand the relationships that I have, etc, etc, etc" and you would be right. But God does. He knows, he sees, and he understands...and despite those things that we might few negatively (or even because of them) he has called us (you and me!) to speak his word into those situations.
Another thing that sticks out to me in these verses is the tumultuous period of time in which Jeremiah spoke. He began during Josiah's reign, who by all accounts was a good and righteous king (2 Kings 22-23). But the tide would turn for God's people and slowly but surely the gains of Josiah's reign lapsed, so much so that God's people eventually found themselves being taken into exile by Nebuchanezzar's Babylon. Isn't it interesting, though, that God called Jeremiah to speak his word when times were good and when they were bad too? I believe that God knows what his people need and when they need it and that he calls us, everyday Christians, to speak his word courageously into those situations. There is both grace and discipline here: grace because God speaks during hard times and discipline because when things are good he constantly calls us to remember him and his provision for us. God knows that when things are bad we tend to get down and that when things are good we tend to take all the credit ourselves. He's calling us, he's calling you and me, to be his spokespersons in our world, no matter whether times are good or bad.
Will you take these challenges? Will I? Will we take seriously God's call on our lives? I hope so. It is my urgent prayer that we will!
What will happen if we take God up on these challenges? I am thoroughly convinced that by being his prophets in this world we can truly make a difference for him -- we can begin to see the world as he sees it and begin to act in accordance with his love, mercy, and justice. In so doing we will begin to bring into action Jesus' prayer: "Father...your will be done on earth as it is in heaven..."
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