It is matter of comfort that we have a God, to whose knowledge of all things we may appeal. Jeremiah pleads with God for mercy and relief against his enemies, persecutors, and slanderers. It will be a comfort to God's ministers, when men despise them, if they have the testimony of their own consciences. But he complains, that he found little pleasure in his work. Some good people lose much of the pleasantness of religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of their natural temper, which they indulge. The Lord called the prophet to cease from his distrust, and to return to his work. If he attended thereto, he might be assured the Lord would deliver him from his enemies. Those who are with God, and faithful to him, he will deliver from trouble or carry through it. Many things appear frightful, which do not at all hurt a real believer in Christ
I found this commentary on the latter portion of the chapter this morning. It means just slightly more to me than reading the actual chapter. I'm finding these to be like groundhogs day.....and looking at what we have in front of us....we have a long ways to slog.
I hope you had some sort of epiphany with this reading
19 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
ReplyDelete“If you repent, I will restore you
that you may serve me;
if you utter worthy, not worthless, words,
you will be my spokesman.
Let this people turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
no epiphany but I continue to notice Jerimiah is in a conversation. God speaks, he responds then God speaks again. He has a very clear dialogue. He also seems to have a confidence that in fact he has tried to live according to God's direction and wants to understand God better and why he doesn't seem to be getting away from his pain. God gives him some directions that if he repents God is going to do great things through him but also warns him not to get caught up in any hoopla that might draw him back into the way of the people that will begin looking to him.
no great insights just some observations...I'm almost up with you.