Jerusalem is about to collapse. Babylonians are knocking down its defenses. Enemies from outside, betrayal from within, and con fusion from every where have turned the city of peace into a center of terror and tragedy. King Zedekiah is under siege, and is not sure whether he is witnessing a plunder by an enemy or a judgment from God. The king secretly summons a neglected prophet from prison and demands of him: "Is there any word from the Lord?" (Jer. 37:17).
Jeremiah thunders: "There is!"
What a confrontation! On the one hand there is the king, who, in search of a prophetic word to soothe his soul and condone his conduct, has found Jeremiah too inconvenient and therefore condemned him to imprisonment and privation. On the other, there is the prophet, conscious of his humble pedigree, frightened by the enormity of his mission, but always sustained by the promise that God would make him a "fortified city" (Jer. 1:18, RSV), even as the world around him collapses into chaos.
When the frightened king and the faithful prophet meet, there is both a sense of siege and an assurance of serenity. The king sees the enemy army closing in. All the wealth, power, and arrogance that he has paraded in Jerusalem cannot aid him in his moment of lostness and despair. He finds himself without God, and discovers that a life without God is a life under siege. A shadow turns into an ominous threat. A turn slips into an abyss. Gentle whispers of a breeze sound like uprooting tornadoes. A pause becomes a period without further movement or promise. Time to walk turns to an urge to run. Reflection on the past becomes an escape from the future. Opportunity to assert friendship slides into a moment of betrayal. And the Zedekiah complex takes over.
But consider Jeremiah's serenity, even though he had reasons to be otherwise. From the beginning of his ministry, the prophet hardly knew acceptance or success. Every proclamation was met with rejection and ridicule; every witness received abuse or slander. Imprisonment, privation, and personal indignity were his rewards for his faithfulness to God's calling. Yet he never wavered in his mission. He stood tall, a symbol of courage and fortitude.
How does one account for Zedekiah's despair and Jeremiah's composure? Both were called to high office in God's governance over Israel. One failed; the other succeeded. Why? The answer is to be found in how they related to the source of their authority: God.
Jeremiah knew God, and God knew him. The dialogue between the two in the first chapter reveals an intimacy, a personal acquaintance, and a one-to-one covenant. When God is so intimately known, when He becomes the source of personal power, authority, and mission, life stands on a firm foundation, and an ordinary mortal becomes an invincible child of God. No crisis could overwhelm Jeremiah; no disaster could uproot his mission.
Zedekiah lacked such a personal experience with God; consequently, when the crisis struck, all the king's horses, all the king's men, could not put him back together again. The king was conscious of his royal person and power, but little did he know or care that before and beyond his power rested God's word. Had he realized that he was what he was because of God's grace and will, he would not have found himself in the predicament he was in. Pride and a defiance of God's purposes drove him in search of false gods. God's word became too inconvenient. He didn't want a message to direct him; rather, he wanted a message to confirm him in his self-delusions. So he sought after his own prophets, and in the process he missed God. Without God or His word, life to Zedekiah became a siege.
Jeremiah, however, discovered early in his ministry that without God he was nothing. By faith he grasped the personhood of God and made Him a reality of his life. His faith lived at God's call; it allowed no compromise on principles or submission to personal convenience. His faith led him to a ministry in which integrity was not for sale, in which his soul was not for exchange, in which the spiritual was not to be bargained away in preference for the mundane, in which the other was not crushed in order that the I might survive. His commitment was to the ministry of declaring that God is.
That fact--that God is--cannot be argued or debated. Human systems can not sit around on street comers or in university chairs or in parliamentary halls to debate and decide the existence of God. Community, education, and power have a role to play in the affairs of men, but the discovery of God is not one such. Out of the turbulence of the heart, out of the uncertainties of existence, the flicker of faith must dare shine, dispel darkness, and look up and behold God. He comes where faith is, and He comes with His word: "For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, ... to give you a future and a hope" (Jer. 29:11, RSV).
So come chaos, come loneliness, come war, the pastor in Jeremiah could always affirm that the Lord is. For he knew Him and His word. John M. Fowler.