A watchman

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. – Ezekiel 3.17-19

Learning from the prophets can be hard sometimes. We are told that thing that were written in the Old Testament were written for our learning, and yet we need to be careful to remember that we can’t apply everything that God said to prophets or nations applies to us.

Even in those cases I think we are safe to see principles to learn from.

Here Ezekiel is given the task of issuing a warning to the nation of Israel about their ignoring God and refusing to turn from their sins. It was a solemn task. Ezekiel had to be faithful and if not the blood of the people would be on his hands.

I think this shows us how important our task is. God has given us the job of telling the world about the love of God and the free gift of salvation. It is a vital task. If we selfishly keep the gospel to ourselves we rob the world of the greatest gift possible. We deny them the message of eternal life. We miss the chance to offer them the blessing of eternity.

While I am not so sure about the ‘blood on your hands’ in this day if grace, it does show the importance of our responsibility to warn the world of the consequences of sin and of God’s great love in offering a solution. 

Hearing and speaking

Moreover He said to me: "Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD,' whether they hear, or whether they refuse." – Ezekiel 3.10-11

God knows the heart of men. He knows that we tend to get discouraged when it seems like what we are doing is a failure. God spent a lot of time making sure that Ezekiel had a proper perspective of what he was doing. It is perspective that we would all do well to grasp.

Here’s the plan. We listen to what God says with our ears, we apply it to our hearts, we tell it to others, and then we leave it up to them. They can accept it or reject it – but we have done our part.

Of course it is not that simple and that sounds kind of harsh. It doesn’t mean we do our bit and then ignore them. It does mean that we are faithful and then we leave the results up to God. We can’t hols ourselves to standards us success if we are listening to God and sharing Him with others.

So we keep spending time and listening to God. That we can do. We keep telling other about Him. We can do that. We keep loving people no matter how they respond. We can do that.

Then we have to leave the rest with God. 

Stubbornness and serving God

For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads.  – Ezekiel 3.5-8

I am sometimes asked how we have stuck it for so long here in Ireland. I have very kind people who say they appreciate our faithfulness in such a tough little area of Ireland. Our prayer letters have rarely been very exciting and some people wonder why or how we do it.

I kiddingly respond sometimes that I am too thick to take the hint. It is more a case of being hard-headed than spiritual.

From this I find out that being hard headed may not be such a bad thing. God tells Ezekiel that he gave him a ‘strong face’ to stand up against them. He says we have a strong forehead to face up to their foreheads.

That kind of looks like God gave Ezekiel the stubbornness to toe to toe with his opponents. It seems like his ability to stick it out and not back down was from God.

Praise God to bull headedness. The world is surely bull headed in their sin – we need to be even more bull headed about sharing the gospel with them. 

Whether they listen or not

You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. – Ezekiel 2.7

This is a tough challenge. God tells Ezekiel that he is to go and speak to the people and share his word. God also tells him that they are rebellious. And God says ‘you speak whether they listen or not.’

It is too easy to base our evangelism on who is going to listen. If we think folks aren’t going to listen it is easy to just forget about them.

We have been in Ireland a long time. One thing I have learned is that most people here choose not to listen. Our friends and associates and co-workers are wonderful people, but very few want to hear what we have to share.

So I can get discouraged and wonder if it is worth the bother to speak or should I just love them and be a good friend or neighbour. But ‘how will they hear without a preacher.’  Israel were a rebellious people. A world which rejects Christ is a rebellious world.

All their rebellion aside – nothing changes our responsibility to speak God’s words to those around us.

I can’t use ‘they just won’t listen’ as an excuse. 

The yoke of youth

It is good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and keep silent, Because God has laid it on him; Let him put his mouth in the dust— There may yet be hope.  – Lamentations 3.27-29

Willie Nelson has a song called ‘I Wish I Was Eighteen Again.’ Part of it goes like this:

Time turns the pages and life goes so fast
The years turn the black hair all grey
I talk to some young folks but they don't understand
The words this old man got to say
Oh I wish I was eighteen again...
Oh I wish I was eighteen again

I like the sound of the song. I kind of like Willis Nelson’s music. I am not yet old, I guess. Like the old man I will never turn the heads of young ladies again (of course I never did) and don’t feel like all I do is stand and pretend. But I don’t wish I was eighteen again.

