Jeremiah, called by God to confront people and rulers as a prophet, discovers the personal cost this entails, e.g. 23:9

‘My heart is crushed within me,  all my bones shake;
I have become like a drunkard,  like one overcome by wine,
because of the Lord and because of his holy words.’

   This reminds us of the Apostles, at Pentecost, of whom it was claimed ‘they are drunk with new wine’ (Acts 2:13). Both the inner experience of speaking God’s word, and the outward observable act of such speaking, apparently parallel a state of inebriation.

   Jeremiah was tasked to inform Judah and Jerusalem that the invasion coming their way, which destroy the royal house and temple, was God’s judgment on them because of the manner in which they broke their covenant with God, the rich and powerful accumulating personal assets at the expense of the struggling ordinary person e.g. 12:13-17.

  He despaired over his task, a task which had him treated with disdain and led to intense suffering and hardship (see 20:2).  Yet the inner despair turned into an inner self awareness and God consciousness which began to show a glimmer of hope for what God had in mind… see 29:11ff…

‘11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will let you find me,’ says the Lord.

Then God will renegotiate the covenant, so it reflects its original intention, a God focused heart! (see 31:33,34) says the Lord: ‘I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more…’

   Jeremiah’s experience of the reactions to the word he spoke at first devastated him; then there grew a knowledge of God which he realized through God’s Word to him, would be the way of following God from then on!

   We are the privileged ones today, for Christ and Pentecost are both past events, yet present realities. God is with us!

Louis van Laar