When Yahweh’s people go wrong, the whole world suffers. The creatures of the land who still honours Yahweh-suffers.
Jeremiah 14:5-6 – Even deer in the fields give birth and abandon their young because there is no grass. Wild donkeys stand on the bare hills. They sniff the air like jackals. Their eyesight fails because they have no green grass.
It stands to reason that since we were given dominion over the animals, when we give our dominion to anyone else than Yahweh, it affects them too.
Jeremiah 15:1 – Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing in front of me, I would not feel sorry for these people. Send them away from me and let them go.”
This is Yahweh’s way of saying, “You’ve taken big and dunce to a whole new level.” Imagine, Moses who was able to stop Yahweh from destroying the Israelites then, wouldn’t be able to do so now. Why we harden so?
Jeremiah 16:1-2 – The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, “Don’t marry! Don’t have any sons or daughters in this place!”
Way boi! When Yahweh says that he will banish the sounds of the bride and groom (Jeremiah 16:9, Jeremiah 7:34), he wasn’t kidding! Even his faithful servant felt it. Sad truth, even when we are living the life Yahweh called us to live, we will still feel the effects of others sin.
Jeremiah’s Prayer
Jeremiah 20:14 – 18 – Cursed is the day that I was born,the day that my mother gave birth to me. May it not be blessed.
Cursed is the man who made my father very happy with the news that he had just become the father of a baby boy.
May that man be like the cities that the Lord destroyed without pity. May he hear a cry of alarm in the morning and a battle cry at noon.
If only he had killed me while I was in the womb. Then my mother would have been my grave, and she would have always been pregnant.
Why did I come out of the womb? All I’ve seen is trouble and grief. I will finish my days in shame.
This is sad. Jeremiah’s Prayer is heartbreaking. Here is Yahweh’s servant, crying out wishing he hadn’t been born because of the trouble he was experiencing doing what Yahweh asked him to do.
His lament was similar to Job’s (Job 3). The difference though is in the response from Yahweh. He rebuked Job for calling him to question. He continued to strengthen Jeremiah to do his work.
No lie, I’m tempted to skip ahead and research what happened to Jeremiah in the end (shameface), I have no idea. But I will wait and continue reading.