#Prophecy. The Sting of Revenge.
I was awakened this morning at 3 am from a “nightmare” of sorts. The dream was filled with bullies from my past haunting me with threats to finish the job they started in years past. Then God spoke.
For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my close friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.”
(Jeremiah 20:10)
The Lord asked me to learn from His servant Jeremiah a few months back. This was a curious request to me, or was it a mandate? From the moment He spoke these words over me, I remained clueless about what this meant until this morning.
I was awakened this morning at 3 am from a “nightmare” of sorts. That seems to be the “hour of power” for the Lord to get my attention. The dream was filled with bullies from my past haunting me with threats to finish the job they started in years past. One after the next. Event after event. All shrouded in sadistic darkness. So much darkness - it awakened me with fleshly thoughts of revenge. Since the Lord has seasoned me with a portion of wisdom, I instantly knew I had a choice. Allow my thoughts to succumb to the enemy’s deceit, or ask the Lord to make sense of this horrid awakening. Per my norm, I now sit at my keyboard, penning inspiration from the Lord.
Instantly, the Lord had me open to the book of Jeremiah. Go figure. Jeremiah was a major prophet of the Hebrew people in the 7th century BC who lived in the final days of the southern kingdom of Judah. He was known as the “weeping prophet.” More interestingly, he was noted as a man who would cry at the first sign of being bullied by adversaries who fronted him with threats to shut his mouth. The passage above is just one of the numerous rumors Jeremiah became accustomed to. Why would God pick such an emotive-driven weakling to warn Judah of their impending demise, knowing they would not listen? Why wouldn’t God pick a “man’s man” who was strong, as in the case of a few other Biblical characters?
It all started shortly after Jeremiah’s bar mitzvah. He was at the ripe age of thirteen. God shows up and begins a dialogue.
Jeremiah: Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
God: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah: “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”
God: “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD.”
Jeremiah: Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me,
God: “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
Imagine for a moment. Not only was Jeremiah a youth, but he was also likely hours or days out of his bar mitzvah – a celebration of a boy’s transitioning into manhood. My first revelation is that God Himself honors His law of waiting for a boy to be a man before expecting the deeds of a man out of a man. More significantly, the revelation of God consecrated Jeremiah’s mission long before Jeremiah was in his mother's womb. If you think this concept through, not only would this shake the foundation of modern-day abortion arguments, but it clearly shows us that our purpose for being on the earth is eternally predestined.
Consecrating is an interesting word. It is an act following a predestined dedication of a person to live out a sacred purpose or service. The Hebrew word is qadah, which means to purify what is unclean by appointment. Like Moses, Jeremiah is noted in historical documents as having some form of speech impediment. In addition, he was known for being a weak child. More alarming, he struggled with compulsive fears, which is most likely why history noted him as being a weak child. Finally, consecration demands a supernatural anointing from a power source that overpowers humanity.
As our passage reveals, Jeremiah was not only shortchanged with words, fearful, and incompetent; he was emotionally sensitive to being rejected. Bottomline, by human standards, he was the worst possible choice for being a major prophet.
Biblical history notes that Jeremiah was the longest-serving prophet of God’s prophets – forty years, a Hebrew span of a single generation. Furthermore, even though he came from a priestly family, there is zero documentation of Jeremiah being bullied as a child; however, his ministry was plagued with constant threats from bullies from all levels of political and spiritual intruders. Day in & day out of constant threats to shut his mouth – for forty years. His countrymen tried to have him executed multiple times. He was mistreated by just about everybody, even his own people. The Temple chief had him beaten and put in prison. His scrolls, or letters, were burned repetitively. He was thrown down a well and left to die. He was accused of telling lies by droves of people who came to him for advice. These are just a few of his distresses noted in the Bible and Jewish historical accounts. Without question, he was the most hated man on the planet during his tenure of service. So, why would God anoint a weak, fearful crybaby to introduce the coming New Covenant of Jesus Christ to a wicked, violent people? This, indeed, was my question to the Lord.
