Dear Friends in Christ,
If you like watching nature films or National Geographic specials perhaps somewhere alone the line you’ve learned of the interesting plight of the salmon in the Pacific Northwest region of our country. When female salmon are ready to give birth they instinctively return to their own breeding grounds. The only trouble with this is that these breeding grounds are way upstream a river that they are currently downstream…
… So, in order to get upstream they have to swim against a current that is very strong in places, and even have to climb up small waterfalls. Maybe you’ve seen pictures of these fish trying to jump up a waterfall, being unsuccessful, and then trying again and again. Some of them eventually do make it back to their breeding grounds; others don’t and are lost along the way. One thing all those who do make it back have in common is this: They’re tired. So tired and worn out that they lay their eggs and die. The new fish hatch and eventually go downstream, and the whole cycle begins again.
Judging from our text, the Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah felt like one of these salmon. He felt that in living for the God he loved he was perpetually swimming against the strong current of an ungodly world. He felt his life as a believer was one continuous uphill battle. And he was tired.
However, such feelings are not limited to Old Testament prophets, are they? In every age (and certainly including our own) Christians who take their faith seriously often experience the same kind of emotions. Living by a different set of rules than does the world around us… raising children and grandchildren in a social climate that is very much at odds with Scriptural values… trying to do the right thing when others – sometimes even our fellow Christians – don’t seem to make a clear distinction between right and wrong anymore… all these things can make us feel tired. Weary. We feel like we’re constantly swimming upstream…
In our text for today we have a very interesting dialogue between Jeremiah and the Lord, which we’ll develop in just a minute. But the bottom line message of our text is the promise that, despite the fact that living the Christian life sometimes feels like an uphill battle, God gives His Children
THE STRENGTH TO STAND FIRM
As we turn to our text we see these two halves of a conversation…
He goes on: "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty." Jeremiah is remembering when he was called to be a prophet of God. He digested God’s Word and joyfully made it a part of him. He considered it the highest privilege to bear the name of God and belong to the family of believers…
And this wasn’t just so much talk, Jeremiah says. This devotion to God and his call as God’s spokesman had a great impact on his everyday life: "I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation." Righteous indignation at the sins of countrymen did not allow him to join in with an ungodly crowd, and throughout his ministry Jeremiah attracted few friends.
Having reminded the Lord of all this, Jeremiah now gets to what was undoubtedly for him the real issue. He poses a couple of questions to God. F irst is this: "Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and terrible?" In other words, why are you rewarding my faithfulness to You with such a difficult life? And the second is this: "Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails?" Meaning, Lord, are You like a brook that from a distance promises refreshing water, but upon closer inspection is all dried up? Lord, are you like a spring that people approach with the expectation of cool water on a hot day, but to their great exasperation and disappointment find none? Lord, are you really nothing more than a mirage – a vision with no substance?
Translated together, the sentiment expressed by Jeremiah in his two questions is something along these lines: Lord, I’m tired of swimming upstream. I love You and I’m willing to put it all on the line for You, but I don’t seem to be getting much in return. I deserve better. Could You please give me some help?
Thus ends Jeremiah’s lament. Now comes God’s response. For human beings like you and me knowing the right thing to say to another person who is troubled is sometimes very difficult. Knowing when to be sympathetic or when to be encouraging or when to be stern or when to simply listen and say nothing is often hard to determine. But not for God. He knows what to say in any given situation, and He knew exactly what Jeremiah needed to hear… "Therefore, this is what the Lord says, ‘If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them."
I would guess that this is not what Jeremiah was expecting to hear. What he probably was looking for was a little coddling, a little recognition of how bad things were, a little commiserating, a little pity perhaps – and maybe even some sort of apology from God. But that’s not what he got…
In essence, what God said to Jeremiah is this: "Quit whining about your life." Followed up by this: "All that stuff you said about Me – those charges of being a deceptive brook and a dried up spring – that’s not just harmless venting. That’s blasphemy. And in regard to your ungratefulness and your charges of Me being undependable – that’s not just blowing off a little steam. That’s serious sin….
Therefore, the very first thing you must do, Jeremiah, is repent of your sin against Me. Confess it and seek My forgiveness. Do that and then you can get back to the business of serving Me. As it stands now, Jeremiah, I can’t use you. You’re no good to Me if you persist in your complaining and worthless words about how bad I’ve been to you. Furthermore, Jeremiah, I expect you to be a Godly influence on the world; not to be influenced by the world."
Although it is not recorded in the Bible, it is probably safe to say that at this point Jeremiah said something like "Ouch, that hurts." It hurt because it was intended to hurt. God just exposed Jeremiah for what he was doing. And what he was doing was focusing only on himself and his troubles. Nowhere do we hear even the slightest consideration given to the goodness of the God who preserved him and provided for him each and every day. He was not thinking about all the positives that go along with being a child of God; he was only thinking about how tough it was to always be swimming upstream. And he needed to repent of this.
