Jeremiah & Lamentation: Jesus Is Our Weeping Prophet
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JEREMIAH AND LAMENTATION: JESUS IS OUR WEEPING PROPHET
Jeremiah 1:1-10 (ESV)
1 The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,
2 to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, and until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month.
4 Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”
7 But the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.”
9 Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
When was the last time you really cried, and why? Perhaps, some of you cried because you or a loved one had been diagnosed with a terminal disease. Some probably cried because your son or daughter went to college and had to move to another State. Or others wept because they broke up with a boyfriend or girlfriend. I’m sure many of us cried when someone so dear to us passed. For me, the last time I really cried was August 16, 2012, when my mom passed away.
I remember my mom had been in a coma since her fatal stroke about the middle of March that year. After it happened, our entire family steadfastly asked the Lord to be gracious and grant her the healing she needed. However, God decided that He would only extend her for a few more months. By August 14, it became undeniable that she was going to pass anytime soon. So, early morning of August 16, I was doing my devotion and was reading through 2 Timothy 3. Out of the chapter, the Lord specifically just spoke to me through verses 14-15, saying, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Here were the words in my journal entry:
“I am one f those privilege ones who grew up with godly parents who did their best to influence me to know and love Jesus early on. Lord, thank you for blessing me with parents who expose me in the truth from the time I was born. Today, I might lose mommy here on earth. But I have this assurance in my heart that she is going to you. Grant her the joy of eternal comfort and please tell her that we will surely miss her. I will just commit her to you.”
Writing these words, I was crying to the Lord, thanking Him for the life of my mother. And as soon as I finished my devotion, I received a call from the Philippines letting me know that my mom just passed away. That was definitely a memorable time for me!
Interestingly, in the Bible, we will also find some of our favorite heroes crying for different reasons. Here are some examples:
Joseph cried after meeting Benjamin (Genesis 43:30)
David cried after the death of Absalom (2 Samuel 18:33)
Elisha cried after God revealed to him what the next King of Syria would do against Israel (2 Kings 8:10-12).
Peter cried after denying Jesus three times ( Luke 22:61-62)
Paul cried during his ministry in Ephesus (Acts 20:19)
However, if someone were known for his crying, it would be the prophet, Jeremiah. He was characterized as “The Weeping Prophet.” Of course, this label doesn’t suggest that he was very unstable emotionally. It simply highlights that he was consistently grieved over the sinfulness of his people, who continued to reject God’s warning regarding His impending judgment.
This morning, as we continue our studies on the books of the Bible, we will be covering the two books that the prophet Jeremiah wrote – Jeremiah and Lamentation. We can already integrate them not only because the same prophet wrote both but also the central theme is the same. Both books present Jesus as our weeping prophet. I know that we won’t be able to cover much with our brief time covering these books. But I would like to encourage all of you to read and discover how special these books are since they can help us appreciate God's compassion towards the lost condition of the world. To help us understand better the overall message of these books, allow me to focus on three significant themes:
I THE CALL OF JEREMIAH
The name Jeremiah from the Hebrew language means “Yahweh lifts up” or “Exalted of Jehovah.” His call as a prophet was to the Kingdom of Judah. He began his ministry few years after the Northern Kingdom fell into the hands of the Assyrians in 722 B.C. He served under five kings of Judah:
Josiah (640-609 BC)
Jehoahaz (609 BC)
Jehoiakim (609-597 BC)
Jehoiachin (597 BC)
Zedekiah (597-586 BC)
With these five kings, only King Josiah followed and served the Lord. All the last four turned their backs from Him. During these times of spiritual rebellion, God raised Jeremiah to warn His people concerning the coming of the Babylonians. Let’s first revisit his call in Jeremiah 1:1-10:
His Alibi (vs. 4-6)
As we begin to read the book of Jeremiah, the first ten verses were meant to establish his authority as a prophet of God. If you read verses 4-5, God Himself revealed to him that he had been set apart for this ministry even before he was born.
However, it would be worth noting that the most common response for almost everyone whom the Lord has called is the feeling of inadequacy. Jeremiah said in verse 6 - “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”
Jeremiah was telling the Lord that was young (perhaps 20-30 years old) and inexperienced. So, he cannot be the right person for the job.
2. His Assurance (vs. 7-9)
With Jeremiah’s alibi, God would respond by giving words of assurance. Considering verses 7-9, the main emphasis is the fact God Himself will guide him and give him the very words he will say to the people. In other words, God Himself will always be sufficient for him. What a great encouragement, right? Often, when God wants to use us, His main concern is not our abilities but our availabilities; He is not after our worthiness but our willingness to serve.