First of all I was a real nerd at eighteen. I did all kinds of stupid stuff. I made some very unwise decisions. Those years of youth are tough. I regret a lot of what I did in those years. I am happy enough to leave those years behind and move on.

But those years do truly mould us and make us. All those tough days of mistakes and embarrassment and messing are part of who we are today. It is good to go through all the trials of youth – but I wouldn’t want to do it again. 

It is good to wait

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. – Lamentations 3.25-26

Jeremiah could hardly bear the loss of Jerusalem as he stood in the empty streets of the city that was once a shining light on a hill. He had been lamenting the state of the city and weeping over how long it would be until the city was restored.

But then we called to mind that they were protected by God’s mercy. That His compassion would not fail. That God’s love and His mercy were new every morning. He remembered the greatness of God’s faithfulness.

And then he called to mind that in times like this it was good to wait on the Lord.

I often wonder about that because I don’t like to wait. Why is waiting such a great thing. James gives us a hint when he says that trials produce patience and patience brings us to maturity. ‘Let patience do its work in you’ he writes, 'and you will grow to maturity.' 

I think the key here is that when we patiently wait we are putting our faith in God to sort things out. It means that we have done all that we can do and now we have to sit back and trust Him. It means that I don’t rush ahead ignoring God in my quest to get it done. It means I don’t gripe when I can’t do anything more. Instead I trust Him and grow though my waiting.  

God will deliver and His deliverance is best. 

The Lord is my portion

"The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I hope in Him!" – Lamentations 3.24

What is my lot in life? The lots fall out in all kinds of ways. The lot of some is to be rich and powerful and famous. The lot of others is to carry on one day at a time. The lot of some is to live paycheque to paycheque. Sometimes our lot is joy and sometimes it is hardships.

What all is just part of life. That’s the way life goes.

We however can live above all of that because the Lord is our portion no matter what else happens. I may not have much in this world. I may never have fame or fortune. My lot in this life may be to quietly labour away in my little corner of the world doing what little God allows me to do.

But.

But I still have the Lord as my lot in life and because He is I will hope in Him. Others may have all kinds of things, but I know that I have Christ and that gives me hope no matter what crosses my path or comes my way. I can only be content when I realise that the Lord has said ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ My eternity is secure in Him and having Him as my lot in life it will be worth it all when I finally see Him. 

Great it Your faithfulness

Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.  – Lamentations 3.22-23

Last week I spent a day at a Christian workers conference in Kilkenny. It was a much needed day of edification and encouragement and blessing. One of the reasons I enjoy it so much is the singing. One of the songs we sang last week was ‘Great is Thy Faithfulness’ by Thomas Chisholm. I could hardly do better than in capturing the essence than Chisholm did.

Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not

As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.

       

Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—

 “Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!’

Here is what Chisholm said about the song late in his life – “My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now.  Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.”

We have that assurance as well. No matter what our health issues, no matter what our economic woes, no matter what comes our way today we can dig down and rely on the fact that God is faithful today, His love will not fail today, and His mercies will be poured out again today. 

The Lord's mercies

Through the LORD's mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.  – Lamentations 3.22-23

Now we get to the things that Jeremiah called to mind to encourage himself in the Lord. Though he must have felt nearly consumed He still was able to dig deep enough to find what he needed. What he needed was to remind himself that it is only the mercies of God that keep him and us from being consumed. Mercy, of course, is another way of saying ‘kindness.’ That mercy, that kindness, of God is what keeps us going.

Where would we be without the mercy of God? Where would we be without the compassions that do not fail? When I look at this world that sometimes can seem as much a train wreck as Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s day I can’t imagine living here without the knowledge that God’s mercy is with me. At the end of the day I know that He loves me because Him compassions do not fail. Mercy and love are new every morning.

