Today we look at the passionate call that was extended to Jeremiah. Tomorrow we'll look at his passionate response...
You might argue that this passage does not seem so passionate. If you read it in isolation it doesn't seem too intense, but it is just another brick in a big wall of texts that portray God as very reluctant to bring wrath and very eager to forgive a repentant Israel.
The whole of Jeremiah's call is a desperate outreach to a people that many would consider "long gone" and "dead on arrival" and yet Jeremiah is sent to desperately attempt to resuscitate the faith of the people of God.
This time Jeremiah is sent to the courtyard of the temple. This is the centerpoint of the nation's religious and political life. Jeremiah was doing the equivalent of the country bumpkin preacher who suddenly demands to be on prime time TV with all the notoriety that could earn him.
Not only is Jeremiah called to rush in where angels fear to tread, but he is sent with an uncomfortable message - a call to repentance. It's a call that could endanger the messenger's life, but there is a fervent longing and hope: that Israel would _turn_ (the Hebrew word is "shoev" and is repeated with metronomic regularity through Jeremiah)
Here is a picture of powerful and relentless love - a God who would send Jeremiah His servant all the way to the temple courts and who would send His one and only Son into the world and to the cross.
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Theo Groeneveld theo@gracepresby.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
