AP

Jeremiah 22:1-3This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: ‘Hear the word of the LORDto you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne – you, your officials and your people who come through these gates.  This is what the LORDsays: Do what is just and right.  Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed.  Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. …”

I never cease to admire the Prophet Jeremiah for his faithfulness, godliness, humility, and unflinching courage and trust in the LORD.

Tim & Kathy Keller comment on Proverbs 27:5-6 – “The King James Version renders the first part of Proverbs 27:6 as ‘faithful are the wounds of a friend’.  What are ‘faithful wounds’?  The phrase means that real friends do open rebuke, they tell each other things they need to hear even if they are  painful.  If you are too afraid to say what needs to be said, you are really an enemy of your friend’s soul.”

This really challenged me. Those of you who know me well, know that I don’t do ‘open rebuke’.  I avoid it, and run away from it like a frightened rabbit.  I am well aware of a whole host of sinful reasons why I am like this, but … .  And now I am faced with Jeremiah, not just passing on God’s rebuke to his friends, but standing before the powerful King of Judah, Jehoiakim, and telling him a few essential home truths direct from his Maker and Covenant Lord!

In fact, it was always Jeremiah’s lot to expose the wickedness of prevailing cultures, especially in high places, and this set him apart, and isolated him, from all the obsequious ‘false’ prophets who were only saying what the king wanted to hear.

We are faced today with many established corrupt cultures that resist change: the culture of domestic violence; the culture of school and workplace bullying; the culture of non-consensual (and immoral) sexual abuse; the culture of political manipulation; etc.  O that God would raise up more Jeremiahs to address this today!  (Just as long as it doesn’t have to be me!)

– Bruce Christian