Because of this I can sing ‘every day with Jesus is sweeter than the day before.’ I don’t need to worry that He won’t be there tomorrow. I can wake up in full assurance tomorrow that God’s mercies will still be there and His compassion will not let me down. 

This I called to mind

And I said, "My strength and my hope Have perished from the LORD." Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers And sinks within me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.  – Jeremiah 3.18-21

Lamentations is called that for a reason. It might have been called 2 Jeremiah, but the title really reflects the book. Jeremiah wrote that whole long book of warning and imploring God’s people and begging them to return to Him, but they had ignored Him and now he writes ‘How lonely sits the city That was full of people! How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces Has become a slave! She weeps bitterly in the night, Her tears are on her cheeks; Among all her lovers She has none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; They have become her enemies.’

That is just the start of his lamenting. By the time he gets to chapter 3 he has lost hope.  ‘My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord. When I think about this I sink in despair.’

Something had to happen here. Jeremiah chose the right path and said ‘this I recall to mind.’

We will get into what he called to mind a little later. For now it is enough to look at the fact that Jeremiah chose to move along out of his despair and see another perspective.

There are times that we all need to do just that. There are times when we need to choose to recall that God is involved and get our eyes off of our circumstances. Jeremiah had to stop looking at what he could see and remember and focus on the things he could not see.

And that’s where we are today. When things get dark, and they will, we need to call back to mind the great Bible truths that we know and hold dear and turn our attention there. 

The First and the Last

"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God. – Jeremiah 44.6

Throughout the whole word of God we find regular references to the fact that God exists outside of time. That’s a wonderful concept. I like sci-fi and I enjoy a good time travel story. The idea of moving through time has drawn the attention of many a writer. Because time is the one thing we can’t control it is always fun to think about what would happen if we could.

But that is where God is. He is of old and from everlasting to everlasting. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the end. He is the First and the Last. He is the Author and the Finisher.

And most of all He is I AM.

The I AM is the One who always was, is, and will always be I AM. He can’t forget the past because He is I AM there. He is I AM now so He doesn’t miss anything. He is already in the future because He is I AM then as well.

Because He is always the First and the Last and everything in between nothing is going to catch Him off guard.

I am blessed by this reminder. At my age I have concerns (fears if I were being totally honest) about my future. We are not by any means ‘set’ for our later years financially. I must rest in the fact that God is already there. He knows all that is going to happen and what it happening in 2025 or 2030 or whenever and He has already promised me that He is going, or He is, already in 2030 with me.

I don’t know what the future holds – but I know the One who holds the future in His hands. 

When we pass through the waters

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. – Jeremiah 43.2

When you pass through the waters I will be there

When you pass through the rivers they will not drown you

When you walk through the fire you will not be burned

When you walk through the flames they will scorch you

These were promises to Israel for a specific time and place and purpose. So how do they apply to us? Do they mean anything to us?

I think there is still an application for us because they all speak of the protection and the provision of God in times of trouble. If we take these truths as speaking of eternity we find great hope. In physical terms sometimes we do get burnt. Sometimes the floods overwhelm us.

In this life.

But even when that happens we don’t have to be consumed. God walks with us through the fire and through the floods. We don’t have to face the hard times alone. Even in the depths of our worst suffering God is there with us.

And then, when our earthly journey is done, we will have our final deliverance. We have the ultimate victory in Christ. We are His and He will carry us through to the end.

You are mine

But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.  – Jeremiah 43.1

There is a lot packed in this few verses. Though written to Israel we know that each of these truths also applies to the church today.

God has also created us

He has also formed us

We also need not be afraid

He has also redeemed us

He has also called us by name

We are His

Every one of these is a special blessing and I could take a week to look at them. But I want to focus on the last one – we are His. We belong to the creator and sustainer of the universe. We belong to the eternal unchanging one. We belong to the almighty, all-knowing, ever present God. We belong to the god of ‘God is love.’

