Am I Practicing Jeremiah's Longsuffering?
I was reading through Vernon McGee's commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations. I always feel the guilt of not sharing the Gospel out of fear of rejection, falling into sinful compromise more often than not all because I'm trying to save my skin. Jeremiah was a man of sorrows who probably made a few converts who willfully followed his advice. The rest always ignored his warnings and preferred to listen to the comforting lies of the false prophets. He was always rejected because he was definitely what he was - a man who spoke the unwanted bad news!
Jeremiah was the son of Hilkiah the priest. Leviticus 22 ordered the Levites to have families. Jeremiah never had the privilege to continue his Levitical line. God ordered him to stay celibate for a good reason - disaster was coming up. It would not be practical for Jeremiah to take a wife in her virginity and have children. He was going to be a prophet to be put to more danger than usual. He was going to be a priest who would be an outcast. Jeremiah 5:31 sadly depicts the problems of priests bearing rule by their means, the prophets prophesying sweet deceits, and the people just love to have it so.
The story of Jeremiah is anything but a success, worldly-wise. Humanly speaking, Jeremiah was a failure. Many times those who have godly success are failures worldly-wise. I could consider the sad life of the Christian. I remembered how getting saved didn't mean my life was easy. Troubles will always begin. How much more if you've got the duty to preach, right? He was always rejected and insulted yet he never fought back. It just brings me to shame that I easily get angry over the littlest of insults while God's big men chose not to let it irritate them. Instead, he became a foreshadow of Jesus' example of not fighting back at all.
Many times, I wish Jeremiah would have just fought back. He could have told the people, "I told you so! I told you so!" but he didn't. He always lovingly gave the message to the people to do what God told them to do. He was still praying for his people. He took the risk to warn the Jews in Egypt that their idol worship brought them to ruin. Then I'm thinking why am I getting into a fight with Marian fanatics rather than gently warning them about their idolatry? Then I thought if Jeremiah didn't fight back and he was but human - why should I? Why should I even fight back when revenge isn't mine to begin with?
See also:
- Am I Allowing Petty Insults From Unbelievers to Get the Best of Me?
- Am I Getting Really Vindictive Over Very Petty Issues?
- Am I Keeping My Mouth Closed When the Wicked is Before Me?
- Am I Showing Hatred or Sympathy For My False Accusers?
- Am I Showing Sympathy for People Trapped in the Pleasantry of Satan's Lies?
- How Am I Responding to Petty Insults and Minor False Accusations?
- How Often Am I Tempted to Physically Harm Someone Over Mere Insults?
- How Often Am I Using Somebody's Mean Attitude to Justify My Acts of Aggression?
- How Often Have I Failed to Forgive Someone Because I Failed to Ask God for the Strength to Forgive?
- How Often Have I Lost My Cool While Promoting Biblical Truth?
- I Find It Difficult to Love My Enemies Without God's Grace
- I Still Feel Jeremiah's Frustration Towards People
- I'm Amazed at God's Longsuffering
- I'm Struck by This Testimony of Calling Me to Love My Enemies
- Month End Reflection: Am I Praying For My Enemies and For the Wicked?
- My Constant Struggle to Love My Enemies and to Pray For Them That Persecute Me
- This Picture Tells Me How I Should Respond to My False Accusers...