Running with the Horses

Introduction

As I have thought about the last year and half in terms of leadership within the church, I’ve been drawn to the book of Jeremiah. Perhaps in what has been some of the toughest times in ministry that I can remember, these life lessons from the prophet Jeremiah have really helped me to navigate through these storms. And there is one verse in particular that summarizes for me all the reasons why we go through some of these difficult seasons in ministry. Like Jeremiah, we all go through times of wrestling with God, where we complain about the lack of fruitfulness or people betraying us or the slowness of God to act. And as Jeremiah has one of these moments with God, God answers his servant in an unexpected way that doesn’t seem that comforting initially but the more you think about it, you realize it is the most encouraging thing that God can say when we are just about ready to give up and throw in the towel. As God spoke to Jeremiah, I believe that He is also speaking these words from Jeremiah 12:5 to us:

Jeremiah 12:5 ESV

“If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?

Body

Again, on the surface this answer from God doesn’t seem that empathetic nor understanding. Basically, God is telling Jeremiah, you think this is tough, think again, things can be much harder and if you can’t endure this, how will you be able to compete when all the odds are stacked up against you. How will you run with the horses? God is reminding Jeremiah that this present threat is small compared to what is about to come and if you tire out just from this ordinary footrace with men, how can you keep the pace against impossible odds. If we’re struggling in the relative safety of ordinary life, how are we going to manage in times of extraordinary danger. I think we all recognize that ministry was hard this past year but it has the real potential to get much harder in the years to come. And will we be ready for that?

And what I love about this verse is the imagery that it uses to convey this truth. The picture of being able to run with the horses is not just a warning about all the troubles that are coming our way, but the incredible opportunity to do something that you thought was impossible. We know that the prophet Elijah was able to outrun the chariots of Ahab on foot from Mt. Carmel down to the valley of Jezreel, a distance of over 30 miles. And 1 Kings 18:46 gives us the reason why Elijah was able to outrun the chariots of Ahab.

1 Kings 18:46 ESV

And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he gathered up his garment and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

For some reason, when I read these verses about running with the horses, I imagined a short race like a mile or two on flat clear land but a human being has no chance to beat a horse under those conditions. But here is the thing, the longer the race and the more treacherous the terrain, the better the chance a person has of beating a horse on foot. There is a lesson in that imagery: those who can endure through uncertain and difficult times have an opportunity to do something remarkable. So how can we prepare ourselves to obey God’s command to run with the horses?

Remember your calling from God (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

Reject your insecurities and fears (Jeremiah 1:6-8)

Renew the vision of God (Jeremiah 1:9-14)

Jeremiah 1:4–5 ESV

Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “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.”

If we sit and think about this very first statement, it’s mind blowing. Before we were formed in our mothers womb, even before our parents met, and before we were even a twinkle in their eyes, God knew us! This calling that God has put upon each of our lives, comes out of His deep eternal personal knowledge of who we are and who we are destined to become. So many people, even those of us in church leadership, struggle with our sense of calling and we are always trying to figure things out on our own instead of simply coming to God and acknowledging that He knows us better than we know ourselves and being confident that God knew what He was doing when He called us into the ministry.

Many times, we limit our sense of calling simply to the time that we happened to discover it, not recognizing that this is something that God has been working on long before we were even aware of it. And the thing is even if you have a very powerful experience of your calling, it’s often not strong enough to keep you in the ministry. When I think of my personal experience of God calling me into the ministry, it should have left me with no doubt about God’s intention for my life.

After college, I was in the middle of applying for dental school and preparing for interviews but in the back of my mind was this nagging feeling that I was not obeying the Lord. About six months prior to that, I was worshipping and I sensed that God was telling me to become a full-time minister and I immediately rejected that and came up with all sorts of reasons why I couldn’t become a pastor. The main objection being finances. Well long story short, as I was planning to go to my first interview, I hit what seemed liked a financial crisis. The IRS sent me a letter stating I owed a bunch of back taxes, which eventually turned out to be an error. Our landlord threatened to evict us and sue us for damages because we had a couple of dogs that was against our rental policy. I really felt like God was trying to ruin my life financially. That week, we had a church meeting at our house and out of nowhere, my pastor at the time began to pray for me, and he said that he sensed that God was calling me into vocational ministry and that I was trying to run away. I broke down, repented right there in the prayer meeting, and declared that I was going to obey God and go into ministry. All the while, Mira is on the other side of the room and I could see her jaw drop, we had just been married about a few months and we got married early because we assumed that I would be heading off to dental school. I knew I was in trouble. That night I tried to make up and get a kiss but she said, “I can’t kiss you because I don’t kiss pastors.”