Agreed. Jeremiah was despised, ignored, persecuted, and abused beyond human understanding. Looking back, we know that by enduring his sufferings and not giving up on the consecration anointing upon him before he was born, he foreshadowed the New Covenant doctrine of sharing in the sufferings of Christ. In reality, Jeremiah became the living legend of the forthcoming sufferings of the New Testament believers.
Jeremiah’s bullies were mostly his “friends!”
If you reread our passage, it is noted in Jeremiah’s words, “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my close friends… I underline all for obvious reasons. It has always baffled me that those closest to you are typically the “those” that betray you. Even Jesus said that A prophet is not wanted in his own household. Really? It is no wonder I fought our Lord's words, anointing me with the gift of prophecy. Looking into the window of Jeremiah’s life, this is the last thing my flesh wants. I spent my entire childhood people-pleasing others to avoid the painful aftereffects of being bullied. Why, oh God, would you call me to what I fear? On one occasion, I said to God Your logic is my demise.
I know that most Christians need to be more knowledgeable regarding the gift of prophecy. I get that. To be a modern prophet who sees the prophecies during the last days of the Age of Grace is daunting. Calling out the people to turn their ways away from Satan and back to God is constantly rubbing against my sin of people-pleasing. At the same time, I must endure the hardship that comes with God telling me you are like my servant Jeremiah; learn from his ways. I get trapped with the same paradox Jeremiah suffered, knowing that today’s people will inevitably fall into the destruction of the Antichrist because the people are ambivalent about repenting from their sins – so why try?
A fact most of my readers do not know. I am plagued with dreams, visions, and words from the Lord regularly. Most of the revelations require me to keep them silent until the Lord releases me to share – sometimes, it becomes waiting for years. One of the “worst” ramifications of my gifting is that as people talk to me, I can immediately discern if they are lying about what they’re sharing – particularly if it is about themselves. It is annoying. I know that there are droves of God’s children worldwide who have such strong gifting, but, nonetheless, it breeds betrayal inevitably, and I hate betrayal.
This morning, I am wide awake to the complexities of my likeness to Jeremiah. Knowing that he suffered more than perhaps any other prophet saddens me. He lived through the destruction of Jerusalem. He was closely involved in the political and spiritual events of Israel’s most crucial historical era. He was alive during the Old Testaments antichrist, Nebuchadnezzar, capturing, seizure, and destruction of Jerusalem. He was the prophet who provided a way to escape the coming doom of Israel. Since the people hated him and refuted his warnings from God, the Lord opened the door to the disciplinary destruction of Israel. Jeremiah had the privilege of seeing with his eyes God's warnings, the door of escape, and the refusal of the people to harken to a weak, fear-bound prophet who didn’t know how to speak unless he spoke the words God put in his mouth.
What does God note as the most important fact of calling Jeremiah to be a “weeping prophet?” That God Himself weeps over His nation Israel. Jeremiah’s most important prophecy concerning the future is my favorite, probably God’s as well, the prophecy promised - the New Covenant of the Messiah (Jeremiah 31:31–34). This New Covenant prophecy was very influential in New Testament times. It is quoted in the Letter to the Hebrews and lies behind words attributed to Jesus at the Last Supper: “This cup is the new covenant in My blood.” Ok, maybe it isn’t so bad to be likened to Jeremiah. To be a prophet, reformer, and author might not be such a bad gig – all without the submission to the temptation of the sting of revenge.
Jeremiah had to struggle against the despair of God’s people and give them hope for the future. He expressed his hope clearly through an action he embraced when the Babylonians captured and destroyed Jerusalem while he was in prison. He demonstrated God’s promise by buying, from a cousin, a field in Anathoth, his native town. In the presence of witnesses, he weighed out the money and made the contracts, and said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.” Like Jeremiah, I, too, want to express hope in the End Times for a bright future for His Son’s Bride - as each looks forward to a New Heaven and Earth –final Israel in its perfect form.
On this day, I said to the Lord, let’s gettr done!
Thank you all for the "likes" and "restacks." I appreciate it.