Of the course that gives us the ability to say in the midst of the troubles and say to Him ‘I am Yours!’ As the words to a modern Christian song put it ‘not because of who I am, but because of what You’ve done; not because of what I done, but because of who You are…I am Yours.’

Don’t let anything diminish that thought today. We are His. We are His precious possessions. I think He has us taken care of. 

Hypocrites

For you were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, 'Pray for us to the LORD our God, and according to all that the LORD your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.' And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, or anything which He has sent you by me.  – Jeremiah 42.20-21

‘Pray for me’ is something we hear all the time, especially now in the social media age where everyone has immediate access to all their friends all the time.

That is a good thing. Mary and I have greatly expanded our prayer list as we have been made aware of needs around the world that we never would have known about otherwise.

But that ‘pray for me’ is become almost a universal phrase that everyone says kind of like ‘something is wrong.’

I guess that’s okay for the world, but I found something here that makes me mull this whole thing over.

Jeremiah said the people were saying, ‘pray for us’ but at the same time they were disobeying God and weren’t even trying to follow Him.  ‘Pray for me,’ they say, ‘but I’m not going to do anything to change my ways.’

Think about that for a second. We say things like pray about my anger – but then we ignore ‘be angry but don’t sin.’ We say ‘pray about my lust’ but we ignore ‘set no wicked thing before my eyes.’ 

Now I now that we only have success in our battles with God’s help, but still, we can’t just sit back never changing and never working and expect to get it all fixed just by and do nothing. ‘Pray for us, and we will obey God.’ But then we don’t obey.

We need to get serious. Pray, ask God for help, seek His way – but then we have to do something about it. 

Whether it pleases me or not

So they said to Jeremiah, "Let the LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the LORD your God sends us by you. Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God." – Jeremiah 42.5-6

Whether it pleases us or not, we will obey the Lord, because it will go well when we obey the Lord.

That sounds like a simple statement, but it says a lot.

We will obey God even when it is not what we think we want.

That is a hard thing to do because none of us like what we don’t like, do we? It takes great faith to say ‘I will do what God says, full stop. I will do what God says even when I take no pleasure in it because I trust that what He wants done is best.’

It is sort of what we ask our children to do. They don’t always like it. They can get angry when we tell them. They can sit and stew and hold a grudge. They can clearly show their displeasure. Just like us and God.

But hopefully our kids learn to do what we ask because they learn to trust us. If we are parenting properly we don’t send our kids on especially onerous tasks just because we can. We try to teach unity and teamwork and everyone doing their part. And sometimes we do it because we love them and what is best in the long run.

If we really trust God we ought to be able to do the same. We ought to be able to say ‘yes Lord, I will’ even though we can’t see the wisdom or the good because He does see the wisdom and the good.

And isn’t that what faith is all about?  

That the Lord may show us the way

And said unto Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the LORD thy God, even for all this remnant; (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us:) That the LORD thy God may shew us the way wherein we may walk, and the thing that we may do. – Jeremiah 42.2-3

It is really, really hard to know what to do sometimes. Sometimes we get to the end of our rope and just don’t know what today. Sometimes we get to the point where we can’t even see a fork in the road and have to decide which path to take because sometimes we get to the end of the road and all there is there is a cliff.

We have all been there. Maybe you are there right now. Maybe there is a situation where you can’t see any possible human solution. Maybe there is no way out.

What do we do when they is no way to go?

‘Let is beseech the Lord…that [He] may show is the way…and the things we may do.’

God tells that He will show us the way. Proverbs 3.5-6 says that if we trust God with all our hearts, don’t depend on our own understanding, and always acknowledge Him that He will direct our paths.

We don’t have to be clueless. God will show us what we need to do. When we don’t know where to turn we can trust Him enough to direct us. He directs us through His word. He directs us by the Holy Spirit. He directs us through our circumstances. We need not despair because He will always be with us and He promises to be our guide. 

That they may return

Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. – Jeremiah 36.2-3

‘Write a book Jeremiah,’ God says, ‘and in that book write now my words so that My people will return to me and I will forgive them.’

