Jesus throughout the Scriptures: Pre-exilic Prophets 5 (4)
Pray Psalm 119.41, 42.
Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD —
Your salvation according to Your word.
So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me,
For I trust in Your word.Sing Psalm 119.41, 42.
(Dix: For the Beauty of the Earth)
Let Your mercies come to me, Your salvation by Your Word.
From reproaches set me free, for I trust in You, O LORD.
Let my life an answer be for those who may question me.
Read Jeremiah 15.15-21; meditate on verses 15 and 16.
Preparation
1. Why was Jeremiah suffering?
2. What brought him sweet pleasure in the midst of his bitter suffering?
Meditation
In Jeremiah 15, God described in gory detail the judgment He had prepared for His rebellious people. Only a remnant would survive, as God had determined (2 Kgs. 21.14); but they would go into captivity to a foreign people (Jer. 15.11-14). The judgment would be swift, brutal, and thorough.
It was a bitter Word from the LORD, and it made Jeremiah weep and wish he’d never been born to see it (v. 10). God comforted His prophet with the reminder of the remnant, and Jeremiah implored the LORD to remember and visit him with deliverance (v. 15). Despite his bitter circumstances, brought upon him by the ministry of the Word, Jeremiah’s delight was in the LORD and His Word (v. 16). By the sweet Word of the Lord he had kept himself from all evil (vv. 16, 17). He complained to God to spare him the violence and captivity threatened against the rest of the nation (v. 18).
God promised to keep and preserve Jeremiah through the coming judgment (vv. 19-21). He would know hardship, resistance, and sadness, but the comfort of the LORD would be with him through it all. The use of the words “deliver” and “redeem” in verse 21 were meant not only to comfort the beleaguered prophet, but to point forward to Israel’s return from captivity seventy years later, and even further, to the time of the new covenant, which God will reveal to Jeremiah later on. Then a Deliverer would come to redeem all God’s chosen people, and to bring them into His comfort and joy forever.
Jesus would come with the sweet Word of life, though He Himself, the very Word of God, would be the Man of Sorrows. The Word that, with bitterness, exposes our sins, with sweetness of the grace of Jesus heals, delivers, renews, and restores. Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
The bitter words serve to highlight the sweet.
It is only when we realize the bitter depth of our sin and our need of a Savior that we fully appreciate God’s sweet gift of Jesus. When we don’t know the Law of God, when we don’t understand our depravity; when we don’t comprehend how utterly indefensible we are, then we don’t seek a remedy. And sometimes, even when we do, and take a dose of forgiveness, we are not grateful enough to follow through with the necessary obedience.
It is why God’s people today don’t learn His commandments, don’t take them to heart, and don’t fear Him.
The Gospel—misrepresented as it is from myriad pulpits—has become rather toothless and mundane; when in reality, it is the only power to save to the uttermost, those who are lost (Heb. 7.25).
God’s Word must be as precious and needful to us as it was to Jeremiah:
“Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by Your Name, O LORD God of hosts” (Jer. 15.16).
Job, amidst his trials and suffering, knew where his strength lay and Who sustained him.
He knew where to find hope; and he knew how to please the God of heaven and earth:
“But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside.
I have not departed from the commandment of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23.10-12).
As the psalmist wrote:
“Therefore I love Your commandments more than gold, yes, than fine gold!” (Ps. 119.127)
He, too, knew that the Word of God is the determinative factor in grasping bitter and sweet—how to live life in a way pleasing to the LORD, learning to fear the LORD and appreciate His salvation.
When we live in the way of the godly (Ps. 1), we dwell in the sweet and set aside the bitter. God says to us through Jeremiah: “If you return, then I will bring you back; you shall stand before Me;
if you take out the precious from the vile, you shall be as My mouth” (Jer. 15.19).
God promises to use us mightily in His Kingdom work when we expunge the vile from our lives and cling to the Precious Savior of our souls.
We are no longer ruled by the bitter “works of the flesh” but are now exhibiting the sweet characteristics of the Holy Spirit living within us: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control” (Gal. 2.19, 22, 23).
“Jesus would come with the sweet Word of life” as our “Deliverer”.
Our job is to believe the sweet and expunge the bitter—knowing full well our desperate need of deliverance—using the rest of our days on earth to serve, praise, glorify, love, obey, and worship our Redeemer Jesus.
“For He said, ‘Surely they are My people’…So He became their Savior” (Is. 63.8). Sweet.
Reflection
1. How does the Word of God reveal bitterness in you? What should you do then?
2. What are some of the sweetest words you have heard from Jesus of late?
3. Whom will you encourage today with a sweet Word from the Word of God?
I am a champion for truth and an ambassador for the Scriptures so that everything happens according to the Word of God. For this I am blasphemed. And thus let all of us, as far as our ability allows, strive for the prophetic life, for the apostolic life, not avoiding what is troublesome. Origen (185-254), Homilies on Jeremiah 14.14.4-5
Pray Psalm 119.43-48.
Give thanks to God, Who feeds you by His Word. Seek Him there, and delight in Him. Call on Him to help you walk in the freedom of His Word today, come what may.
Sing Psalm 119.43-48.
(Dix: For the Beauty of the Earth)
Let my words be Your words, LORD; strengthen me to keep Your Law.
All my hope is in Your Word, and I seek Your precepts all.
I will ever keep Your Word, for I trust in You, O LORD!
LORD, take not Your Word from me, for I trust it day by day.
I will walk in liberty as Your precepts I obey.
I shall keep Your truth, O LORD, for I hope in all Your Word.
I will speak Your Word to kings, and I will not be ashamed.
In Your Word my glad heart sings, as Your truth I have proclaimed.
In Your Law will I delight, which I love with all my might.
To Your Law I lift my hands to embrace and hold it dear.
In Your truth my glad heart stands, knowing You are ever near.
I will meditate, O LORD, on Your statutes and Your Word.
T. M. and Susie Moore
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter.