At the time, I felt a profound sense of calling but over the years I’ve realized that’s not enough because even that experience did not go deep enough. More deeper than my response to a prophetic prayer is knowing that before I was born, God knew me and out of that knowledge, he consecrated me, set me apart for His holy and sovereign plan. In hindsight, I would have made a horrible dentist and maybe I’m not the best pastor but I would have made a worst dentist. I just don’t care that much about people’s teeth. And through the good and especially the bad, I have to constantly remind myself that I was created and set apart for this very ministry that God has placed before me.

One of the main barriers to fulfilling our call is feeling like our ministry somehow is not significant or lacking in influence but what verse 5 teaches us is that our calling has more significance that we can imagine. Jeremiah was called to be a prophet to the nations and we see him fulfilling that in the last 6 chapters of the book as he writes down some of the most compelling and beautiful prophecies of judgement and hope for the nations but besides Egypt, he didn’t step foot in any of these countries, and even Egypt, he was taken there against his will, dragged as a prisoner. Although, Jeremiah’s ministry seemed limited from an earthly perspective. He didn’t have a big church with a lot of followers, he wasn’t the key note speaker at large prophecy conferences, he didn’t write a best selling book on how to hear the voice of God, but he endured and was faithful because he remained confident in the significance of his ministry because faithfulness to the Lord was his only standard of success.

After he had dictated these prophecies to one of his few loyal followers, Baruch, Jeremiah says something that we all need to take heed of:

Jeremiah 45:5 (ESV)

And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold, I am bringing disaster upon all flesh, declares the Lord.

I think Baruch was tired of living in anonymity, tired of not being recognized, weary of all the pain and trials of ministering with Jeremiah. He wanted to get his, so to speak. Baruch knew that what he was writing down was like gold, this is going to be a best-seller but by this point the prophet had fully matured and he knew without a shadow of a doubt, that his significance and the significance of his ministry didn’t come from the crowds, the approval of man, or even proving others wrong, it comes solely from the Lord. If the Lord calls you to be a prophet to the nations, a pastor to the city, that is what ultimately matters.

You know it seems like there is all of this effort to salvage people’s self-esteem and trying to affirm how important they are. But instead of making more secure people, more resilient, and more godly, it seems we are feeding people the wrong diet and it’s causing them to become more insecure, more fearful, more dependent on the vain pursuit of people’s applause, and the fame and recognition of the world. Jeremiah clearly was able to move past that point.

And in order to mature to this point, we have to deal with our own insecurities and fears.

Jeremiah 1:6–10 ESV

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” But the Lord said to me, “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.” Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “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.”

In the course of responding to the eternal call of God on our lives, we are faced with the unavoidable fact that we are called to an assignment that we can’t actually accomplish. And generally, when we come face to face with a task that we know we cannot do, all of our fears and insecurities manifest themselves. Isn’t that the joy of doing ministry? God calls us to speak truth to a world that doesn’t want to hear it, we are called to love people that are many times unlovable, we are asked to tackle social issues that have no solution, and get people to grow spiritually who seem to be unwilling. It’s pretty apparent from every example of calling in Bible, if you have not doubted yourself and felt the fear of failure, you are either really secure in the Lord or you’re fooling yourself.

We are experts, are we not of pleading our inadequecy? “I am only a youth. I don’t speak well. I’m too old. I’m not smart enough. I don’t have enough time. We can go on and on with these excuses.” But at least in part, this reveals that you recognize the enormous gap between what God is calling you to do and the true measure of your ability. And you can deal with your insecurity in one of two ways. You can just try to cover up your insecurities with your own performance, bravado, or Christian platitudes or you can allow God’s voice to overcome your own fears. I get a little bit suspicious of people who seem to have no fear of failing in their ministry because it doesn’t seem like they actually know all that ministry entails. The Christian leader that doesn’t allow God to deal with their insecurities is a dangerous person. If you are constantly trying to prove yourself, how smart you are, how capable you are, how much authority you think you have, you end up hurting a lot of people and harming the ministry that we are called to build.

Blaise Pascal once said, “Fear not, provided you fear; but if you fear not, then fear.” I think that is pretty sage advice. If indeed we are called to be a prophetic church as Pastor Keith shared yesterday, this passage highlights the impossible task that we have been given by the Lord. Eugene Peterson, shares the two conviction of someone who is involved in prophetic ministry:

The first conviction is that God is personal, alive, and active.

The second conviction is that this very point in history is absolutely critical.

A prophet is obsessed with God, who He is and what He is doing in the world at this particular moment. We have to believe that we are living on the very hinge of history and to prevail over these times will require everything we have and more. It’s incredibly daunting what we are called to as leaders in the Church of Christ. We have been set over nations and kingdoms, and through the power of God’s Word, we are called to not only to break down and destroy and overthrow but to build and to plant.

Currently, there is so much talk about deconstructing Christianity and the church and although we should realize that not all deconstruction is bad but it’s important that we understand the difference of how the world tears things down as opposed to how Jesus did it.

Jesus deconstructed the religion of his time by using the Bible to challenge how the world had penetrated into the faith.

We are trying to deconstruct historic orthodox Christianity by using secular values to challenge how the Bible has penetrated the Church.

