Jeremiah 23:23-24 – A Religious Rigidity
From Jeremiah 23…
23
“Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord,
“And not a God afar off?
24
Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the Lord;
“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.
“There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life," cautions Thomas Merton, appropriately in Thoughts in the Solitude, "than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relation with realities outside and above us.”
This is also the warning of Jeremiah 23:23-24, ironically delivered to the spiritual shepherds of the people who should be most aware of God's intimate Presence in their work. It is, alas, often not so. God says he does not warn His servants, in the genuine or ironic sense, needlessly. So it is, then, that He marks for destruction a tendency in the human heart immersed in His work and His Word to grow cold to His actual involvement. An announcement of, "Hello, I'm here," is less an enduring invitation in this case than a reclaiming of His territory and of those who would robotically maneuver across it in His Name.
This insensitivity over time on the part of the very ones who would represent Him to the larger population is much to Satan's advantage. Compares Spurgeon in Morning and Evening, "It is ever the Holy Spirit's work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan's work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ."
Again in Morning and Evening, Spurgeon eavesdrops on the self-talk of a prideful spirit that has lost reverence for God's Presence in our ministry. He writes, "When your graces have engrossed your attention instead of your Lord, when you have said,'My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved', and have forgotten where your strength dwells – has it not been then that your fruit has ceased?"
Yet, as the Word says, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. We, ministers of varying varieties, often run a course of stultifying predictability and do little requiring faith. Affirmations are built in, imagined or genuinely offered from those who don't have the time or the knowledge we do. We have lost any sense that we operate by the Lord's prerogative and power, and that the second He withdraws His breath, we would deflate.
Jeremiah 23:23-24, then, is a chance to recall our calling. It is a chance to renew our minds and motions with the purpose and the Person for which we were set apart. Where routines are familiar, He is there and imbues them with His Presence. Where the day may require us to step outside of the revered duties all the more exalted in the minds of men because they are unseen, God goes in them and goads in them that we walk by faith, that we prove Him rather than our mastery.
23
“Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord,
“And not a God afar off?
24
Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?” says the Lord;
“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.
“There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life," cautions Thomas Merton, appropriately in Thoughts in the Solitude, "than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relation with realities outside and above us.”
This is also the warning of Jeremiah 23:23-24, ironically delivered to the spiritual shepherds of the people who should be most aware of God's intimate Presence in their work. It is, alas, often not so. God says he does not warn His servants, in the genuine or ironic sense, needlessly. So it is, then, that He marks for destruction a tendency in the human heart immersed in His work and His Word to grow cold to His actual involvement. An announcement of, "Hello, I'm here," is less an enduring invitation in this case than a reclaiming of His territory and of those who would robotically maneuver across it in His Name.
This insensitivity over time on the part of the very ones who would represent Him to the larger population is much to Satan's advantage. Compares Spurgeon in Morning and Evening, "It is ever the Holy Spirit's work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan's work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ."
Again in Morning and Evening, Spurgeon eavesdrops on the self-talk of a prideful spirit that has lost reverence for God's Presence in our ministry. He writes, "When your graces have engrossed your attention instead of your Lord, when you have said,'My mountain standeth firm, I shall never be moved', and have forgotten where your strength dwells – has it not been then that your fruit has ceased?"
Yet, as the Word says, if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. We, ministers of varying varieties, often run a course of stultifying predictability and do little requiring faith. Affirmations are built in, imagined or genuinely offered from those who don't have the time or the knowledge we do. We have lost any sense that we operate by the Lord's prerogative and power, and that the second He withdraws His breath, we would deflate.
Jeremiah 23:23-24, then, is a chance to recall our calling. It is a chance to renew our minds and motions with the purpose and the Person for which we were set apart. Where routines are familiar, He is there and imbues them with His Presence. Where the day may require us to step outside of the revered duties all the more exalted in the minds of men because they are unseen, God goes in them and goads in them that we walk by faith, that we prove Him rather than our mastery.
Comments
Post a Comment