Jeremiah 21:1 – Suddenly Submitted Speech
The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, Jeremiah 21:1, New King James Version
I just finished Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s The Crisis of the Old Order 1919-33. In it, two years from entering the tension-laden atmosphere of presidential politics himself and Pres. John F. Kennedy's side, Schlesinger traces the tension between president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt and Pres. Herbert Hoover as the outgoing chief. "Even after the election, "Schlesinger writes of Hoover, "the president still had the aroma of battle on him."
We might expect that to be Jeremiah's prevailing scent. This is a new chapter and a new scene, but the same Pashhur who put him in the stocks in the Temple court approaches. As Jeremiah is a man like we are, we can expect triggers of both intimidation and indignation. His endocrine system is surely preloaded with the same responses of the flesh that would occur to us if those who subjected us to mockery now came to ask for our advice.
Yet, reveals Jeremiah 21:1, this is not the PREVAILING impulse. The scent of battle is not what Jeremiah gives off. The Word of the Lord, the text says, is what came to him in that moment, stronger than the words he would have generated to vindicate himself in the sight of his enemy. This is God's man, remember, who detailed experience for us in Jeremiah 20 of trying to suppress God's Word within. It was more wearying, he said, then speaking it and being subject to human scorn. This time, if there is a struggle between Jeremiah's words and the Word of God, it's not worth recording.
Nor does the Holy Spirit give us a great work of Jeremiah's mind to select the holy Word over the human word. A battle between the human will and bitter words happens sometimes, as when Carson McCullers records in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, "The old bitterness came up in him and he did not have time to cogitate to push it down."
The Lord is not opposed to preparation and discipline for spiritual battles. In fact, He uses Paul to develop such discipline in the two epistles to Timothy, God, the great I AM, is also able to act in the moment, to show the supremacy of His Word in the midst of wounds, and triggers, and history.
His Word is supreme, and Jeremiah knows it. His Word, which overrides a bitter desire for self-justification, likewise suppresses any desire to impress. His Word overcomes any pressure on Jeremiah to tack his sails and adjust his message because this time Pashhur comes as an emissary of the king and accompanied by the priest.
Like the angel Gabriel when initially met with Zechariah's skepticism, Jeremiah knows this the Word on his heart comes from the highest court, that it need not bow before human indifference, or adjust for human favor.
By His Word, God is the conqueror of Jeremiah within before the prophet ever delivers his Jeremiah 21 message. As Spurgeon will confess later in Morning and Evening, so might have the surrendered prophet here. "My inward experience has often been a wilderness; but Thou has owned me as Thy beloved, and poured streams of love and grace into me to gladden me, and make me fruitful." Jeremiah's words, in the unerring, unflinching verdict of the Holy Spirit, are God's Words, even when the prophet faced so much situational pressure to vindicate himself.
It is that Word which remains, Jesus says, when Heaven and Earth pass away. It is our sense of being in Christ's care, even when it seems others have exerted control over our past or our present, that can allow us to strike His note in a tense moment. Where we would hold back because of the scars of past experience, Matthew West gives voice to the royal, regenerative invitation and command to speak from the new man rather than the old. "In My arms, your shame is moved by mercy."
Only in this sense of the completed work of justification can we be confident in the words we deliver. If they are tough words, we will be confident that they are GOD'S tough words rather than an attempt to wound because we have been wounded.
If they are tender words, we can be confident that they are GOD'S tender words rather than an attempt to curry favor by manipulation. Whether we have time to prepare for a fraught encounter and must inventory our hearts for the scope of that healing, or whether we choose in an unrehearsed instant between our words and God's words, He can prevail.
I just finished Arthur Schlesinger Jr.'s The Crisis of the Old Order 1919-33. In it, two years from entering the tension-laden atmosphere of presidential politics himself and Pres. John F. Kennedy's side, Schlesinger traces the tension between president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt and Pres. Herbert Hoover as the outgoing chief. "Even after the election, "Schlesinger writes of Hoover, "the president still had the aroma of battle on him."
We might expect that to be Jeremiah's prevailing scent. This is a new chapter and a new scene, but the same Pashhur who put him in the stocks in the Temple court approaches. As Jeremiah is a man like we are, we can expect triggers of both intimidation and indignation. His endocrine system is surely preloaded with the same responses of the flesh that would occur to us if those who subjected us to mockery now came to ask for our advice.
