Jesus reveals what you and I as God’s people can expect, because we believe in Jesus, we seek to follow His teaching, and (through our faith in Him) we desire to share His Good News with others. The Lord previews the persecution believers can expect, and not just from those outside the church, but sometimes even from people inside the church.

Jeremiah reveals the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of a believer amid persecution as one called to be a prophet. While Jeremiah’s experience and Jesus’ message can be seen as applying to prophets, apostles, and pastors, it also certainly applies to all Christians, because we are all the priesthood of believers called to be light and salt in the world. Jeremiah’s poetic message can be a source of comfort and help to pastors and people as we strive to remain faithful to our Lord and share His Word of Law and the Gospel salvation of Jesus.

Jeremiah begins in what on first reading is a fairly confusing statement: “O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived.” The Lord deceived Jeremiah??? Does God do that? How can He say such a thing about the Lord?

There may be two possibilities here—and maybe both are true at the same time. One possibility is that in the Hebrew language, the word translated “deceive” can have a double meaning. It can mean to trick someone, as was the case when the serpent deceived Eve and she ate of the tree. The other meaning can be to persuade someone like a man trying to woo a woman that he’s smitten by. So, it could be that the Lord “persuaded” Jeremiah to follow the Lord’s call for him to be a prophet.

The other possibility is that when the Lord called Jeremiah to be a prophet, the Lord expected one thing and Jeremiah expected another thing, and in the beginning of today’s Old Testament Reading, Jeremiah is expressing disappointment that things haven’t turned out the way he’s expecting. He may feel like maybe the Lord didn’t fully fill him in on what being a prophet might mean.

Let me give you a little bit of the dialogue when the Lord called Jeremiah. The Lord said, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah responds by pointing to his youth as problematic. The Lord replies, “To all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you.” Then the Lord says, “I am watching over my Word to perform it.” And then the Lord says that the people won’t listen, but “they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you,” says the Lord.

It very well may be that Jeremiah was “persuaded” by the Lord to be a prophet and Jeremiah had ideas for what that might look like, but his ideas didn’t fully match reality.

This sometimes (or maybe often) happens to us as the Lord’s people, doesn’t it? We have certain ideas (maybe even expectations) for how we think things will go and then they don’t go that way and we start to ask questions… maybe we even may start to doubt the goodness and faithfulness of the Lord.

Jeremiah has faced intense persecution. Jeremiah—the Lord’s prophet, who personally receives the Word of the Lord—has just been beaten and put into stocks by—of all people!—a priest (an officer in the temple). He would be the last one you would think to degrade a prophet, but that’s how far the people have drifted into unbelief. That’s the context Jeremiah finds himself in as one who proclaims God’s Word, and he personally struggles in his spirit.

Nevertheless, Jeremiah confesses to the Lord, “You are stronger than I, and you have prevailed.” Jeremiah has received his call. He didn’t really want to be, but he’s a prophet of the Lord. It is what it is. That’s how it often goes for those called into service.

Jeremiah laments, “I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.” People aren’t taking his message seriously. The Lord has sent him to call the people to repentance or they will come under the Lord’s judgment, but very few believe him. Few repent. Few turn from their idolatry. The judgments that Jeremiah warns of are not happening immediately, and so many of the people believe him to be a fraud.

In a similar way, the Lord Jesus was mocked while hanging on the cross, because His own words didn’t appear to be coming to fruition. But the lack of immediacy didn’t make the Lord’s words less true.

Jeremiah says, “Whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’” It can be said that Jeremiah is saying here, “As often as I speak, I must call out, I must cry out, I’m compelled to shout out the very judgments of the Lord against Judah and against Jerusalem for her hatred of the Lord.” He’s being driven to proclaim the Lord’s Word.

At the same time, the preaching of the Word brings him trouble, grief, and shame as he’s continually called a liar and a fraud because his prophesies aren’t happening immediately, and he’s being called a traitor for preaching against his own nation. Therefore, Jeremiah declares, “The Word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.”

Those who proclaim God’s very own precious Word—the Word of the Lord who bled and died to save our souls—can be made to feel ashamed of it. That preacher may be called a “Bible thumper” or the message proclaimed may be called “boring” or “unloving” or it just may not be taken seriously by God’s people who should love and cherish hearing it.

But there’s something driving Jeremiah to keep preaching. He says, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak anymore in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” He’s zealous for the Lord’s Word like the other prophets, like Paul, like the Lord Jesus Himself. Jeremiah didn’t want to be a prophet, but the Holy Spirit drives him, urges him, inspires him to keep preaching, to keep soldiering in the spiritual warfare. A fire has been lit in his belly to keep preaching.

So, Jeremiah continues to proclaim the Word of the Lord, despite the reality that he keeps being attacked by His own people for proclaiming God’s message to them. He says, “I hear many whispering.” People mock him and his role as the Lord’s prophet behind his back. “Terror is on every side!” Jeremiah’s enemies are all around him. There is no place in which he can relax and let his guard down. Even those whom Jeremiah thought were his friends try to betray him. They say, “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” The false friends want to find a way to trap him in his words. They say, “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.’” They pretend to like Jeremiah so that they can get the better of him and shut him up one way or another.

While all of these thoughts, concerns, and even doubts rummage through Jeremiah’s mind, he very well may be thinking of what the Lord told him multiple times when he was called to be a prophet of the Lord. God told him, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you… They shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.”

Thus, Jeremiah receives comfort through the Lord’s promise. He confesses, “But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me.” Jeremiah understands the stakes. He understands the spiritual warfare that he’s in the midst of. Despite his doubts and lamentations, he trusts the Lord’s promise to be with him and protect him. He knows that in preaching the Lord’s Word, he is preaching what is true, and the Lord’s Word can’t be overcome.

Jeremiah declares the fate of those who oppose the Lord. “They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.” In opposing Jeremiah, they are not so much opposing Jeremiah as they are the one who called Jeremiah to preach His Word. They are opposing God. Jesus says, “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” Those who oppose the Word of the Lord really oppose the Lord, and they cannot and will not succeed in opposing their maker. Their rejection of God will follow them into eternity.

Jeremiah resolves himself to trust the Lord despite how things appear and come what may happen in the future. He says, “O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed by cause.” King David once said, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” The Lord Jesus spoke the same words shortly before He breathed His last dying for our soul’s forgiveness, life, and salvation. Now, Jeremiah declares that he is committing himself to the Lord. Jeremiah will not seek vengeance upon those who hate him, but he will concede vengeance belongs to the Lord.

Having been comforted by the Lord’s gracious and merciful promises, Jeremiah praises the Lord for His glorious salvation. “Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.” Faith grasps hold of and will not let go of God’s promise to deliver His people. In this life, deliverance is not always what our physical eyes see. Jeremiah is believed to have been stoned to death after being taken to Egypt. Yet, the Lord has delivered him from the evildoers who opposed him. The Lord bestows on Jeremiah and you who believe in Jesus’ salvation the crown of life that will never fade away and a resurrection unto eternity in the blessed kingdom of God.

Being a pastor, being a Christian, in this sinful, fallen world is challenging. It can be dangerous. It can be depressing. Yet, God promises to be with His children always. And so despite obstacles, despite people ignoring, rejecting, or belittling the Word of the Lord we—pastors and congregations—keep proclaiming the Word of the Lord for the sake of those who fear, love, and trust the Lord and His Word. Amen.