From Darkness To Light, From Sorrow To Hope: Lessons From Jeremiah And LamentationsSample

"Introduction: A Prophet to the Nations"

 When he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo portrayed Jeremiah, “the Weeping Prophet,” in a posture of despair. Jeremiah looks like a man who has wept so long he has no tears left to shed. His face is turned to one side, his shoulders are hunched forward, and his eyes are cast down. Battered by many blows, weighed down by the sins of Judah, he covers his mouth with his hand. Perhaps he has nothing left to say. When God first called Jeremiah to be a prophet, the man had two main objections: his lack of eloquence and his lack of experience. 

His doubts find an analogue in J. R. R. Tolkien’s novel The Fellowship of the Ring,  in which a hobbit named Frodo has been chosen to make a long and dangerous quest to destroy the one ring of power. “I am not made for perilous quests,” cried Frodo. “I wish I had never seen the Ring! Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?” The answer Frodo receives echoes the one that God’s prophets often receive: “Such questions cannot be answered…. You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess; not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.”  

In objecting to his calling, Jeremiah had forgotten that God is not limited by human weakness. God himself possesses everything Jeremiah needed to answer his call. In fact, enabling weak tools to do strong jobs is his standard operating procedure. With God’s calling comes God’s gifting. 

Many of the spiritual problems we face at the dawn of the twenty-first century are the same problems that Jeremiah found so depressing 2,500 years ago. But grace will have the last word. When the cities of evil have been torn down and plowed under, God will start afresh. He will begin a new work. This is God’s plan for the kingdoms of this world. He is in charge of the beginnings and endings of history. 

Like Jeremiah, each of us is a dubious candidate for divine service. Yet God has known us from all eternity and set us apart for new life in Christ. If God has done this for you, will you go wherever he tells you to go, and say whatever he wants you to say, even if it turns out to be a dangerous commission?