Jeremiah's Call and Message

Jeremiah 1:1-3:5
What would happen if we were Jeremiah; a young person, called to speak for God?

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

This stops me in my thoughts, and makes me wonder at the intimate love and knowledge of God. How loved we are, that before we were even formed in the womb the Lord loved us. I sit with this for a while.

Do not say to God, I am only...I am not...I can't...The Lord can. The Lord is...the Lord will...the Lord does. These things we have seen, these things we should remember. No wonder God gets angry, how angry do we get when we are ignored or forgotten, how hurt are we when our love is rejected or abused?

Thus says the Lord, "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness...

We are this people.

Thus says the Lord:  "What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?

We are this people. Why?

"As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed:
they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets,
who say to a tree, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You gave me birth.'

For they have turned their back to me, and not their face.
But in the time of their trouble they say, 'Arise and save us!'

Why do we do this?

But where are your gods that you made for yourself?
Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble;
for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah.

Do we make things to be for ourselves little gods? Do we make little people gods instead of seeking the knowledge of God?

Have you not just now called to me, 'My father, you are the friend of my youth—will he be angry forever, will he be indignant to the end?'
Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could."

*sigh*
See you tomorrow.
-maggie