Jeremiah 42-43; Psalm 61; James 4
A Reflection on Jeremiah & James
I am confused! Was Jeremiah 42 and 43 the headline in last week’s Miami Herald or was it the other way around? Last week it was President Obama seeking the advice of his counselors in response to a very critical issue in the Middle East with the descendants of the same characters present in Jeremiah 42. And 2700 years before, it is military and political leaders of Judah seeking similar advice of the prophet Jeremiah. Talk about déjà vu! The glory of the Bible is that it reveals the innermost workings of human nature with uncanny accuracy, especially when it comes to the political and military history of the Middle East. Modern day history seems to be a continuous “repeat” of ancient history that is on a repeating cycle with, unfortunately, exactly the same results…disaster.
In response to the imminent threat, Jeremiah is asked by the surviving leaders to, “Pray that the Lord our God will show us the way we should go and what we should do.” (Jer. 42:3) Sound familiar? Jeremiah does exactly as requested and waits. After 10 days, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah and he relayed God’s message as requested: “…I will pray to the Lord our God, just as you asked and whatever he says, I will tell you.” (vs 4)
Now here is where the rub comes in and human nature tends to reveal the tension that we all face when faced with a crisis. Jeremiah tells them exactly what they do not want to hear. The historical setting is quite fascinating and worthy of further examination but for our reflection here, we are mostly interested in the universal human response that has a tendency to get us into trouble time and again. Jeremiah did share the word of the Lord as asked but did not give them the answer they wanted. What they really wanted to do was escape into Egypt and thus avoid further conflict and suffering. Their fear preconditioned them the hear God’s response in such a way that they thought would avoid further stress. But, God does not call us to be happy, content, and at rest with what we want but with what He believes is best for us. In this case, God was asking for “faith”, “trust”, and “confidence” in Him. Sadly, they chose otherwise!
Experience with God answering prayer over a lifetime of ministry has taught me this principle when faced with life’s hard decisions; “What appears to be the easy route is often the harder one and what appears to be the harder route is often the easier one…long-term.” Faith is examining the significant elements to the best of our ability but then relying on God to speak to us following a time of prayer. The answers are often amazing and not quite what we expect.
Years ago I was the rector of a tiny church of 70 souls that was praying about building a new church facility. We examined the project only to speculate that our dream worship center was way beyond our ability. Since we were blessed with a wonderful cadre of prayer partners, we began a 7 day 24 hour prayer vigil in the church. Everyone who was able signed up for an hour spot…most took many 1 hour prayer periods.
On Wednesday night I agreed to fill many of the one hour slots and was determined to stay in the church until I heard from the Lord. Yes, that may appear to be presumptuous, arrogant, naïve and even silly but I desperately needed a word from God before moving in one direction or another. So…I prayed for hours and waited and prayed some more and listened. When I least expected it, He spoke. He said, “I will build my church!” It wasn’t gas or fatigue or delusion but THE Word of God…”I will build my church!” Wow…my heart leapt with joy and my spirit was put at rest. Move forward because God is going to provide the funding to build His church, well, at least that is how I interpreted His word. Silly me!
History has shown that what I heard was absolutely true, well sort of. He did build his church from an average Sunday gathering of about 70 to over 500 souls…oh, and he also build a building in which to worship which was the focus of the prayer vigil. What He meant and what I heard were two entirely different things. I prayed for a church building and God gave us more souls than we could have ever imagined. And the interesting thing is that He didn’t actually build the church or at least in the manner in which I interpreted His word. I though He meant that HE was going to build His church by providing adequate funding. What He said was, “I will build my church!” He was true to his word and built His church not through miraculous financial gifts but through the talents, efforts, and sacrifices of the multitude. We never got a large financial gift and most of the work we did ourselves, something unheard of in these modern times. He provided the talents and enthusiasm for the vision to create a space in which He could be worshipped and served…and that is exactly what happened.
When you pray, listen and wait and trust! He will answer and you will interpret what He said which will bring comfort. Move forward in the assurance that He has answered truthfully and that He will continue to guide you. But, try not to interpret all the details in your imagination so as not to miss the surprise He has in store.
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