Do you know why God does it this way? Paul has a great explanation about it:
2 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV)
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
Clearly, God can demonstrate His great power through the weak and imperfect vessels He uses.
3. His Appointments (v. 10)
In Jeremiah’s calling, God also specified what he was appointed to do for the Lord – “See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Reading this verse, we should underscore the dual nature of Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry. The verb phrases - to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant, can show us that God appointed him to pronounce both destruction and restoration at the same time. This truth made the prospect of his ministry very difficult and complicated.
Many times, people avoid serving the Lord because of the difficulties involved in the ministry. But God never hides the fact that serving Him will lead to them, but His great faithfulness always abides with those who serve Him. Jeremiah declares:
Lamentations 3:21-23 (ESV)
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
II THE CONDEMNATION AGAINST JUDAH
In the books of Jeremiah and Lamentation, God would directly confront the sins of His people that will bring His judgment. I believe certain verses in chapter 2 can help summarize God’s condemnation to them:
Their Ingratitude
First and foremost, the Lord allowed them to reflect on their ingratitude by asking them this direct question found in verse 5 –“Thus says the LORD: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?” And He followed it up with these words in verse 7 – “And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.”
To summarize, it is sad to see that God’s people failed to respond to Him appropriately despite the goodness of the Lord. Evidently, God had done nothing to deserve the rebellion of His people.
2. Their Ignorance
The second basis of Judah’s condemnation comes from their ignorance to determine God’s true prophets. Notice verse 8 – “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ Those who handle the law did not know me; the shepherds transgressed against me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after things that do not profit.”
During the Old Testament times, the prophets were responsible for leading people closer to God. However, because of the people's ignorance, they failed to distinguish the false prophets from the true ones. It is tragic that even when the false prophets led them to worship worthless idols, they still followed them.
This indictment should serve as a great warning to all of us. It is true that not all Bible teachers and preachers are from God. If we are not knowledgeable enough of the Scriptures, some can lead us astray. The Berean believers in Acts 17 should be our examples today. Here is how they were described:
Acts 17:10-11 (ESV)
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the Jewish synagogue.
11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
These believers in Berea were considered noble because of their two significant characteristics:
A. “they received the word with all eagerness.”
B. “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
Let’s continue to grow deeper in our knowledge of God so that we won’t be led away from the Lord.
3. Their Irrationality
The last indictment against the people of Judah is their being irrational or foolish. Listen to what God says to them in verse 13 – “for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
If you carefully examine these words, it is hard to understand why God’s people could be so foolish, choosing to exchange the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns that cannot hold water. But often, when God’s people are not as watchful to the work of the Devil, we too can be so foolish pursuing those things that would not satisfy us.
Going back to the people of Judah, their decision to abandon the Lord and their consistent rejection of all His warnings will eventually lead to His severe judgment. Here is one of the direct verses about it:
Jeremiah 16:3-4 (ESV)
3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land:
4 They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
Please know that God is patient and provides many opportunities for His people to repent. Jeremiah was sent to warn them so they can avoid His punishment. However, because they failed to heed His warnings, they suffered severely as a nation.
III THE COMPASSION OF JESUS
As a weeping prophet (Jeremiah 9:1), Jeremiah perfectly portrays the weeping Savior who constantly pleads for sinners to come to repentance. He is not a tyrant God who threatens His people with punishment when they disobey Him. No, He is a compassionate God who understands that Satan and sin can destroy us, and being loyal to them will only lead to more miseries and heartaches in life. Charles R. Swindoll perfectly conveys this truth when he said:
“Sin, in spite of all its allurement and excitement, carries with it heavy weight of sorrows, grief, miseries, bitterness, and pain. It is the other side of the ‘eat, drink, and be merry’ coin.”
No wonder, as Jesus approached Jerusalem one day, He wept for the city because He knew the coming judgment because of their spiritual hardheartedness and blindness:
Luke 19:41-44 (ESV)
41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it,
42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side
44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
I trust that our message today will remind us that God is a loving God who desires only the best for us. If ever we are far from Him, He longs for us to humble ourselves, repent, and return to Him. He wants us to abandon our sins because He knows they will eventually hurt us.
Also, for those abiding in Him, He wants to use us to call sinners to repentance and lead them back to the fountain of living water that can truly satisfy us today. He does not want anyone to suffer eternal condemnation because of their sins. Instead, He wants everyone to find true and eternal life in Him.
Allow me to close us with this challenging verses in Psalm 126:5-6 (ESV):
5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy!
6 He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
-Dr. Jeremiah Lepasana