We Say What Our Lord Wants Us to Say

Jeremiah 19:14-20:6 Pentecost 5 Why We Say What Our Lord Wants Us to Say Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people, 15 “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.’” When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the official in charge of the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2 he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lord’s temple. 3 The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4 For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. 5 I will deliver all the wealth of this city into the hands of their enemies—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies. Dear friends in Christ, You know you should say something. A person you know well is on the wrong path. But she doesn’t see it, or she just doesn’t care. You know you should say something because if she continues down the road that she is on, she is not only going to hurt herself but also a lot of other people. You consider her a friend. You don’t want to create hard feelings. You don’t want to create a situation in which she is going to turn on you. But you know you should say something. The LORD called Jeremiah to speak a message to a people who were on the wrong path and headed for destruction. A century earlier the Assyrians had swept away the northern kingdom of Israel. Now the balance of world power had shifted and the Babylonians were threatening the southern kingdom of Judah. In another twenty years the King of Babylon would lay siege to Judah and begin to transplant thousands of the Jewish people, taking them away from the Promised Land to live as captives in a foreign land. All this was going to happen because Judah had become infatuated with idols of neighboring nations. They had turned away from the LORD. Jeremiah’s job was to warn Judah about the coming judgment, to call his countrymen to repentance, to lead them from their idolatry back to the LORD. This also was the goal when the LORD sent Jeremiah to Topheth, south of Jerusalem in the Valley of Ben Hinnom. Topheth was a horrible place where former kings of Judah had adopted the practices of pagan nations and had offered their children as sacrifices to Baal. But now Jeremiah led some elders and priests to this place where he smashed a clay jar in front of them. Just as he shattered the jar, so the LORD would shatter Judah and Jerusalem. After this Jeremiah returned to the temple courts in Jerusalem and repeated the same message, but to a much larger audience: “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.” Judah had many other prophets at the time. But they were saying the exact opposite of what Jeremiah was saying. They claimed to be speaking for the LORD, but in reality they were wagging their own tongues, claiming that everything was OK with the LORD, that the holy city of Jerusalem was not in danger, and that no foreign enemy was going to overrun them or take them captive. One who directly opposed Jeremiah’s message was Pashur, the priest in charge of order in the temple courts. As a leading priest, his main concern should have been that the people were hearing the message that the LORD wanted them to hear. But Pashur seems to have been more concerned about the morale of the people. So when he heard Jeremiah’s doom and gloom message, he had Jeremiah beaten and put in the stocks. The stocks were designed to bring pain and shame to the offender. They were put in a place where the people walking by could pelt Jeremiah with their curses, sneers and insults. After a day in this distress, Jeremiah would get the point, shut up and go home. That’s what Pashur must have thought. But that’s not what happened. Instead, when Pashur released Jeremiah from the stocks the next day, Jeremiah continued to say what the LORD wanted him to say. Once again he spoke about the coming judgment on Judah. But he also told Pashur how the LORD’s judgment would affect him personally. Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4 For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon… The LORD gave Pashur new name: ‘Terror on Every Side.” Not because he would be some kind of hero that would strike terror in the hearts of his enemies. But because the people of Jerusalem would point to him as the cause of their terrors. They Babylonians would carry away from Jerusalem the young laborers and the skilled workers, all the wealth of the treasuries, all the manufactured goods, and all the arts. Then Pashur’s family members, friends and neighbors would point to him as the cause of this terror because he had fed them lies instead of supporting Jeremiah’s call to repentance and proclaiming the Word of the LORD. Can you put yourself in Jeremiah’s sandals? The LORD has called you to speak a warning, a message of coming judgment, and a call to repentance. You know that what you say is going to be unpopular. You suspect that people will hate you for it and maybe even hurt you because of it. In the verses following today’s reading, Jeremiah talked about his struggle in saying what the LORD wanted him to say: Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.  But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. You can understand Jeremiah’s struggle, can’t you? The LORD has given you the responsibility of watching out for the well-being of your neighbor. Sometimes this includes speaking a difficult message. What the people around you are doing is not in line with God’s will and can only ultimately lead to pain and suffering. Their attitude and actions need to change. Even if you talk with them in the most careful and loving way possible, many might still become angry with you. Many might intimidate you. They might threaten you. They might spread lies about you. they might drag you reputation through the mud. So you tell yourself that you are just going to keep your mouth shut and mind your own business. But something inside you doesn’t let you just sit back and be quiet. You feel the need to say what your Lord wants you to say. Why is that? Why do we say what our Lord wants us to say, even when it’s so difficult to say it? Why do we speak up when people around us are being fed false teachings, half-truths, and lies? Why do we warn our friends when they start living in ways that are inconsistent with their confession of Christ? Why do we say something when our neighbors have slipped into making their time and possessions into their idols? Why do we say something when our children have started to love and trust their boyfriends or girlfriends more than they love and trust their Lord? Isn’t it because we don’t want people to experience the problems and pain that accompany sin? Isn’t it because clinging to sin also pushes Christ aside? Isn’t because we love them? And isn’t the reason we love them because our Lord loves us, and because our Lord loves them? Sadly, the people of Judah did not listen to what the LORD said through Jeremiah. The LORD’s judgment came true. They were taken captive and many died in Babylon. But because the LORD had made a promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he preserved a remnant who, like Jeremiah, listened to his Word and trusted his promise. Eventually, God led that remnant back to Judah, and through them he sent the perfect Savior for us, Jesus. He’s the One who, as our substitute, always said what God wanted him to say. He’s also the One, who by his payment on the cross, has removed from our record the guilt of every sin, including every one of our failures to speak the truth in love. But Jesus isn’t just our Savior. He’s also the Savior who came for that neighbor who is clinging to his possessions as if they were his gods. And he’s the Savior for that young woman who has turned her boyfriend into her idol. And he’s the Savior for that family member who is constantly being lured away by lies. So we make use of the opportunities our Lord gives us to say what he wants us to say. We speak the truth in love, even when it’s difficult to do so. Amen.