"He is Built to Pastor" - Jeremiah 3:15

The Perfect Pastor

The results of a computerized survey indicate the perfect pastor preaches exactly 15 minutes. He condemns sin but never upsets anyone. He works from 8:00 am to midnight and is also the janitor. He makes $50 a week, wears good clothes, buys good books, drives a good car, and gives about $50 weekly in the offering. He is 28 years old and he been preaching for 30 years. He has a burning desire to work with teenagers and spends all of his time with senior citizens. The perfect pastor smiles all of the time with a straight face because he has a sense of humor that keeps him seriously dedicated to his work. He makes 15 calls daily on church families, shut-in, and the hospitalized. He spends all of his time door-knocking and is always in his office when needed.

The Book of Jeremiah

The tumultuous period of Judah’s last days brought forth a clamor of prophetic voices warning that Judah’s time was short unless it repented and returned to the Lord. However, towering above Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Ezekiel was the lonely figure of Jeremiah. Nevertheless, his message largely went unheeded.In his commentary on Jeremiah, J. Bright’s first statement is “Jeremiah … was one of the prophets of Israel.” However commonplace as this statement appears, he says, it is “actually the essential statement to be made about the man.” Another way of introducing Jeremiah is to see him as the most “human” of all the prophets. More is known about the personal and inner life of Jeremiah than any other prophet. Given to alternating moods of despair and exaltation, it is easier, perhaps, for us to identify with him than with a prophet as majestic and remote as Isaiah, as self-disciplined and visionary as Ezekiel, or as fiery as Amos. Jeremiah exhibited qualities of courage, compassion, and sensitivity. He also revealed a darker side of moodiness, introspection, loneliness, doubt, and retribution toward his personal enemies (11:20). He could call for vengeance on those who attacked him but also intercede passionately for God to spare his people. He could stand his ground against personal threats but also weep uncontrollably as he considered the suffering of his own people. Though frequently called the “weeping prophet,” his tears should be interpreted not as evidence of inner weakness but as proof of his love for his people. He must have gained a reputation for courage during his lifetime, for centuries later comparisons were made between Jesus and Jeremiah (Matt 16:14). He was the son of Hilkiah, a priest of Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. It is not certain whether Jeremiah himself was a priest. If he was, he did not mention it. Jeremiah was not married when called to be a prophet; in fact, he was forbidden to marry (16:1–4). Since young men customarily married in their late teens, Jeremiah probably was under twenty years of age when called “in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah” (1:2), i.e., 627 B.C. The reader is never told how Jeremiah earned his livelihood. It is unlikely that his preaching would have resulted in monetary compensation had a collection plate been passed. Perhaps those few who agreed with his message provided for his physical needs, which would have been minimal. On the other hand, he may have had independent financial resources because he was able to purchase the land of a relative when it was offered to him (32:9). There are four distinct periods in Jeremiah’s ministry: (1) 627–609, from the date of his call to the death of King Josiah; (2) 609–597, from Josiah’s death to the deportation of King Jehoiachin to Babylon; (3) 597–587, the years of the reign of King Zedekiah to the fall of Jerusalem; and (4) from the fall of Jerusalem in 587 to Jeremiah’s involuntary flight to Egypt, where the story abruptly ends. The reader is told nothing about his final years or his death. An evaluation of Jeremiah by most standards of success would brand him an abysmal failure. He preached for forty years without convincing the people that he was God’s prophet. He was threatened, ridiculed, and physically abused by his own people. Jerusalem was finally destroyed, and Judah ceased to exist as a nation because the people refused to accept Jeremiah’s remedy for deliverance—turn back to God and submit to the Babylonians. However, Jeremiah must not be judged by human standards. God has a different measuring stick by which he judges a person’s life. His is the test of obedience. God only required that Jeremiah obey him by proclaiming his message. Jeremiah was not responsible for a favorable response or lack of response. One who is an obedient servant of the Lord today is not held accountable for lack of response from those who hear his message. The great rulers of Jeremiah’s day—Ashurbanipal, Nebuchadnezzar, Neco, and Hophra—have largely been forgotten. Their influence is nil, whereas Jeremiah’s name and influence remain because of his obedience to God’s will for him.

Current State of Affairs

Judah has again left its first love to go after “many love” with the assumption that it could always return to God.....God withholds the rain as a sign of his disfavor…Between the months of the early rain (Oct-Nov) and latter rains (March-April), the farmers depended on the rain....the fertility cults were supposed to ensure rainfall, Judah’s participation in them was actually the cause of drought in the land…Judah had no intention of changing their ways but expected God’s anger to abate…The keyword in the book and in chapter 3 is return:

Jer. 3:12 - Return faithless Israel

Jer. 3:14 - Return faithless children

Jer. 3:22 - Return faithless sons

He’s God’s heart for this body - He Obeys God

The prophet Jeremiah declares that He will place his heart in the place that has returned to him. When a church is gathered it must be governed. When Jeremiah says God will bring them back, not to live as they list, but to be under discipline...After seventy years, the people would return to Jerusalem, and he would provide the “shepherd” or “pastor” to guide those that returned to Jerusalem. The word shepherd is raah, care for any needs that flocks of small mammals have, with a focus on providing grazing pasture for the flock and moving the flocks around to the grazing grounds; a shepherd both cares and tends for the sheep, but also has authority over or rules a flock as a superior. The sheep cannot It is will with a people when their pastors are after God’s heart. God has a prepared people that can handle his heart. After my own heart literally means “who obey me” and “according to my choice.” Another common rendering is whose thinking is like mine or who will care for you like I do. It is will with a people when their pastors are after God’s heart.

He Understands the Assignment

The image of the shepherd is one that takes his sheep to places were they can eat well. The shepherd will rule with wisdom and understanding.

knowledge (dea(h) - information that implies wisdom and skill in judgment

understanding (sakal) - have a capacity for understanding, implying this state is a result of proper teaching

The Hope of the Pastor

God looked beyond Jeremiah’s ay to a time after the people returned, in great number and prosperity. They would no longer mention or even remember the ark of the covenant. The ark and the temple symbolized God’s presence with his people (Exod 25:22; Lev 16:2; 1 Sam 4:4; 2 Kgs 19:15; 1 Chr 28:2; Pss 80:1; 99:5). The venerated symbols of God’s presence will no longer be needed because God himself will be present in their midst (Rev 21:22–23). At that time the people will no longer follow the “stubbornness” of their hearts. Jerusalem itself, God’s dwelling place, will be called “the Throne of the Lord.” True faith does not depend on symbols or external forms in order to worship God (John 4:23). With bold anticipation of the future, Jeremiah announced that one day Israel and Judah would be reunited. “A northern land” refers to places of exile. Jeremiah was not the only prophet who spoke of a future reunification (Isa 11:12–13; Ezek 37:16–23; Hos 3:5; Mic 2:12). Some scholars point to this prediction as evidence that it was written after 587 b.c., when Judah was also in exile. The validity of this interpretation depends on one’s belief that a prophet cannot predict future events (cf. Isa 42:21–23).