The Cry of the Prophet Jeremiah

A young man was talking to an elderly gentleman and said, “Wow! You’ve seen a lot of change in your lifetime!”

The elderly man replied, “Yep! And I was against every one of them!”

Does that describe you?

Call to Repent

The prophet Jeremiah told the people they needed to change. God told Jeremiah to preach this message: “If you do not listen to me … then I will make … this house like Shiloh and this city a curse among all nations” (Jeremiah 7:5-6).

Throughout the history of their nation, God had warned the people, chastised them and repeatedly called them to repentance. They paid no attention. They kept doing their own thing. They were comfortable in their sin. They were complacent in their idolatry.

The Lord called Jeremiah his “iron” prophet. He had to preach a hard message of repentance to people’s hearts that had become cemented to their sin over the years and hardened the idolatry in their hearts over the generations. The preacher would have a congregation that refused to soften. They were a church that rejected their pastor. God used Jeremiah to keep hammering his message of repentance into their stony hearts with prophecy after prophecy. He would pound on them with repeated warnings of judgment.

Jeremiah stands in the high traffic area of the temple where “the priests, the prophets and all the people” would hear him (Jeremiah 26:7). No one was to miss this message.

Not So They Can Believe

The crowds are listening. Not so they can repent and believe. They listen so they can gain evidence against Jeremiah. They seize him and shout, “He must die!” (Jeremiah 26:8)

The crowd quickly becomes a mob. Their eyes are too filled with fury to see the need to change. Their hearts are too hardened to repent. Their ears are too plugged with self-righteousness to believe.

Shiloh was the location where the Ark of the Covenant and tabernacle had been placed. It was the center for Israelite worship from Joshua through the time of the Judges. When Israel refused to renounce their idolatry and repent of their wickedness, God used the Philistines to capture the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 4). Without the Ark of the Covenant, Shiloh lost its significance.

Threats and Rejection

For forty years, Jeremiah had to say hard things to terribly wicked people. The people steadfastly refused to listen. They repeatedly threatened to kill the prophet. They staunchly rejected any change in their faith and behavior.

In addition to all that, Jeremiah had to experience and see with his own eyes how Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple ransacked, and the people carried away captive. The Lord’s prophecy came true.

Ruins of Jerusalem

19th-century realist Russian painter, Ilya Repin, portrays the heartache Jeremiah felt after the Lord’s prophecy came true. Through the contrast of light and dark, the eye is drawn from the physical ruin and devastation and to the emotional ruin and devastation of the prophet. With his hand over his forehead and his clothes in tatters, Jeremiah is in despair.

Repin uses subdued hues to carry forth the emotion in the artwork. Jeremiah is commonly known as the “weeping prophet,” based on his wish to have a “fountain of tears” with which he might weep for the slain of his own people. Repin vividly portrays Jeremiah as the weeping prophet who cries: “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people” (Jeremiah 9:1).

Blasphemy and Treason

The people are incensed that Jeremiah is threatening that Solomon’s Temple will be destroyed and Jerusalem will be as barren as Shiloh. The priests and prophets demand that Jeremiah be executed for blasphemy and treason. The priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death because he has been prophesying against this city” (Jeremiah 26:11).

Their angry actions are recounted by Jesus centuries later: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her” (Luke 13:34)!

The Lord’s faithful prophet remains unfazed by their threat of death. He answers the mob, “Look, I am in your hands. Do with me whatever seems good and right in your eyes”. He is more concerned with them, “Now reform your ways and your actions, and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring about the disaster he has pronounced against you” (Jeremiah 26:13-14).

The Heartache of Sin

These words portray the heartache that God was going through in sending his prophet to his people. That heartache is illustrated in the words that Jeremiah says, “the Lord will relent.” The Hebrew word for “relent” also means to comfort oneself or to change one’s mind. God was uncomfortable that the Israelites were so comfortable with their sins.

Jeremiah’s words hit close to home, don’t they? Jesus comes not only to save us from Satan but to also save us from ourselves – from our sinful nature, our rebellious inclinations, our destructive desires.

We have all become too comfortable with our sins. We cling too tightly to the pleasures of this world. We know our behavior is wrong, but we lash out at the pastor or parent who dares to chastise us for that wrong behavior.

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We run away from Jesus. We don’t want to repent. We refuse to change. We are too tied to the sins we enjoy so much. We think too much about earthly things. We lash out at anyone who tells us that we are doing wrong, speaking wrong, desiring wrong, believing wrong, or living wrong.

We Would Rather

We don’t want God’s discipline.

We would rather condemn the prophet who condemns our sinful nature.

We would rather change churches than stay in a church where the pastor’s message hits too close to home.

We would rather leave Jesus altogether rather than leave our sin we love so much.

We would rather have God relent than we ever repent.

We refuse to change.

The residents of Jerusalem told Jeremiah, “Go away. Leave us alone. Or we’ll kill you.”

The Pharisees told Jesus, “Go away. Leave us alone. Herod wants to kill you.”

When we are wallowing in our sin, we are telling Jesus, “Go away. Leave us alone. Don’t kill our fun.”

Never Left Alone

But what kind of God do you want? Do you really want a God who will leave you alone? Or do you want a God who will do everything to save you?

Jeremiah would not go away. He was sent to people who refused to listen or change, and who constantly threatened him with death. But when the prophet’s ministry began, the Lord declared, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you” (Jeremiah 1:8).

Jesus would not go away. He was sent to the Pharisees who refused to listen. He was sent to you and me who refuse to change. He came to those who put him to death.

Jesus did not come to save his own skin. He came to save yours. He didn’t come to avoid temptation and death, but to face it head on. Not just the temptation and death that is in our world, but the temptation and death that is in you. He wasn’t afraid to confront people with their sins. He boldly pointed out their sin, called them to repent, forgave their guilty consciences and then told them to change. “Go and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11).

Jeremiah preached, “Now reform your ways and your actions, and obey the Lord your God.” Jesus preaches the same thing to you. Reform your ways. Change your actions. Obey the Lord. Relent of your sin. God relents of his judgment. Give up your sins. God gives those sins to his Son. God changes your eternal destination. This changes the way you live your daily life.

Jesus is the hen who calls you under his wings. Accept his invitation. Turn from danger and crawl under his safety. Let him be your refuge.

Jesus is not the God we want. He is the God we need!

He is the God who changes us from denizens of hell into citizens of heaven. He transforms our lowly, sin-filled bodies so that they become like his glorious, resurrected body (Philippians 3:20-21).

Like Jerusalem was laid waste, so Jesus was laid waste. Like the temple, Jesus was destroyed. Unlike the temple, Jesus was raised again in three days (John 2:19). For our hardened hearts, he was hammered to the cross. Jeremiah was the weeping prophet, crying over Jerusalem. Jesus wept, not just for Jerusalem, but for all of humanity – for all of us.

The terrible destruction that was preached to us was turned away. But if it did not fall on us, where did it go? It went to the cross. It landed on Christ.

Jesus does not meet us on our terms or on our turf. We meet him on his terms and on his turf. He doesn’t relent to our will. We repent through his Word and relent to his will. He doesn’t change to fit our culture. He suffers and dies, is destroyed and raised again, to rescue us from our culture.

This changes us. How can it not?!