Lessons from Jeremiah 18: Shoot the Messenger

“Then they said, ‘Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah,

for the law shall not perish from the priest,

nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet.

Come, let us strike him with the tongue,

and let us not pay attention to any of his words.’

Hear me, O LORD,

and listen to the voice of my adversaries.

Should good be repaid with evil?

Yet they have dug a pit for my life.

Remember how I stood before you

to speak good for them,

to turn away your wrath from them.

Therefore deliver up their children to famine;

give them over to the power of the sword;

let their wives become childless and widowed.

May their men meet death by pestilence,

their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.

May a cry be heard from their houses,

when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!

For they have dug a pit to take me

and laid snares for my feet.

Yet you, O LORD, know

all their plotting to kill me.

Forgive not their iniquity,

nor blot out their sin from your sight.

Let them be overthrown before you;

deal with them in the time of your anger.”

Jeremiah 18:18-23

Finishing Jeremiah 18, lovers of lies want to shoot messengers of truth. Apart from repentance, their evil will roll back on them and there will be no remedy. For the messenger in the crosshairs, Luke 6:22-23 says to rejoice because of the great reward there will be in heaven. “…for so their fathers did to the prophets.”

Prophets like Jeremiah.

Lord, thank You for truth and for giving us the privilege to share it with zeal even if it costs us reputations, friendships, jobs, or our very lives. The Gospel saves!