Jeremiah 22:11-13 – A Shadowy Sense of Sovereignty
11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went from this place: “He shall not return here anymore, 12 but he shall die in the place where they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more. Jeremiah 22:11-13, New King James Version
"As Luther would say," reflects Mike Cosper in The Stories We Tell we are sinners AND saints all at once. We are image bearers and can’t help but cast off reflections of God‘s glory, as dim and pale as they may be."
Jeremiah 22:11-13 presents an opportunity to come to terms with that. Josiah foreshadowed Christ in his zeal for the Lord's house and in his reverence for God's Word as the Temple excavations he insisted on actually rediscovered the book of Deuteronomy Jesus uses as His weapon of spiritual warfare in His great temptation in the desert. He certainly, in his turn, faithfully cast off a reflection of Christ's glory.
Yet faith does not follow royal or fatherly fiat. Josiah was raised with a phalanx of spiritual mentors and protectors, yet he cannot buy his might or intent past fervency for the things of God on to the next generation. But for, as God promised David on Solomon's behalf, God being a Father to the next generation after human efforts have butted against their limitation, His covenant would always be one generation from extinction.
"We must," admits GK Chesterton in his biography George Bernard Shaw, "always be casting back to concrete foundations with which we began." Unless we are anchored in Christ's faithfulness directly, we will not stand. No legacy handed to us by the best of parents or loftiest forbearers before them, no ancestral zeal for His Word, no familial vaunted reputation in His house will stand in the day of trouble if He is not Himself our foundation. If not, the titles we pass on are feckless, no more of value than Shallum's ironic crown would be in exile.
Thwarted, then, in our earnest desire to set up those we influence in formulaic fashion in the faith, we might careen to self-indulgence since we cannot pass on reverence intact. We dare not be so profligate. We do not know the measure of our day's impact, Christian, but we do know Christ bought it. "Each mentor's legacy will look different," warns Edward Smither in Augustine as Mentor, "but it is difficult if not wrong to judge or rate a person's legacy. A mentor's legacy," Smither reassures, "may lie dormant for a while, only to resurface in a later generation."
We persevere, then, however faintly the legacy we wish to leave comparisons to the One we serve. He said His Word would remain forever, so if our words and our actions toward the next generation do not fear far from that, His faithfulness is in their cultivation and protection.
"As Luther would say," reflects Mike Cosper in The Stories We Tell we are sinners AND saints all at once. We are image bearers and can’t help but cast off reflections of God‘s glory, as dim and pale as they may be."
Jeremiah 22:11-13 presents an opportunity to come to terms with that. Josiah foreshadowed Christ in his zeal for the Lord's house and in his reverence for God's Word as the Temple excavations he insisted on actually rediscovered the book of Deuteronomy Jesus uses as His weapon of spiritual warfare in His great temptation in the desert. He certainly, in his turn, faithfully cast off a reflection of Christ's glory.
Yet faith does not follow royal or fatherly fiat. Josiah was raised with a phalanx of spiritual mentors and protectors, yet he cannot buy his might or intent past fervency for the things of God on to the next generation. But for, as God promised David on Solomon's behalf, God being a Father to the next generation after human efforts have butted against their limitation, His covenant would always be one generation from extinction.
"We must," admits GK Chesterton in his biography George Bernard Shaw, "always be casting back to concrete foundations with which we began." Unless we are anchored in Christ's faithfulness directly, we will not stand. No legacy handed to us by the best of parents or loftiest forbearers before them, no ancestral zeal for His Word, no familial vaunted reputation in His house will stand in the day of trouble if He is not Himself our foundation. If not, the titles we pass on are feckless, no more of value than Shallum's ironic crown would be in exile.
Thwarted, then, in our earnest desire to set up those we influence in formulaic fashion in the faith, we might careen to self-indulgence since we cannot pass on reverence intact. We dare not be so profligate. We do not know the measure of our day's impact, Christian, but we do know Christ bought it. "Each mentor's legacy will look different," warns Edward Smither in Augustine as Mentor, "but it is difficult if not wrong to judge or rate a person's legacy. A mentor's legacy," Smither reassures, "may lie dormant for a while, only to resurface in a later generation."
We persevere, then, however faintly the legacy we wish to leave comparisons to the One we serve. He said His Word would remain forever, so if our words and our actions toward the next generation do not fear far from that, His faithfulness is in their cultivation and protection.
Comments
Post a Comment