Jeremiah 26:1-24

Responses are not our responsibility.  God has called us to proclaim His Word to all the nations of the world.  Our responsibility is to faithfully perform that task to the very best of our ability.  In some instances the preaching of God’s Word is met with repentance and faith; at other times indifference, scoffing and persecution.  Too often we become discouraged by the responses to our preaching.  We must be careful not to become weary in the face of undesired results.  Jeremiah was called to proclaim God’s Word to a rebellious people and they responded by threatening his life.  Jeremiah was ready to die but would not stop preaching.  We must demonstrate this same disposition to proclaim God’s Word at any cost and simply trust the Lord with whatever response might come our way.

JEREMIAH PROCLAIMS GOD’S WORD: God called Jeremiah to go to the house of the Lord and warn the people of Judah of God’s impending judgment.  God’s instructions were very clear.  He wanted Jeremiah to proclaim the entire Word of God.  Jeremiah did not have the authority to make up the message he would proclaim.  His message came from God and his job was to simply repeat to the people what God had said to him.  God’s message was one of warning but also one of hope.  He warned the people that they would suffer greatly if they did not repent but He gave them hope of forgiveness if they would turn from their wicked ways.  Jeremiah was faithful to teach all God told him and did not concern himself with how his hearers would respond.  We must follow this example of faithfulness to God’s Word.

THE LEADERS PERSECUTE JEREMIAH: The response to Jeremiah’s teaching was not positive.  He had hoped the people would hear the Word and respond in repentance but that was not the case. Instead of heeding the message they decided to hurt the messenger.  The leaders of Judah claimed Jeremiah was worthy of death for having preached against the house of God and the people of Judah.  They didn’t like what they were hearing and were not ready to turn from their sin so they decided they would try to shut the messenger up.  This type of response to God’s Word should never take us by surprise.  Men are very easily convinced of their own righteousness because everyone does what is right in his own eyes.  It is easy for us to rationalize our sin, make excuses for our disobedience and do all we can to avoid the warnings of the Word of God.  If we as believers struggle to obey God’s Word we can expect no less from those who have not believed.

GOD GIVES PROTECTION TO JEREMIAH: Just when it looked like Jeremiah’s ministry was about to come to an end through his own death; God stepped in to protect him from this threat.  The Lord raised up a man named Ahikam who stepped forward to warn the people of the consequences of the actions they were about to take by killing Jeremiah.  He reviewed the history of the nation and how other prophets had warned the people and been spared because they were willing to repent.  He also cited examples of times where the people were rebellious towards God’s Word and paid the price for persecuting God’s messengers.  This is certainly an unexpected response but obviously orchestrated by God to protect His servant.  One thing of which we can be assured is that when we go to proclaim God’s Word, He is able to protect us so we can go forth in boldness and leave the responses in the Lord’s hands.