I. INTRODUCTION
Jeremiah was called into the office of prophet when he
perceived himself too young for the task assigned. The call from God signified
to him a definite cost he had to pay for his prophetic office of being a
servant of God and the mouthpiece of God pronouncing God’s judgment and hope unto
the lives of the rebellious generation of Israelites.
As the mouthpiece of God, Jeremiah’s personal life
became an embodied word of God. He was required to say the Word and to live out
the Word he proclaimed. He would be the sayings and the doings of God’s Word. [1]God
had set him apart since he was in the mother’s womb to be a prophet over the
nations. It was common for the OT prophets not just to be the mouth of God, but
the embodiment of God’s words given to them. His life was totally to be in the
plan and in the hand of the Lord. This was the very personal cost Jeremiah had
to pay, a self-denial lifestyle in order to live as God had instructed, demonstrated
through his sayings and doings in obedience.
Hence, Jeremiah had no personal choice for how to live
his life and how to relate with others and what to do with his future. His
mission was to speak the Word with the visions and words he received. The
messages of judgment and hope for the future were the two consistent themes of
message he was used by God to proclaim to the Israelites. (Jer 1:11-16)
Jeremiah thus had forgone many precious moments, privileges
and things that others considered as rights to pursue and possess.
II. THE PERSONAL COSTS OF JEREMIAH
1. The
personal cost of Self-Denial – Forgoing of the office. He was Raised and Educated as a Future Priest-to-be
(Jer 1:1)
He was born
in a priesthood family in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, leading
a life that could identify himself with the priesthood families, relatives and
friends. The call of God had turned his life upside down and he was forced to
leave his hometown for Jerusalem not for a profession he had been familiar
with, but a different and foreign stand which seemed obviously was to be against
his countrymen. He was in a position and office others were not pleased and agreed
with and he had to learn to submit himself wholly under the authority and
guidance of the Almighty God.
2. The
personal cost of Self-Denial – An Alienation from the Normal Practices found in
his Contemporary Social Living
(a) Alienation
from Intimacy found within the Marital Relationship(Jer 16:1-2)
Jeremiah was told by the Lord to keep his singlehood
and not to marry. He was told that the land of Judah would be in complete
destruction when the judgment came upon the Israelites. Children as well as men
and women would be killed and exiled. By being celibate Jeremiah saved himself from
the troubles of sorrows and mourning to come upon
Judah’s parents. Jeremiah’s celibacy foretold a
definite disaster to come and a sure judgment impending. The marriages of OT
prophets (e.g. Hosea found in Hos 1-3 and Ezekiel found in Eze 24:15-27) had
been used as prophetic messages for their contemporary issues, especially in
the relationship of God with His people, as found in the book of Jeremiah.[2] To be forbidden marriage in the prophet’s
life signified the spiritual condition of the Israelites who were so rebellious
and far away from God that they themselves were indeed celibate and alienated
from their marital relationship with the Bridegroom. The people of Judah were
covenanted people with the Lord where God demanded their faithfulness and
loyalty towards their spiritual Husband. Judah had failed God (Jer 3:1:4-2) and
they were spiritually a people of celibacy, unrelated and insensitive towards the
One who called them to be His bride. Marriage was a common social practice in
Israel and men tended to enter into marriage in their early age of adulthood. [3]Children
were considered as the blessings from the Lord and the crowns of their parents
as they were precious possession in a family.
A Man without a wife was considered incomplete and a family
without children was considered a curse. It was an uncommon act for Jeremiah to
forgo the right to get married and have sons and daughters of his own. The people
of God were supposed to have an intimacy covenanted marital relationship with
the Lord but they forsook the Lord to go after all kinds of idols and hollow worship(Jer
10:1-10, Jer 17:1-2). Thus their future would be disease, famine and sword. The
childless condition would be the future of Judah and Jerusalem who committed
the sin of adultery and idolatry.
Jeremiah might have gone through tough time of being
single in the community of Israelites. He had to deny of his personal needs of
being accepted, loved, cared for and of a intimate companionship. God had
filled in the gap of all these struggles.
