When we choose to serve the LORD, we are not guaranteed an easy life. In fact, many who are used mightily by the LORD experience trials and persecution. They must endure. We may often think of “Bible” heroes as always being joyful even in challenging times, like Paul and Silas singing in jail. However, the men and women in the Bible were people, just like you and me. They struggled at times as well when things did not go well in the carnal view of what was around them.
Jeremiah is a great example. He felt that he had to speak the word of God, but when he did he felt humiliation and persecution. People came against him.
Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah
1When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the LORD. 3On the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Pashhur is not the name the LORD has called you, but rather Magor-missabib. 4“For thus says the LORD, ‘Behold, I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will give over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away as exiles to Babylon and will slay them with the sword. 5‘I will also give over all the wealth of this city, all its produce and all its costly things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give over to the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away and bring them to Babylon. 6‘And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have falsely prophesied.’”
Jeremiah’s Complaint
7O LORD, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You have overcome me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
Everyone mocks me.
8For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long.
9But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in,
And I cannot endure it.
10For I have heard the whispering of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”
All my trusted friends,
Watching for my fall, say:
“Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him
And take our revenge on him.”
11But the LORD is with me like a dread champion;
Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,
With an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
12Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous,
Who see the mind and the heart;
Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For to You I have set forth my cause.
13Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD!
For He has delivered the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.
14Cursed be the day when I was born;
Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!
15Cursed be the man who brought the news
To my father, saying,
“A baby boy has been born to you!”
And made him very happy.
16But let that man be like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew without relenting,
And let him hear an outcry in the morning
And a shout of alarm at noon;
17Because he did not kill me before birth,
So that my mother would have been my grave,
And her womb ever pregnant.
18Why did I ever come forth from the womb
To look on trouble and sorrow,
So that my days have been spent in shame?
Like Jeremiah, we can come before the LORD and share our feelings honestly. He knows them anyway. I am reminded of 1 Pet 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” We can give our anxiety to God in order to find peace.
Just remember to praise God along the way!
Shalom. May the grace and peace of our Lord, Yeshua, be with you. Devotion by John in service to Christ
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