JEREMIAH

If ever a man was called by God to fail, that man was the prophet Jeremiah.

"Ah, Sovereigh Lord, I am only a child"!  Lord said: I am with you and will rescue you" (Jeremiah 1:8).  God called him to a tough task: to convince his own nation that they were headed for destruction. Fore 20 years before the nation finally collapsed, Jeremiah thundered forth diatribes of gloom and doom. He was one of the most hated men of his day, so much so that his enemies accused him of being a traitor. Repeatedly beaten and thrown in prison, Jeremiah was a man of few friends. So unpopular was this man with government, that King Jehoiakim took his penknife and cut up the scroll containing the prophesis of Jeremiah and threw it in the fire.

Jeremiah revealed a sensitive, deeply caring, emotional person who dearly loved his country and, far more, loved his God, a man who was consumed with the mercy of God, absolutely convinced that if Israel would only grasp at the straw of God's mercy, they would be saved from destruction. He wept for his fellow citizens bent on destruction, who ignored the voice of God.

If Jeremiah were alive today, undoubtely he would  make world leaders, intent on fulfilling their own agenda, just as uncomfortable as he did the leaders of his day. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it"? he cried (Jeremiah 17:9).

 God give us more Jeremiahs today who stand like granite against the trends of the day and hold with unflinching tenacity to the call of the Almighty. (Harold Sala)

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