(b) Alienated from
Friendship and Family Relationship (Jer 16:5-7 & 16:8-9)
Jeremiah was told not to be involved in the social
practices of the day. It was common for feasts to be held for wedding celebration
and for the people to mourn over the dead during the funerals. [4]Yet
Jeremiah was told specifically by God not to go to the house of mourning and
not to join the house of feasting. Jeremiah was to be totally separated from
the normal friendship activities and involvements in withdrawing himself from
the social support system. God prohibited him because in the very near future
Jeremiah would witness how the entire land of Judah would be full of cries and
mourning because of the great disasters the enemy had brought forth. Judah
would be place of desolate and Jerusalem would be a city of mourning. The cries
would be so loud and penetrating that everyone would be mourning for their own
dead and not for others. The voice of feasting would be heard no more as the city
would be filled with people without food, even mothers cooked their children to
feed their own stomach.
Other than Baruch the scribe whom the Lord had blessed
Jeremiah with as ministry partner, Jeremiah had no other close friends to
confide in or family members to relate to. The whole household of priest in Anathoth
were against him because of his calling to be God’s prophet to spoke against
their detestable acts and rotten behaviors. They abused him with words and even
pursued after his life (Jer 15:1010, 15-18, Jer 18:18-20). His family had
deserted him and he lived as if he was an orphan and unwanted.
3. The
personal cost of Self-Denial – Emotional Constraint upon the Prophet
Jeremiah was asked not to mourn for the dead(Jer
16:5-7) and not to feast with those who married (Jer 16:8-9). The Lord even
prohibited him to pray for the people of Israelites for His rage was not to be
withheld. (Jer 7:16, 11:14) Jeremiah was not to lament over the tragedy of
Judah.
The
prophet was restricted to express any personal feeling and heartfelt pains,
sorrows, anguish towards the future happenings..Emotion and feeling are the
very nature of our being, and without having an opportunity to let go of his
emotional pains and sufferings would be such a torture to the prophet. Though
Jeremiah refused to be used by God at the beginning, yet he could identify with
the anguish and pains the land and the people would suffer through.
4. The
personal cost of Self-Denial – Unpopular and Rejected Prophet (Jer 11:18-23)
Jeremiah had not been popular and welcomed in the
midst of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Though some of the officials of the
King did show their reverence and fears when the judgment was pronounced, yet
majority of those who were in authority (e.g. King Jehoiakim, Zedekiah and
their officials) did not favour his critical message. He was thrown to prison
and cistern and he was almost killed by the priests and the people. He
symbolized prophets over generations who were lonely yet persistent in
proclaiming the faith and the truth.
Being unpopular and rejected painted the portray of
Jeremiah as a prophet to uproot, pull down, destroy and overthrow, as well as to build and to plant, so that old
things would past away and new things be ushered for His purpose.
5. The
personal cost of Self-Denial – Spoke Only Things of God(Jer 15:10—21)
God did allow Jeremiah to talk rubbish when he was frustrated
over his miserable situation. Yet God
tended to be direct the prophet to his very call as the mouthpiece of God.
Jeremiah was told by the Lord to separate the honorable from the lowly. By
then, Jeremiah would be able to continue to be used by God to speak to the
nations. It called for him a life that was disciplined and focused on the
things of God and the words of God, and he had to allow his words only to be the
words of God, without his personal opinions
and understandings.
Jeremiah had paid the cost of self-denial as he was
being shaped into the faithful and fearless servant of God. His willingness to
pay the price kept him in line with God’s call in his life and faithfully
accomplishing whatever words that had been entrusted to him.
III. CONCLUSION
Jeremiah used to be grumbling, but he had grown into
maturity in his call and he could identify with God’s heart and passion for His
people eventually, that led him to a stage where he would chose what were
considered best to the people of God without his personal agenda or needs being
cared for. The aging prophet speaks to us a process of dying of self of a
minister who chose to live and speak for God and the fruits bore through his
personal self-denial.
[1] Derek Kidner, The Message of Jeremiah: Against Wind & Tide, (Leicester:Campus Evangelical Fellowship, 2005),85.
[2]
Terence
E. Fretheim, Smyth & Helwys Bible Commentary: Jeremiah(Macon: Smyth &
Helwys Publishing, Inc. 2002), 248.
magnificent.
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