Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
This weekend we transition from November to December, and that’s significant in our world this year, isn’t it? Oh yes, many people are keeping a watchful eye on Washington DC and the changes happening there as the US Leadership prepares for transition. And many eyes are riveted on Jerusalem, the Gaza, southern Lebanon and even Iran. I wonder where your focus will be over this next month.
I’m so glad Thanksgiving week and the month of December are between the US election and inauguration day! Why? Because both Thanksgiving and Christmas call us to turn our eyes toward God and be THANKFUL to God and consider God’s supremacy overall and His goodness and His love to us. Both Thanksgiving and Christmas cause us to consider how empty and hopeless our lives and our world would be without Jesus, do you agree?
For that reason, come with me back to Jerusalem around 627bc. A man named Jeremiah is having a life changing encounter with God and his record of it challenges you and me to consider the importance of our lives now, even this month of December ’24. We’ve already considered these mind-blowing words which God spoke to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born, I set you apart, I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) Have you wrestled with what God was thinking about you while He was forming you in your mother’s womb? What has God been preparing you for that might become significant this next month?
Does our world seem increasingly UNinterested in God and His words as we enter another December? Do you know any modern-day prophets who are attempting to proclaim God’s words but are being ignored, or worse persecuted or even killed? God’s commissioning of Jeremiah included these words: “I have put My words in your mouth…I will pronounce My judgments on My people because of their wickedness in forsaking Me…” (Jer. 1:9,16) From about the year 627bc until Jerusalem was finally destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar in 586bc God positioned Jeremiah in Jerusalem as God’s spokesman to the kings and the people of Judah. Jeremiah was steadfast, resolute, determined, courageous in proclaiming the important, powerful warnings of God. God’s love for His people did not wane, even though after King Josiah’s death Jerusalem turned away from God…again.
God did not abandon His people, while they abandoned God, rather God made sure Jeremiah was there, in Jerusalem, proclaiming His messages and being a man of God ready to help anyone turn back to God. The response of those kings after King Josiah was defiant rejection of Jeremiah’s words! Often, they imprisoned and persecuted Jeremiah, sometimes even torturing him in their hatred for God’s appeal to change. Sadly, have you found not everyone is happy to hear God’s Words even in their despair?
For King Josiah, even though most of his 31-year reign were wonderful years of faithfulness to God, in the end his refusal to seek God’s guidance and his prideful refusal to hear the warning from Jeremiah and Pharaoh Necho, cost Josiah his life. (2 Chron. 35:20-24) For Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, who absolutely refused to hear any word from Jeremiah and did great evil in God’s sight, his reign lasted only 3 months, and he was dragged away in shackles to Egypt by Pharaoh Necho! (2 Kings 23:31-35)
As we saw yesterday, Pharaoh Necho put Eliakim, another of Josiah’s sons, on the Jerusalem throne but publicly humiliated him by changing his name to Jehoiakim. He reigned in Jerusalem 11 years, but he too rejected both the example of his father King Josiah and the words of Jeremiah the prophet, and he failed badly as king. Finally, Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian emperor attacked Jerusalem and dragged off wicked Jehoiakim in shackles, taking him to Babylon as prisoner. Oh, the price of rejecting the words God sends to us! Have you learned that important life lessons my friends? Have you taught it to your children and grandchildren? In fact, would you agree one of the most important things we can teach our descendants is how to discern God’s guidance and respond obediently to God?
As we enter December 2024 what is the world anticipating, expecting this Christmas month and in the new year ahead? What do you think God wants to SAY to our world and ACCOMPLISH in our world this December ’24 and in the new year ahead? Who will be the men and women God will raise up to speak the words of God’s hope and truth in the face of discouragement, and even despair?
Might you and I be some of those people God will use to speak His words and offer His hope this December? I wonder what response we’ll face. God knew for Jeremiah not everyone would want to hear from God, so God said these words to Jeremiah: “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them…They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the LORD.” (Jer. 1:17,19)
The truth is Jeremiah faced great opposition, but God gave Him both a strong sense of God’s presence with him and the courage to remain hopeful and faithful in speaking God’s truth. And for the past 2600 years God’s words through Jeremiah have challenged and invited generation after generation, as they will again this December.
So, look around your city and nation today. Who are the voices God is raising up to speak God’s truth and call the people of your city, your nation back to God? Will those voices be faithful in speaking what God directs them to speak, as Jeremiah was? Will this December be different from past Decembers in how people hear God’s call and respond to Jesus? What about you and me? Will this be a special December of spiritual renewal for you and me and our families, regardless of what anyone else does? Might we be among those voices God will use in these next weeks?
Would you let this worship song invite you to worship the God who made you? Could your December be a month-long response to the open, inviting arms of God? Please don’t do as the kings and people did in the times of Jeremiah, don’t reject God’s loving invitation to the relationship God created and designed you for, with HIM!
Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 1:4-19.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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