today's human standards of ministry, Jeremiah was a became like Jesus because he shared "the fellowship of
Jeremiah mere "furniture" of religion that was external and impotent.
hearts is a candidate for sorrow and a sense of failure. But God knows our hearts and sustains us.
I could go on, but the point is obvious: Jeremiah became like Jesus because he shared "the fellowship of his sufferings" (Phil. 3:10). In the furnaces of life, Jeremiah was "conformed to the image of [God's] Son" (Rom. 8:29). Jeremiah may not have realized that this process was going on in his life, and he might have denied it if it were pointed out to him, but the transformation was going on just the same.
5. The important thing isn't success; it's faithfulness. By today's human standards of ministry, Jeremiah was a dismal failure. He preached to the same people for over forty years, and yet few of them believed him or obeyed his message. He had few friends who stood with him and encouraged him. The nation he tried to save from ruin abandoned their God and plunged headlong into disaster. His record wouldn't have impressed the candidate committee of most missions or the pastoral search committee of the average church.
7. God is King, and the nations of the world are under His sovereign control. Nothing catches God by surprise. The nations that defy Him and disobey His Word eventually suffer for it. People who claim to know Him but who refuse to obey also suffer for it. In fact, the greater the light, the greater the responsibility. No nation was blessed the way God blessed the people of Israel, but that blessing brought chastening because they sinned against a flood of light.
Jeremiah may have thought he had failed, but God saw him as a faithful servant, and that's all that really counts. "Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful" (1 Cor. 4:2 nkjv). He could have quit, but he didn't. As V. Raymond Edman used to say, "It's always too soon to quit."
6. The greatest reward of ministry is to become like Jesus Christ. When Jesus asked His disciples who people said He was, they replied, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets" (Matt. 16:14 nkjv). What a compliment it would be to have people say, "Jesus Christ is like you!"
It's a solemn responsibility for a people to claim to know God and profess to do His will. It isn't enough for a nation to put "In God We Trust" on its currency, to mention God in its pledge to the flag, or to "tip the hat to God" by quoting the Bible in political campaign speeches. It's righteousness, not religion, that exalts a nation. What pleases the Lord is that we "do justly … love mercy … and … walk humbly with [our] God" (Mic. 6:8).
The similarities between Jesus and Jeremiah are interesting. Their approaches to teaching and preaching were similar, using "action sermons" and a great deal of imagery from everyday life and from nature. Both spoke out against the commercial "surface" religion practiced in the temple. Both were accused of being traitors to their people, and both suffered physically, even being arrested, beaten, and confined. Both wept over Jerusalem. Both were rejected by their relatives. Both knew what it was to be misunderstood, lonely, and rejected. Both emphasized the need for faith in the heart, and both rejected the
The same Lord who enabled Jeremiah can enable us. The same world that opposed Jeremiah will oppose us. It's time for God's people to be decisive.
Notes
1 Dennis J. Hester, compiler, The Vance Havner Quotebook (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986), 179. 2 Charles E. Jefferson, Cardinal Ideas of Jeremiah (New York: Macmillan, 1928), 192.