Having brought him to that realization, God now follows up with a promise that, as Jeremiah looks upward instead of inward, he will receive THE STRENGTH TO STAND FIRM. " ‘I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will save you from the hands of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the cruel.’ " Three times God calls attention to Himself ("I"). In other words, let Me be the focus. As Jeremiah turns to the Lord and away from himself, God assures him that He will be with him every step of the way despite the slings and arrows of the world around him. And on that positive note of assurance our text comes to an end.
What are the lessons here? What practical application can we draw from this conversation between Jeremiah and the Lord? There are a number of things we can learn. We’ll try to wrap them up in two general statements…
#1: BELIEVERS WHO ARE CONSTANTLY COMPLAINING OR UNHAPPY ABOUT THEIR LOT IN LIFE AND WHO FOCUS EXCLUSIVELY ON THE NEGATIVES CAN ONLY BE, AT BEST, OF MINIMAL USE TO GOD IN THE BUILDING UP OF HIS KINGDOM.
Considering our text, it is not difficult to determine God’s feelings about chronic complaining. In fact, it is quite interesting to note that in 1 Corinthians 10 the Apostle Paul mentions three particular sins that God views as especially distasteful to Him and which, consequently, Paul warns against. First is idolatry. Second is sexual immorality. And third (which may come as a surprise) is grumbling…
Why do you suppose God feels so strongly about this? Well, think about what complaining is. Complaining is essentially telling God that’s He not doing a very good job of running our life. It’s an expression of unhappiness with God. And it is the direct opposite of the promise that God is and will work everything out for our best interests given in Romans 8:28. The complainer hears Romans 8:28 and basically says, "I don’t think so."
The point to be made (and that is made in our text) is that believers who constantly complain about the badness in their lives cannot in the next moment talk about the goodness of their God. God told Jeremiah that He couldn’t use him as a witness before a watching world until after he quit uttering worthless, negative words. And it’s not hard to figure out that a Christian, who, by his or her words or actions is expressing unhappiness with God, cannot at the same time be an effective witness…
Therefore, one of the things this text does for us is ask us to look at ourselves and consider some very practical but probing questions… such as: Am I a complainer? Do I exhibit a negative attitude to those around me? Do I find myself talking more about what’s wrong in my life – what I don’t have or can’t do, etc. – as opposed to what’s right in my life? Am I one of those people who really isn’t happy unless I am unhappy? And if we are really serious about wanting to know these things, we need to ask someone close to us for an honest answer…
Then, if we find ourselves guilty in this area (and who of us isn’t to some degree or another), let us do what God told Jeremiah to do. Repent. Repent of our ingratitude toward the God who richly and daily gives us everything we need physically, spiritually and emotionally.
#2: THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS NOT EASY, BUT WE HAVE THE PROMISE FROM GOD THAT HE WILL SUSTAIN US. Jeremiah had this much right: Living for our Lord is not always easy in a world that thinks little of Him, His Word or His will.
But it wasn’t easy for Jesus, either. It couldn’t have been easy to leave the glory of heaven to live on this planet for 33 years. It couldn’t have been easy to walk among those He had created only to have them mock Him and reject Him and ultimately kill Him. It couldn’t have been easy to have a Roman scourge lay open His back on the morning of Good Friday only to have a wooden cross laid on it minutes later. It wasn’t easy having 7-inch spikes driven through His hands and feet. It wasn’t easy suffering hell and dying for our sins on Calvary…
But He did it, because for Jesus Christ we were worth it. This was the display of just how much "God so loved the world." Jesus paid the price for our sins so we might never have to go through what He did. The Apostle Paul put it this way: "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:21).
And when we focus on what Christ has done for us and what we look forward to eternally, then it’s awful hard to see the negatives because of the comparative greatness of the positives. As we focus on the love of a God who did and does do so much for us, and as we turn to Him through Word and prayer, He promises to give each of us THE STRENGTH TO STAND FIRM. And as we contemplate Christ each and every day, suddenly swimming upstream doesn’t seem nearly as tiring. In fact, we find ourselves glad to do it…
Let’s conclude. Perhaps the lesson of our text can be summed up in two words: Repent and Reflect. Let us first recognize that every bit of ingratitude and every tendency to complain about how God has run or is running our lives is far more serious than we may think. And let us repent.
Following that, let us then continually reflect on the goodness and the promises of God, the greatest of which is the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.
For when our lives become this daily combination of repentance and reflection, we have the assurance from none other than Almighty God Himself that He will give each of us, come what may, that which He provided Jeremiah: THE STRENGTH TO STAND FIRM.
Amen.