More Thoughts on Jeremiah: Chapters 19 & 20

Make no mistake.

I’m in a good place.

But today’s entry will get “dark,” so bear with me a second. It lightens up.

One time it started with a letter. A youth pastor of a local church sent a letter out to his ENTIRE congregation on church letterhead using phrases like “destroys the foundation of the family” and “giving our kids license to drink and do drugs” regarding me. Long story, but thankfully my 5 years on the job and my ministry reputation in the community trumped his 6 months on the job and evaluation of my ministry. Well, that and a lawyer who had a daughter experience freedom in Christ through our ministry who happened to be the chief of staff to the governor of Alabama…who unbeknownst to me made a phone call.

But, those couple of weeks were difficult on me emotionally and spiritually. And you don’t even want to know the effect on my wife.

Another time it started with a knock on the door. The Internal Revenue Service felt the need to do some fact checking. Interestingly, the Executive Director wasn’t in that day and, as it turns out, I never saw her again. Turns out that there were some illegalities in the bookkeeping that were described as “either incredibly ignorant or brilliantly deceptive.” After the entire staff resigned and got new jobs, I was left to clean up the interest & penalties the government levied.

But, those couple of years were difficult on me emotionally and spiritually. And you don’t even want to know the effect on my wife and kids.

Another time it started with a phone call. The issue was sexual misconduct. Turns out there was a lot of work personally and professionally to handle that situation with grace and all that entails.

But, those couple of years were difficult on me emotionally and spiritually. And you can imagine the effects on those I love.

In the midst of the last situation, I was chatting with someone I trust to give me wisdom and guidance. Recounting some of the details of all of those moments. Talking about what I was experiencing. There was good stuff, too. I mean, I was seeing God at work in the lives of all sorts of people around me. But there were dark times in the midst.

Emotionally, I often was worn out. Can still get that way.
Spiritually, I was drained. Sometimes that part of life just dries up when you want it most.
Physically, I lost sleep….lots of it. Exercise and diet seemed to be the first things to go when life tightened up.
Over time, that wears on you.

And the response of my trusted advisor was certainly unexpected: “Well, with all that, why do you stay in ministry? Why not just make a career change? Write about sports or music. Go back to grad school. Just…chuck it and make 3 or 4 times as much money with an awful lot less emotional drain?”

I was floored. Here I was looking for encouragement and support. I mean, the Big Three failures that can happen to a ministry had happened around me over a 20 year period. I was in the midst of one, and I wanted help and he was questioning why I was even bothering with doing it anymore.

And, I didn’t have an answer in that moment.

My trusted advisor fired off that it seemed that I should be able to answer that question before our discussion went any further. We agreed to meet the next day and pick up where we left off.

I thought.

A lot.

And that’s where we pick up Jeremiah, chapters 19 & 20.

Jeremiah had been surrounded by a renewal of the national spirit of Israel. It started out as a spiritual renewal, but as time progressed their return to God had been turned into a patriotic reality rather than a walk with their God. That’s the short version, anyway.

Chapter 19 shows us that Jeremiah was supposed to get some elders and key priests. This would take place after he purchased a pottery jar. The Hebrew word for they type of jar (likely about 10 inches high with a thin neck above a wider container…think of the bottle “I Dream of Jeanie” lived in) is “baqbuk.” Which is the sound the liquid would make if it were poured out of it…who says Hebrew isn’t picturesque?

He’s supposed to give these priests and leaders a message. They’ve forsaken God. They’ve faked their way through this renewal. They’ve accepted other gods. In a strange turn of events, they’ve even involved child sacrifice…

…that’s right. CHILD SACRIFICE…

…in their worship services. God says such things didn’t even ENTER His mind, much less commanded people to do them or spoke of them.

So, in verse 7, we see that God will “make void” the nation. The Hebrew word is “baqaq”—to pour out (again with the sound!)—the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem.

Jeremiah is supposed to buy this jar.
Then he gathers the leaders—who should’ve been the most receptive people to the words of God.
He takes them to the dump. Can you imagine? A prophet leading a parade of the high and mighty through town to the dump. It’s located just outside of the Potsherd (broken pottery) Gate.

He gets there.
Then he tells them what God told Him to say.
Then he throws the pottery in the air and it smashes into a bunch of pieces.

Remember that Brady Bunch episode where the boys were playing basketball in the house and broke mom’s favorite vase? How they tried to glue it back together? How at dinner flowers were put in that vase and it sprung leaks all over the table?

Yeah. God tells them that you can’t ever truly fix a broken piece of earthenware pottery. The structural integrity is forever shattered...in comparison to the moldable clay in the preceding chapter. Broken earthenware’s only good for being placed in the trash. So, by way of comparison. That’s what is going to have to happen to Judah.

Then, in chapter 20, the king heard Jeremiah was using visual aids in his lesson plans and had Jeremiah beaten. Something tells me that’s an understatement that the Hebrew isn’t picturesque enough to capture.

Then he was put in the stocks. These were used to humiliate false prophets. Get the message, Jeremiah?

Well, not quite. Pashhur. All the wealth and treasure are going to be plundered. Right out of the Temple. Right out of the palace, too, Holmes. Your subjects are going to be exiled. In fact, you are too, *ahem* king. Straightaway into Babylon, mon frere. Where you’ll die and be buried. Same for your family and friends, too. That’s my half-teen/half-grown up interpretation of 20: 1—6.

Which leads Jeremiah to a tough place spiritually.
Which leads Jeremiah to a tough place emotionally.
Which leads Jeremiah to a tough place physically.

And he writes a lament. He talks to God about how tough it is on him.

My guess is that from verse 9, he might be considering chucking it all. Maybe he’s had enough. He’s just spent two entire verses on how tough all this prophecy business is on him.

And he says that if he stops being a prophet…

…his heart becomes like a burning fire that’s deep in his bones.
…he gets tired of holding it in.
…so much so that he cannot endure it.

In other words, Jeremiah really doesn’t have a choice. He has to do it. Not to do it would be worse than the situation he's currently in. That's just the way it is.

And by the end of the lament in 13, he’s praising God again for the work He is GOING to do.

Of course, by the end of the chapter, he’s using hyperbole to describe his lot in life.

But Jeremiah had that moment of recognition:

That he was doing what God asked Him to do. That God had promised Him in chapter 1 that He was going to take care of him. That God said on multiple occasions that the people wouldn’t respond in positive ways. That God was at work…even if that work was confusing and difficult to grasp. That God was in heaven. That God’s ways aren’t our ways.

That walking with Him is really the Truth.
Not the feelings we have.
That we can’t trust our feelings.
But we can trust His Word.
And if we have a choice to trust what can change in a millisecond…
…or choose to trust what hasn’t changed in roughly 2,000 years…

…well, it’s really no choice at all.

That I’d rather walk through whatever physical, spiritual and emotional realities with Him--and do what He's asked me to do--than take any escape that’s out there.

Now, I never have been through anything that ultimately compares to what Jeremiah went through (and it really hasn’t started yet), but the principle is the same: No matter what happens the appears unjust, or what emotions/feelings those injustices give birth to, that He is there.

He is not silent.

He is indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

And that’s why I do what I do. I have no other choice. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.