But the main difference between Jesus’ deconstruction and this new modern deconstruction is that Jesus tore down in order to build back up. The modern deconstruction tears down but has no blueprint to how to build back up. True prophetic ministry, looks forward to the time when God will build back up, the things that have been torn down. We have a beautiful but practical picture of how Jeremiah looked forward to the time when his ministry would be about building up as opposed to tearing down, planting as opposed to uprooting.

Jeremiah 32:14–15 ESV

‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’

The final key to running with the horses is renewing the vision of God in your life.

Jeremiah 1:11–14 ESV

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.” Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.” The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.” Then the Lord said to me, “Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land.

The first vision that is given to Jeremiah is the vision of the almond tree which happens to be the earliest tree that blooms in the springtime of Israel. From the depths of winter, the almond tree blossoms as the promise of the coming spring. But there is also a word play that is important in this vision because the word for almond is nearly the same as the word for watching. (Shaqed vs Shoqed) Like the almond tree that blooms and watches over the promise of spring so is God watching over his Word until all his promises are fulfilled. The Word of God that is proclaimed will not return to Him void.

The second vision is the boiling pot that is tipped from the north. It’s a clear symbol of judgement. Everyone in Israel knew of the growing threat of the Babylonian Empire from the north. The threat of their invasion was simmering for many years but now it had reached the point of boiling and it was being ready to be poured out. As an image of judgement, hot water is an interesting picture because not only can it burn but it also can cleanse. I believe this is the way that Jeremiah saw this vision, this judgment of God will hurt, it will scald us but in the process it will cleanse us, renew us, and even heal us.

But not many apart from Jeremiah was willing to interpret this boiling pot as judgement for sin that was unavoidable. Most of the other religious leaders proclaimed the opposite of Jeremiah, God would deliver them, God would somehow give them victory over the Babylons but it wasn’t true. This highlights one of the great challenges that we will have moving forward as Christian leaders. Those of us who are pastorally inclined naturally have a hard time being prophetic, many times those two gifts come into direct conflict but a pastor that cannot and will not clearly proclaim the truth can turn into a false prophet. On the flip side, those of us who are more prophetically inclined naturally have a hard time being pastoral and the danger of that is you can become an unloving leader. Once that happens, you become worthless in ministry. As the apostle Pauls warns us you have nothing if you don’t have love.

The prophet Jeremiah in a time that was similar to ours was able to straddle the line between the two as best as any man born of natural birth could. In the Gospels, when people were questioning who Jesus was, they wondered if He was the reincarnation of John the Baptist, or perhaps Elijah, and surprisingly Jeremiah’s name is thrown in there as a list of candidates. John the Baptist was probably given some recency bias. Elijah is an obvious choice because of the prophecies in Malachi and the miracles that God performed through him. But we are left wondering why Jeremiah? I think it’s because Jeremiah captures the essence of what it truly means to be human in a world of turmoil.

Reading his book and the content of his judgment, we would never think that Jeremiah ministered at the very same time as King Josiah. That is the very king that enacted all the religious reforms Israel, took down all the idols in the land, and reinstated the worship of Yahweh as the national religion. The accounts of the book of Chronicles, make it sound like this was a national revival of faith. And it was in a certain sense and it kept the judgment of God at bay for a certain period of time, up through the life of Josiah. But there was still a very dark underbelly to the national religion, there was idolatry that was being practice in secret, many religious leaders of the time were either unqualified or in it for the wrong reasons.

God’s greatest complaint agains these leaders was that, “You heal the wounds of my people superficially.” You know what I realized about false teachers and prophets which scares me for myself, none of them ever say to themselves, “I think I will teach and prophesy falsely today and lead a bunch of people astray.” They are absolutely sure, as sure as you and I that they are proclaiming the truth. And unfortunately, this post-modern, post-truth, environment is the perfect breeding ground for these false leaders because all you have to be is authentic to your emotions and not according to the Scriptures. Being post-Christian complicates thing even further because these leaders can take Christian words and Christian values and mean something completely different.

And it is against this tide of turmoil, that we have to maintain our essential humanity before God. What it means to live in both truth and love. We can romanticize this tension between love and truth but let’s remember that it cost our Savior his life and it will cost us to live in this way as well.

Jeremiah 15:15–16 ESV

O Lord, you know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance take me not away; know that for your sake I bear reproach. Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts.

Jeremiah 20:7–9 ESV

O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.

If you remember from the Lord of the Rings, as Gandalf is recruiting Frodo for the impossible task of destroying the Ring, Frodo resists the call by telling Gandalf, “I am not made for perilous quests. I wish I had never seen the Ring. Why did it come to me? Why was I chosen?

Gandalf, the symbol of God in these books answers his little furry friend, “Such questions cannot be answered. You may be sure that it was not for any merit that others do not possess; not for power or wisdom, at any rate. But you have been chosen and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.”