Jeremiah 17:16-17 – Abiding in Christ Overflowing in Grace toward Men
16
As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,
Nor have I desired the woeful day;
You know what came out of my lips;
It was right there before You.
17
Do not be a terror to me;
You are my hope in the day of doom.
Garcia Burnham in her memoir of captivity In the Presence of My Enemy is equally candid about her faith and her depression during the ordeal. At one point when she broke into sobs, she saw parenthood differently. Too often, she had accused her son of using tears to manipulate or to escape responsibility. She resolved she would be more understanding.
Knowing his own times of tears, Jeremiah is also in such a place of emphasizing faith-filled empathy in Jeremiah 17:16-17. He has known what it is to be intimidated. Yet, he says, he has engaged in the shepherd's work to which God has called him. His words, he recalls, flowed from his intimate connection with the Lord rather than the expediency of what would endear him to men or distinguishes faith from the lack of faith around him.
Beautifully, he is able to dwell on the perfecting work God is continuing to do in him without expecting the same recipe and timing in the lives of those to whom he ministers. His heart is much like Burnham's in that he sees the wisdom and grace of not assuming motives, and, to redirect the phrasing of John John Ortberg, he isn't attempting to microwave discipleship.
The arrival of the day of judgment will mean Jeremiah has been right. The arrival of the day of judgment will mean the toppling of his persecutors. The arrival of the ULTIMATE day of judgment will mean Jeremiah will know his Lord as he also is known. Yet, the prophet of Jeremiah 14:16 season aspect of righteousness in that he has not wished to hasten that day of judgment before those of his countrymen God would change by grace are ready.
Why not? Why has Jeremiah cultivated a habit of abiding with the Lord in the day's humanly unpromising tasks of confrontation and proclamation instead of finding his hope in its bottom-line effectiveness? Because his own heart on display in Jeremiah 14:17 is always before him. Simply because he has been called into service to shepherd others doesn't mean that he has graduated from the fear of the Lord.
He knows his people's vulnerability and sense of intimidation rather than intimacy because even his experience still bifurcates on the borderline. Would he who still rebukes the anxiety and his own heart in God's Name see the anxiety of his countrymen judged immediately to the fullest extent?
Jeremiah's empathetic epiphany presages Christ. Christ reflects on the perfect faithfulness of His words which are rendered to reflect joyful obedience to His Father rather than tickle the ears or cultivate the favor of men. It is Christ Who would intercede between His flock in the full, immediate punishment we otherwise deserve. In His case, where Jeremiah pleads for the forestalling of such punishment, Christ can announce that it has fallen on Him once and for all. His empathy is bottomless.
Christ's capacity to bestow His righteousness on his flock is beyond even the prophet's protective nature in Jeremiah 14:16-17. Because Christ truly felt forsaken in the darkest possible hues of Jeremiah 14:17 and still committed His Spirit into His Father's hands unto His Resurrection, His own can do so with perfect confidence. He, Creator to the last, was MAKING a pattern. We are merely, exuberantly, humbly, following after it.
What a basis, then, on which to imitate Him and Jeremiah and intercede for others! CS Lewis's Screwtape must, albeit with some relish, resort to the "wholesome and realistic element of terror, the unremitting anxiety which must act as the lash and spur" to discipling humans in the ways of the enemy, but our meaning and means as Christians are entirely different.
We follow after Jeremiah who knows frailty and fear. Therefore we intercede for those likewise burned because we know we are in the process of being delivered. We follow after Christ, acquainted with grief that He might intercede for those weighed down in the context of sure and coming victory.
As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,
Nor have I desired the woeful day;
You know what came out of my lips;
It was right there before You.
17
Do not be a terror to me;
You are my hope in the day of doom.
Garcia Burnham in her memoir of captivity In the Presence of My Enemy is equally candid about her faith and her depression during the ordeal. At one point when she broke into sobs, she saw parenthood differently. Too often, she had accused her son of using tears to manipulate or to escape responsibility. She resolved she would be more understanding.