Yet, reveals Jeremiah 21:1, this is not the PREVAILING impulse. The scent of battle is not what Jeremiah gives off. The Word of the Lord, the text says, is what came to him in that moment, stronger than the words he would have generated to vindicate himself in the sight of his enemy. This is God's man, remember, who detailed experience for us in Jeremiah 20 of trying to suppress God's Word within. It was more wearying, he said, then speaking it and being subject to human scorn. This time, if there is a struggle between Jeremiah's words and the Word of God, it's not worth recording.
Nor does the Holy Spirit give us a great work of Jeremiah's mind to select the holy Word over the human word. A battle between the human will and bitter words happens sometimes, as when Carson McCullers records in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, "The old bitterness came up in him and he did not have time to cogitate to push it down."
The Lord is not opposed to preparation and discipline for spiritual battles. In fact, He uses Paul to develop such discipline in the two epistles to Timothy, God, the great I AM, is also able to act in the moment, to show the supremacy of His Word in the midst of wounds, and triggers, and history.
His Word is supreme, and Jeremiah knows it. His Word, which overrides a bitter desire for self-justification, likewise suppresses any desire to impress. His Word overcomes any pressure on Jeremiah to tack his sails and adjust his message because this time Pashhur comes as an emissary of the king and accompanied by the priest.
Like the angel Gabriel when initially met with Zechariah's skepticism, Jeremiah knows this the Word on his heart comes from the highest court, that it need not bow before human indifference, or adjust for human favor.
By His Word, God is the conqueror of Jeremiah within before the prophet ever delivers his Jeremiah 21 message. As Spurgeon will confess later in Morning and Evening, so might have the surrendered prophet here. "My inward experience has often been a wilderness; but Thou has owned me as Thy beloved, and poured streams of love and grace into me to gladden me, and make me fruitful." Jeremiah's words, in the unerring, unflinching verdict of the Holy Spirit, are God's Words, even when the prophet faced so much situational pressure to vindicate himself.
It is that Word which remains, Jesus says, when Heaven and Earth pass away. It is our sense of being in Christ's care, even when it seems others have exerted control over our past or our present, that can allow us to strike His note in a tense moment. Where we would hold back because of the scars of past experience, Matthew West gives voice to the royal, regenerative invitation and command to speak from the new man rather than the old. "In My arms, your shame is moved by mercy."
Only in this sense of the completed work of justification can we be confident in the words we deliver. If they are tough words, we will be confident that they are GOD'S tough words rather than an attempt to wound because we have been wounded.
If they are tender words, we can be confident that they are GOD'S tender words rather than an attempt to curry favor by manipulation. Whether we have time to prepare for a fraught encounter and must inventory our hearts for the scope of that healing, or whether we choose in an unrehearsed instant between our words and God's words, He can prevail.
Your discussion here strikes a nice balance as to how God's ability to influence our heart (i.e. words) can flow through either preparation or spontaneity. The old idea, that the Spirit's promptings of speech in moments of importance denounces preparation (Matt. 10:19), clashes with the other extreme, that no speech or counsel can be given in any moment without thorough prayer and preparation - to the detriment of those whose pain in the moment is too real. A friend just exclaimed to me yesterday how amazed she was to learn that the Spirit teaches us in every single moment, in the ordinary events of our day even when we don't 'feel' like we are getting anything. The Spirit teaches us through ritual, reading, prayer, and every interaction. He is preparing us whether we know it or not, shaping our hearts for the moments which He knows are imminent.
ReplyDeleteThis truth can give us great confidence, as you say. God's grace has found its home in our hearts so that everything should be in subjection to him, including both our carefully prepared and spontaneous words.
Definitely. How have you seen Him overcome the flesh-oriented nature of your reactions to give you different words?
DeleteMy experience may be contrary to most but when I was younger I despised any form of confrontation. I could feel my muscles seize and vocal cords weaken in most moments when situations would escalate. Because of this tendency my natural response would be silence or even inaction in moments when truth needed to be spoken. My flesh desired to protect itself and its own image rather than speaking out for God's truth. So, much like Jeremiah my experience has been in God's Spirit impressing the importance of his truth and justice in a moment where words need to be spoken. Most people who know me now never knew the other version of me but God has radically reshaped my words and speech in this way.
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