Every week I receive the bulletin for the upcoming Sunday worship service in my email. It contains the announcements and the Scripture reading which our pastor is going to base his sermon on. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to read the scripture passage and write a blog entry containing my thoughts on the passage as a way to prepare for Sunday morning worship. I want to apologize to anyone who has started to follow these for forgetting to publish the one I did last week until Wednesday. I do not know how long I will continue doing this, but it seems to be an exercise that has some value.

    This passage is part of God’s call to Jeremiah. The first part of this warns Jeremiah that the message God will give him will not be popular with his audience. That is an important thing for us to remember, the message which God gives us will rarely, if ever, be popular with our audience. If people are cheering you when you speak, you are probably a false prophet…even when you are speaking to the people of God. Let me be clear, I am not talking about people saying that your message was a good message after they have had time to think about it. I am saying that it is a very rare occurrence that people will cheer immediately after hearing God’s message for them.
    My real focus on this passage is the second part. There God calls on Jeremiah to get up and prepare for action. That is God’s message for us as well. God is calling on us to get up and prepare to do His will. I actually really like the phrase where God tells Jeremiah not to be afraid of people or He will make him look like a fool. All too often, we don’t speak God’s word because we are afraid doing so will make us look foolish. Well, this passage reminds us that if we claim to be Christians and do not speak God’s message, we are guaranteed to look foolish. On the other hand, if we do stand up and speak the message which God has given to us, He will support and defend us. The whole land may fight against us, but they will fail for God will take care of us.