Jeremiah 15: 10- 14: The cost of leadership.(please click here for todays notes)

‘’The best of men are men at best.’’ Men who love God and love people, and who give their lives to serve, have soft hearts and they can be easily wounded. So it was with Jeremiah. See in these words:

  • Jeremiah’s lament (10): ‘’Unlucky mother—that you had me as a son, given the unhappy job of indicting the whole country! I’ve never hurt or harmed a soul,and yet everyone is out to get me. But, God knows, I’ve done everything I could to help them, prayed for them and against their enemies. I’ve always been on their side, trying to stave off disaster. God knows how I’ve tried!’’ The Message. You can feel something of Jeremiah’s pain in these words. Christian ministry is not all happiness. Genuine leaders can pay a huge emotional price. They are heavily invested in seeing people respond well to God’s Word. When that doesn’t happen the heartache can be overwhelming. Let’s support our leaders with love and prayers, remembering that they are men and women too. If cut, they will bleed.
  • Jeremiah’s humanity (10): We could even say his frailty and fallibility, and we will see yet more of this in tomorrow’s reading. Not only was Jeremiah a man; he was also a man with a sinful nature. He was capable of wrong thoughts and words.
  • God’s answer and encouragement (11): God does speak, and sometimes people have found that in the darkest moments of their lives the Lord has given them a word that they can hold on to. Jeremiah was told that God had a ‘’good purpose’’ for him still, and that He would cause the prophet’s enemies to come to him for help. Later in the book we will see how this happened.
  • God’s further word to Judah (12-14): Someone said that (12) is a figure of the nation’s obduracy in the face of God’s Word. The ‘’iron from the north’’ referred to Babylon. Judah would not be able to overcome the Babylonians when God had clearly said that they would defeat the little nation to the south as the outworking of His judgment for their sins. You can’t fight God and win.

Prayer: Lord God we commit to you those who work hard in Christian ministry and faithfully bring your Word. Support them with your strength. Help them to keep going and not lose heart.