Jeremiah 15:20-21 – God's Providence, Both Sweeping and Singular
20
And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;
And they will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you,” says the Lord.
21
“I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.
John Donne intones in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, "God governs not by examples, but by rules."
The maxim is so solidly Scriptural even the devil would have a hard time disputing it. God says He is no respecter of persons. God says there is no shadow of turning with Him. So, the enemy's recourse is often to recast God's Word to cast doubt upon the heart behind it and the implications that flow from it. He did it in Genesis, hissing, has God really said?
Even so, the end result of such wrestling with the Word can be a more thriving intimacy with Him. Abraham, deemed God's friend, thereby saw the sweeping plan of God and contended for individual exceptions – lest God forget, or at least Abraham's faith-filled heart be shadowed with doubt. God, he was sure enough of his standing before the Almighty to ask, will You slay the righteous with the wicked? Will You, he asked, get so caught up in Your big and just plan that You forget the implications for individuals? The resultant haggling brought forth not only the sparing of Lot's life, but it even closer bond between Abraham and God.
Second verse, same as the first. Jeremiah's heart quakes with a concern similar to Abraham's. He has been clued into the big, impending move of the God Who uproots whole cultures. God's verdict is that the people Jeremiah has been confronting are due for exile. Jeremiah resists being included, sensing that God Who according to the principle John Donne elucidates governs by rules rather than examples might need to be reminded that individuals like Jeremiah are, by faith, examples not covered by the general rule. Remember the remnant, Lord.
God's response to Jeremiah's plea for exceptionalism is as sweet as was His response to Abraham's temerity. He won't forget His plan for one person, even as He moves nations about His geopolitical chessboard. In fact, He sees His purposes for Jeremiah, and for us, with the depth perception of two eyes working in conjunction. So He declares in Jeremiah 15:20-21.
I will make you to this people, He begins in Jeremiah 15:20. As God is moving in macro ways to shape the fate of nations, You simultaneously sculpts the delicate inward workings of individual men and women which can be so much more easily damaged than emboldened.
He speaks, and Christ declares that legions of angels would move, and yet He hovers over an individual man's character. He speaks, and instantly there is light, and yet He sees fit to linger over the strengthening of the fiber of Jeremiah's resistance to cultural conformity that he foretold in the beginning of the prophet's ministry. Thus he does with us, teaching our souls to cling to Him and to resist the craving for the approval of men – as that approval presents itself. This may be the declaration of a moment, but it is often the work of a lifetime.
As we move the tent stakes of our theology, expanding our understanding of God as He reveals Himself, we state what we know tentatively. He moves nations. He shapes the thoughts and emotions of people. Surely, then, He gives short shrift to our material well-being. Surely He teaches us not to care about physical provision and safety because this is less important to Him.
Not here. His work in an individual is so much His testimony before a nation and multiple nations that He declares it in detail. He Who says He will continue to strengthen Jeremiah's soul declares in the next breath that He will likewise protect Jeremiah's body. I will, he insists, deliver you from the hand of the wicked.
We who, then, swim upstream as, in a sense, exiles-in-residence, begin to grasp our manifold identity in Him. We take up Switchfoot's challenge to a culture of crushing conformity in "Blinding Light," with the charge, "Hey, boy, we're the nation that eats our youth. Hey, boy, don't believe them. None of us are bulletproof." When they out their paired caution and benediction, individualizing, "Hey, girl, don't believe them. No one else has a soul like you," we give an amen that resonates through the ages in God's work in Abraham, in Jeremiah, and in us. God moves in the international and the intricate, in the internal and the eternal, the tiny and the timeless. His glory is declared on every front.
And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;
And they will fight against you,
But they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you,” says the Lord.
21
“I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.
John Donne intones in Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, "God governs not by examples, but by rules."
The maxim is so solidly Scriptural even the devil would have a hard time disputing it. God says He is no respecter of persons. God says there is no shadow of turning with Him. So, the enemy's recourse is often to recast God's Word to cast doubt upon the heart behind it and the implications that flow from it. He did it in Genesis, hissing, has God really said?
Even so, the end result of such wrestling with the Word can be a more thriving intimacy with Him. Abraham, deemed God's friend, thereby saw the sweeping plan of God and contended for individual exceptions – lest God forget, or at least Abraham's faith-filled heart be shadowed with doubt. God, he was sure enough of his standing before the Almighty to ask, will You slay the righteous with the wicked? Will You, he asked, get so caught up in Your big and just plan that You forget the implications for individuals? The resultant haggling brought forth not only the sparing of Lot's life, but it even closer bond between Abraham and God.
Second verse, same as the first. Jeremiah's heart quakes with a concern similar to Abraham's. He has been clued into the big, impending move of the God Who uproots whole cultures. God's verdict is that the people Jeremiah has been confronting are due for exile. Jeremiah resists being included, sensing that God Who according to the principle John Donne elucidates governs by rules rather than examples might need to be reminded that individuals like Jeremiah are, by faith, examples not covered by the general rule. Remember the remnant, Lord.
God's response to Jeremiah's plea for exceptionalism is as sweet as was His response to Abraham's temerity. He won't forget His plan for one person, even as He moves nations about His geopolitical chessboard. In fact, He sees His purposes for Jeremiah, and for us, with the depth perception of two eyes working in conjunction. So He declares in Jeremiah 15:20-21.
I will make you to this people, He begins in Jeremiah 15:20. As God is moving in macro ways to shape the fate of nations, You simultaneously sculpts the delicate inward workings of individual men and women which can be so much more easily damaged than emboldened.
He speaks, and Christ declares that legions of angels would move, and yet He hovers over an individual man's character. He speaks, and instantly there is light, and yet He sees fit to linger over the strengthening of the fiber of Jeremiah's resistance to cultural conformity that he foretold in the beginning of the prophet's ministry. Thus he does with us, teaching our souls to cling to Him and to resist the craving for the approval of men – as that approval presents itself. This may be the declaration of a moment, but it is often the work of a lifetime.
As we move the tent stakes of our theology, expanding our understanding of God as He reveals Himself, we state what we know tentatively. He moves nations. He shapes the thoughts and emotions of people. Surely, then, He gives short shrift to our material well-being. Surely He teaches us not to care about physical provision and safety because this is less important to Him.
Not here. His work in an individual is so much His testimony before a nation and multiple nations that He declares it in detail. He Who says He will continue to strengthen Jeremiah's soul declares in the next breath that He will likewise protect Jeremiah's body. I will, he insists, deliver you from the hand of the wicked.
We who, then, swim upstream as, in a sense, exiles-in-residence, begin to grasp our manifold identity in Him. We take up Switchfoot's challenge to a culture of crushing conformity in "Blinding Light," with the charge, "Hey, boy, we're the nation that eats our youth. Hey, boy, don't believe them. None of us are bulletproof." When they out their paired caution and benediction, individualizing, "Hey, girl, don't believe them. No one else has a soul like you," we give an amen that resonates through the ages in God's work in Abraham, in Jeremiah, and in us. God moves in the international and the intricate, in the internal and the eternal, the tiny and the timeless. His glory is declared on every front.
This is so well-written. It is so important that we remember just how important we are in God's eyes as individuals. It's sometimes easier to believe in the sweeping notion that God loves everyone rather than to personalize it to God loves me (you). Reminds me on the Sunday school song- "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so".
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