Proper 17: Old Testament, Jeremiah 15:15-21                            

Jeremiah 15:15-21

Jeremiah 15:16 reads, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD of hosts.” Doesn’t that sound wonderful? Isn’t that just what you would want to express after taking in the Word of the Lord? Well. It is wonderful. And Jeremiah is absolutely sincere when he pens these words. But to just lift them from their context makes it sound like it's all been light and sugar candy in consideration of what God has given to him. Not so.

Jeremiah’s call to be a prophet to the Southern Kingdom came with an “understanding.” What was it? That Jeremiah would be sent to people with stony hearts. To those who would close their ears and their hearts to his message even though it was “signed” by Yahweh himself. Jeremiah was sent to people who simply would not listen. Think of the disrespect you may have seen in recent political meetings when a speaker was snubbed by audience members opening up newspapers in front of their faces during the address. That’s a good picture. But this speaker’s message was unquestionably more important. 

Jeremiah goes on in verse 18-remember what he had just said a few verses before-verse 18, “Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you (God) be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?” Is this the God that had given Jeremiah his word just a few lines back? The careful reader will note that Jeremiah’s situation was fine in the confines of a company of one. But when he ventured out with that same word, what happened? He became less than nothing in the eyes of the people who should have loved his message, who should have repented and run back to the God who called to them through this now broken vessel.

God is faithful. And as he is faithful to his Word, so is he faithful to those who faithfully carry it wherever he commands. Read the closing verses of our reading and you will find tenderness and consolation abounding to Jeremiah. Sometimes what God says to us is just plain hard. Sometimes when God says, “Tell this to someone you love (or hate),” it is equally hard. God’s Word is meant for our comfort when we receive it as intended and sometimes there is struggle before comfort. But wait. “For I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the LORD,” God says to Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s God is our God. God be praised!