Jeremiah 12:16-17 – Christ in Every Comparison
16 And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people. 17 But if they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation,” says the Lord.
"The aspiring efforts of genius, or virtue, either in active or speculative life," adjudicates Edward Gibbon coolly in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, "are measured, not so much by their real elevation, as by the height to which they ascend above the level of their age and country; and the same stature, which in a people of giants would pass unnoticed, must appear conspicuous in a race of pygmies."
That capacity, that compunction, to judge ourselves by our peers in the way most advantageous to ourselves is why we need reflection upon minds like Gibbon's. Much more importantly, it's why we need reflection upon Scriptural Truth like Jeremiah 12:16-17.
The pervasive nature of the Gospel to and through Jeremiah is not just to the down-and-outer's that he first represents. God's plan is so comprehensive, so compelling, that He intends to win unto Himself some of the winners, some of the conquering race that He uses to chastise the descendents of Abraham.
But notice how distinctive it is for the winners of a given moment to learn from the losers, in Earthly terms, of that most brief of moments. It's God's work. Without that sovereign Jeremiah 12:16-17 grace not to be swept up in pride's race, competition on human terms is the order of the day, every day, and in every age. If I'm winning in the contest as I frame it, I have nothing to learn from my inferiors.
Yet, as grace embeds itself, we reconsider surface assumptions. We, as Jeremiah phrases this presumptive, preemptive invitation to his people's coming conquerors, learn carefully. Maybe the people who seem to be beneath us in geopolitical might, in education, and social class, maybe they are God's instruments and implements of Gospel to us in the moment when we realize the limits of Earthly triumph. If we remain teachable contrary to pride's blustering noise, we can learn from those God is more obviously humbling.
Amazingly, there is a Gospel osmosis that goes on by the grace of God up and down every social arrangement. Just as in Jeremiah 12:16-17 God has so ordained that Earthly conquerors can learn Gospel from those conquered but repentant and faithful, even the Earthly conquerors have Gospel to convey.
Paul, deserted by more obvious carriers of the Gospel at the end of 2 Timothy 1, finds the means for Gospel metaphor in the heathen he is chained to. By 2 Timothy 2:4, the apostle has turned the page. He is helping Timothy picture Gospel faithfulness in the fidelity of a Roman soldier.
With Paul, then, we learn how to be content where God has given us plenty, whether in money, or social capital, or persuasive ability. This contentment puts to death self-satisfying comparisons.
It is alive with Jeremiah 12:16-17 acquisitiveness for aspects of the Gospel we can understand better from others "beneath us" by every human measure. Where we are looking up at others more blessed and by our bitterness less deserving, we can quiet that spirit of contention and look for the Gospel in the blessings Christ has showered on others.
"The aspiring efforts of genius, or virtue, either in active or speculative life," adjudicates Edward Gibbon coolly in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, "are measured, not so much by their real elevation, as by the height to which they ascend above the level of their age and country; and the same stature, which in a people of giants would pass unnoticed, must appear conspicuous in a race of pygmies."
That capacity, that compunction, to judge ourselves by our peers in the way most advantageous to ourselves is why we need reflection upon minds like Gibbon's. Much more importantly, it's why we need reflection upon Scriptural Truth like Jeremiah 12:16-17.
The pervasive nature of the Gospel to and through Jeremiah is not just to the down-and-outer's that he first represents. God's plan is so comprehensive, so compelling, that He intends to win unto Himself some of the winners, some of the conquering race that He uses to chastise the descendents of Abraham.
But notice how distinctive it is for the winners of a given moment to learn from the losers, in Earthly terms, of that most brief of moments. It's God's work. Without that sovereign Jeremiah 12:16-17 grace not to be swept up in pride's race, competition on human terms is the order of the day, every day, and in every age. If I'm winning in the contest as I frame it, I have nothing to learn from my inferiors.
Yet, as grace embeds itself, we reconsider surface assumptions. We, as Jeremiah phrases this presumptive, preemptive invitation to his people's coming conquerors, learn carefully. Maybe the people who seem to be beneath us in geopolitical might, in education, and social class, maybe they are God's instruments and implements of Gospel to us in the moment when we realize the limits of Earthly triumph. If we remain teachable contrary to pride's blustering noise, we can learn from those God is more obviously humbling.
Amazingly, there is a Gospel osmosis that goes on by the grace of God up and down every social arrangement. Just as in Jeremiah 12:16-17 God has so ordained that Earthly conquerors can learn Gospel from those conquered but repentant and faithful, even the Earthly conquerors have Gospel to convey.
Paul, deserted by more obvious carriers of the Gospel at the end of 2 Timothy 1, finds the means for Gospel metaphor in the heathen he is chained to. By 2 Timothy 2:4, the apostle has turned the page. He is helping Timothy picture Gospel faithfulness in the fidelity of a Roman soldier.
With Paul, then, we learn how to be content where God has given us plenty, whether in money, or social capital, or persuasive ability. This contentment puts to death self-satisfying comparisons.
It is alive with Jeremiah 12:16-17 acquisitiveness for aspects of the Gospel we can understand better from others "beneath us" by every human measure. Where we are looking up at others more blessed and by our bitterness less deserving, we can quiet that spirit of contention and look for the Gospel in the blessings Christ has showered on others.
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