Strained Hope

Jeremiah, strained, cries—

Strain from the stocks (20:2) where muscles, bones, very body—

Strain from the soul, in persecution—

Strain from the very burning passion of God beating between his ribs—

“O Lord, you have deceived me,

    and I was deceived;

you are stronger than I,

    and you have prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all the day;

    everyone mocks me…

Cursed be the man…because he did not kill me in the womb…

Why did I come out from the womb
    to see toil and sorrow,
    and spend my days in shame?” (Jer. 20:7, 15, 18)

Strains of verse upon verse of bitter complaint to God. By one of his choice servants. (Read the whole passage here).  

Persecuted and placed in the stocks.

Feeling deceived by God.

Laughingstock.

Unpleasant, unfruitful task.

Doubting.

Waiting. Compelled to prophesy, and prophesy the negative (“violence and destruction!”) but as of yet the prophecies brooded unfulfilled. The “Peace, peace” of the false prophets seemed to be truer (Jer. 6:14; 23:16; Hananiah in ch. 28).

Derided.

Terror for his life.

Denounced by close friends.

How could one of God’s special friends go through such? How could one of God’s own spokespeople cry out that he was deceived by God, feel so hurt by God? Why is this in the Bible? Why—if God only gave us a certain number of pages—did God include this?

Strained, Jeremiah shows he is a man like us. Sinful. Complaining. Stretched. Weary. Doubting. Burdened with seer seeing the searing judgment flames approaching, when Israel had eyes satiated on the seeming halcyon of the present.

Yet God of grace and hope

even in this text.

Strains of hope sing out

In the strain of stress.

“O LORD….” (20:7).

A soul strained to God! Directed toward LORD, YHWH, Covenant God, who is still in relationship with Jeremiah. Our listening Lord, who records even these words to say he is not daunted by our sinful shouts. Our Covenant-Lord who still choose us, even though he knew every dark thought and word that would proceed. He still hears—and then he can heal.

Then verses 11-13 broach in the broken cries:

“…all my close friends, watching for my fall.

But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;

    therefore my persecutors will stumble;

    they will not overcome me….

Sing to the Lord;

    praise the Lord!

For he has delivered the life of the needy

    from the hand of evildoers.

Cursed be the day

    on which I was born!” (20:10b, 11a, 13, 14a)

A strain of hope! Surrounded by his own cries of pain, the Spirit must have whispered in a waft of hope. Even in the very pit the Spirit still whispers hope to us. Even there. Even when our spirits are so broken, the flesh is so strong, the suffering so great we still by the very Spirit sing hope. See the eternal. See the invisible. See the glory. The same Spirit that was with Joseph in the prison, with Jeremiah in the stocks, with Paul and Silas in Philippian jail in psalms, with us.

“’Why did I come out from the womb… and spend my days in shame?’ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD….” (20:18-21:1).

Instrument tuned to sing his strains. Did the Lord reject Jeremiah in anger? “Because you’ve blasphemed me, the Lord, and called me a deceiver, made me like your mortal friends, attributed to me the God of Inapproachable Light the darkness of your friends, will I too cast you off?” No! In prevailing grace, the Lord still used the prophet. The Lord was true to his personal promise to Jeremiah in his initial calling, “I, [the LORD] behold, I make you [Jeremiah] this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land….” (Jer. 1:18). We, us, despite any of our sins, still instruments. Restored. In our brokenness yet a greater display of sheer grace. His personal promises to us still true, no matter. Perhaps the very straining of suffering tunes us to sing his grace, tunes us to be his fine-pitched instruments.

"The Weeping of Jeremiah" Marc Chagall

A heart stretched to the very depths of God, tuned to his strains. Jeremiah was God’s heart in tears, an embodiment of God’s grief for Israel. Jeremiah was true Israel who heard and heeded God’s word. Presence thick in the shared passion. Jeremiah foreshadowing the true God Incarnate in human flesh, the true Faithful Human Son, the God-Man Jesus. Us, too, can bear the presence by the Spirit, tuned to the Lord’s passion, our tears, our hugs, our waiting pointing to the Greater One. Straining, tuning.

“If I say, ‘I will not mention him,

    or speak any more 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” (Jer. 20:9).

Strains of God’s Word and promise still slipped through the strained soul and the strained stocks. The seer seeing spoken brought the searing of persecution on Jeremiah. Yet it was the very word of God that promised strength, power: “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms…I am watching over my word to perform it” (Jer. 1:9b-10a, 12). The very compelling power of the word in the prophet’s bones must have been both pain and promise, hot and hope. The Word would prevail, and this was hope. The Word would give strength, power.

Strains of grace. Jeremiah saw grace. His very brokenness, his ministry that crushed him, the words that burned inside of him and brought down persecution on him, were the means of bringing God’s word of hope, grace, and healing to the nation—not through Jeremiah’s heroism, or our heroism, but through the Word of God in him and us. In persecution-death was life for those who listened.

In the stocks, the strain, the sinful shouts there is hope.