Knowing his own times of tears, Jeremiah is also in such a place of emphasizing faith-filled empathy in Jeremiah 17:16-17. He has known what it is to be intimidated. Yet, he says, he has engaged in the shepherd's work to which God has called him. His words, he recalls, flowed from his intimate connection with the Lord rather than the expediency of what would endear him to men or distinguishes faith from the lack of faith around him.
Beautifully, he is able to dwell on the perfecting work God is continuing to do in him without expecting the same recipe and timing in the lives of those to whom he ministers. His heart is much like Burnham's in that he sees the wisdom and grace of not assuming motives, and, to redirect the phrasing of John John Ortberg, he isn't attempting to microwave discipleship.
The arrival of the day of judgment will mean Jeremiah has been right. The arrival of the day of judgment will mean the toppling of his persecutors. The arrival of the ULTIMATE day of judgment will mean Jeremiah will know his Lord as he also is known. Yet, the prophet of Jeremiah 14:16 season aspect of righteousness in that he has not wished to hasten that day of judgment before those of his countrymen God would change by grace are ready.
Why not? Why has Jeremiah cultivated a habit of abiding with the Lord in the day's humanly unpromising tasks of confrontation and proclamation instead of finding his hope in its bottom-line effectiveness? Because his own heart on display in Jeremiah 14:17 is always before him. Simply because he has been called into service to shepherd others doesn't mean that he has graduated from the fear of the Lord.
He knows his people's vulnerability and sense of intimidation rather than intimacy because even his experience still bifurcates on the borderline. Would he who still rebukes the anxiety and his own heart in God's Name see the anxiety of his countrymen judged immediately to the fullest extent?
Jeremiah's empathetic epiphany presages Christ. Christ reflects on the perfect faithfulness of His words which are rendered to reflect joyful obedience to His Father rather than tickle the ears or cultivate the favor of men. It is Christ Who would intercede between His flock in the full, immediate punishment we otherwise deserve. In His case, where Jeremiah pleads for the forestalling of such punishment, Christ can announce that it has fallen on Him once and for all. His empathy is bottomless.
Christ's capacity to bestow His righteousness on his flock is beyond even the prophet's protective nature in Jeremiah 14:16-17. Because Christ truly felt forsaken in the darkest possible hues of Jeremiah 14:17 and still committed His Spirit into His Father's hands unto His Resurrection, His own can do so with perfect confidence. He, Creator to the last, was MAKING a pattern. We are merely, exuberantly, humbly, following after it.
What a basis, then, on which to imitate Him and Jeremiah and intercede for others! CS Lewis's Screwtape must, albeit with some relish, resort to the "wholesome and realistic element of terror, the unremitting anxiety which must act as the lash and spur" to discipling humans in the ways of the enemy, but our meaning and means as Christians are entirely different.
We follow after Jeremiah who knows frailty and fear. Therefore we intercede for those likewise burned because we know we are in the process of being delivered. We follow after Christ, acquainted with grief that He might intercede for those weighed down in the context of sure and coming victory.
"Simply because he has been called into service to shepherd others doesn't mean that he has graduated from the fear of the Lord."
ReplyDeleteThis is an incredibly powerful statement that attacks our self-righteousness, which ranges from I-don't-do-that-sort-of-thing behavior when judging others, to a full expectation of a benefit from those to whom we minister. When we, like Jeremiah, cease to receive a benefit, which can be anything from positive affirmation to mere attendance in our activities, we can shut down - focusing on those negative aspects rather than the ones who are available to shepherd. The fear of the LORD would instruct us to commit ourselves to those in our sphere to whom we can influence and not judge the others before he has his rightful chance. James K.A Smith, in discussing Augustine's mother Monica remarks that she never ministered according to "the logic of return." Jeremiah knew this lack of return well in his ministry and persisted in his love for those to whom he ministered. This is a lesson I try to learn every day as I seek to "merely, exuberantly, humbly" follow Christ.