God knows that His people are ‘probe to wander’ and the ‘leave the Lord we love.’ He knows that our flesh is always drawing us away from Him. Our natural inclination is to pursue what pleases us. That is why we have to be told to turn away from the world and the flesh and the devil.

But let’s say we have wandered. Then what do we do? 

We can be assured that our God wants us to come back. Write the words Jeremiah, so that people will turn back from their evil way and I will forgive their sin.

There is a clear story with the prodigal son and His dad. The son gets tired of his wasted life and decides to go home. I can’t imagine how he felt. Maybe he was afraid. Maybe he was still proud and arrogant. Maybe he was happy go lucky.

We will never know because before he ever go there his dad left the front step and ran out to welcome his son home.

That is the picture of what God says here. ‘Let them know Jeremiah that I want them to come home. I will welcome them back with open arms.’

What a blessed thought. If we wander God wants us back. If our family wanders God wants them back. When we come back God will come running to welcome us home.

Come home. 

Things you can't imagine

"Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name): 'Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.' – Jeremiah 33.2-3

While this verse is obviously a promise to Jeremiah, it also has something to teach about the power of a prayer answering God. God told Jeremiah and the people to ‘call unto Me and I will answer you and show you mighty things which you cannot know.’

While that promise is specific the idea still carries on. Jesus said ‘men ought always to pray and not to faint.’ Paul wrote ‘pray without ceasing.’ James said ‘you have not because you ask not.’ John wrote ‘if you prayer according to God will He hears you and if He hears he answers.’

Notice that God did not say ‘call on Me and I will answer you and give you whatever you ask for.’ He doesn’t say ‘call on Me and I do whatever you say.’ He says ‘call on Me and I will show you great and mighty things that you can’t imagine.’

God is not a genie in a lamp that we can call on to get our wished granted. When we prayer we are depending in Him to do ‘great and mighty things’ even if we don’t understand what those things are.

So we can call on God. My let’s not limit Him to what we can imagine as an answer to prayer. Let’s let Him show us the great and mighty answers that we can’t even imagine. 

Repent now everyone

They said, 'Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.' – Jeremiah 25.5-6

Repentance is one of those things we don’t like to talk about a lot. It is kind of hard for people to accept that there is a need for repentance. Everyone else needs it, but we don’t like to admit it because it says that we have something we have to repent from.

Of course the reality is that everyone needs it because ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ We know that ‘there is no one who is good enough, not a single one.’ We know that the wages of sin is death. We know that God says later ‘all men everywhere must repent.’

The wonderful truth though is that God does anything about our sin. He could have just cut us off and started over again. Instead, because God is love he provided a path to repentance. Despite our sin He still loved us enough to give His only Son to pay the penalty of sin, which is death. Then, He offers the free gift of everyone who will trust in His Son.

There is no hope apart from repentance and repentance is impossible without Christ. All men, everywhere, must repent. The message is as real today as it was when Jeremiah wrote them. 

A hammer and a fire

"Is not My word like a fire?" says the LORD, "And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? – Jeremiah 23.29

One of the greatest problems with sharing my faith, in my weak and feeble human mind, is that people are not going to listen. You try it over and over again, but nobody wants to hear and nobody puts any authority in the Bible. I sometimes think that I have to convince people that the Bible is true before I can share from it.

But I think that idea is missing the point. The Bible doesn’t need me to try and prove that it is worth hearing. It is alive and powerful and can work on hearts even of people who would seemingly have no interest in it. God’s word is a fire to burn away the dross of the mind and hammer to smash down the walls of opposition and doubt.

The power of God’s word does not rely on my powers to convince someone they can trust it. The Bible does its work because it is the Bible.

So what do we do? We just boldly but lovingly proclaim the word of God even if people say don’t believe it. We may not see any chance but God’s word will not return void. Who knows what the planted seed of the word of God might do?

Keep proclaiming. Keep teaching. Keep declaring. And let God’s hammer and His fire do their work!