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THE SONG OF THE JEREMIAHS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 12, 2025 – They wanted to frame him as a turncoat and traitor. This is important, so listen up here. They wanted to frame him as a turncoat and traitor so that he’d change his tune and sing the song they were blaring over the loudspeaker for everyone to sing. But he couldn’t change his tune. He couldn’t stay true to himself and his God if he sang the song they wanted him to sing. And they wanted him to sing that song so bad, they beat him and put him in chains, and when that didn’t work and he still refused to sing, they dumped him into a slime pit and left him to die.
Of all people, an Ethiopian had pity on him and arranged a rescue party. Still, even as they hauled him up by the armpits, starving and covered in slime, he adamantly refused to sing any song but that of himself and his God. And so they just gave up on him and fed him a little bread and let him sing his song until what he sang came to pass, and they all died except for him and those who’d listened to him.
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There are a handful Jeremiahs in Canada now, refusing to sing the song being blared over the loudspeaker. Their refusal to sing is framing them as turncoats and traitors. This is important, so listen up here. They’re being framed as turncoats and traitors, but the king of Babylon’s back, baby, and he wants his pound of flesh. God has put that pound of flesh into his hands, so you might even say he’s earned it fair and square.
If God says it’s to be done, it’s to be done. If God says it’s been earned, it’s been earned. This is the song the Jeremiahs are singing: “God’s will be done (What you have coming, you have coming)”. They can’t but sing that song, the song of God’s will being done. You can’t not sing that song, not if you’re a Jeremiah.
This is important, so listen up here. Nebuchadnezzar’s back, with a bad spray tan and a wicked combover, but he means business and he’s got God’s backing. This is my song. This is the song of the Jeremiahs.
God’s will be done.
What you have coming, you have coming.
INTO THE FIERY FURNACE
CHARLO, New Brunswick, April 11, 2024 – Our trials, when they come (and come they will), don’t always announce themselves in advance. Sometimes our trials are meant to blindside us because our raw response is part of the test.
Daniel’s good friends and colleagues, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (hereafter “SM&A”), weren’t entirely blindsided by their trial, but they also didn’t have months to prepare for the furnace. In the book of Daniel, we read that Nebuchadnezzar, the then king of Babylon, had a 60-foot-high golden idol set up. He was so proud of his idol, he decreed that everyone – regardless of cultural background – must fall down and worship it whenever they heard the sounds of certain instruments playing, kind of like Pavlov’s dogs responding to ringing bells. The punishment for failing to prostrate before the abomination was death by fiery furnace.
From the get-go, SM&A wanted nothing to do with the decree. Note that they didn’t lobby against it or protest it or start a petition to protect their minority religious rights. No, they didn’t engage in any kind of public protest or encourage others to do so. Instead, they just didn’t go along with it and remained quietly and resolutely standing when everyone else around them fell down.
Their decision to remain standing marked them for trouble. Soon enough, trouble came in the form of a gaggle of envious Chaldeans who gleefully snitched on them to the king. Furious, the king hauled SM&A before him and offered them a calculated deal: He promised them that if they would fall down on cue from that point onward, they’d be off the hook for their previous failings and free to go. But if they chose not to fall down, they’d be thrown into the furnace and burned alive. The king then addended his offer with: “and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?”
Who, indeed.
SM&A, knowing their God and choosing to stand firm in his promises rather than those of the king, quickly but respectfully schooled Nebuchadnezzar, stating:
If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. (Daniel 3:16-18)
Their refusal to submit to him sent Nebuchadnezzar into a blind rage, and he ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than usual and that the men be thrown into it fully dressed and bound, and without further ado.
We can only imagine what was going through the minds and hearts of SM&A while they were being hauled off to their fiery end by the king’s brutes. Whatever it was, it caught God’s attention, and he immediately sent his angel to protect the faithful trio, who ultimately emerged unscathed, unsinged, and even fresh-smelling from their trial. Humbled by what he’d witnessed, the king then decreed that anyone who spoke anything amiss against God should be dealt with accordingly.
All’s well that ends well, certainly, but I believe there’s a deeper lesson to be learned here than simply that God comes to the rescue of those who are faithful to him or that God gives you exactly what you’re asking for in prayer. In their statement to Nebuchadnezzar, SM&A not only pointed out that God was indeed able to save them from the furnace, if he so chose, but that even if God chose not to save them from the furnace, they would still remain loyal to him. In stating this, SM&A were showing that they were not putting any conditions on God or making assumptions about what he would or would not do: they were only stating what he was capable of and affirming that their loyalty and submission would remain to God and to God only, regardless of how their trial played out.
My dear fellow born-again believers – this is the crux of our faith: that we stand on the witness of our heart, not our eyes, and that we put no conditions on God or make assumptions about what he will or will not do for us. We love God and are loyal to him because we love him and are loyal to him. Full stop. We don’t stop loving him (that is, give up on him and turn from him to worship other gods) if he doesn’t deliver us from our trials in the way we think we should be delivered, or if he doesn’t deliver our loved ones from their trials.
We put no conditions on God. That, I believe, is the deeper lesson taught to us by the fiery trial of SM&A. Yes, they were delivered by God who showed he was well and easily able to do so, but even if he hadn’t delivered them (like he didn’t deliver Isaiah from being sawn in half or he didn’t deliver Jesus from being crucified), their faith (I believe) would have remained sure.
We stand on the witness of our heart, not our eyes. We love God with everything we have and everything we are and submit fully to him and to him only not because of what he can do for us, but because he is. That’s the first and what Jesus called the greatest Commandment.
If you’re not there yet in your faith, you need to get there, and the sooner the better.
BIBLE READ-THROUGH: DAY 25 REFLECTION (JEREMIAH 23 – 49:39)
“40 Days and 40 Nights of God’s Word”
DAY 25: AUGUST 16
JEREMIAH 23 – 49:39
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, August 16, 2021 – From a 21st century perspective, Jeremiah was like an embedded journalist in war-torn Jerusalem. He was always in the thick of things when reporting God’s Word, but few wanted to hear what God had to say. They preferred tuning into the fake news from the false prophets, as they promised continued prosperity and peace. As we see in today’s reading, only those who heeded Jeremiah’s warnings survived.
- Like Isaiah and other prophets before him, Jeremiah was also given a word from God about Jesus. Through the prophet, God called Jesus a “righteous Branch” of the house of David, a King who would not only reign but prosper (unlike evil kings) and be known as “The Lord Our Righteousness”. During his reign, Israel will be safe from all its enemies. This, of course, is yet another reference to God’s Kingdom on Earth, which exists here and now and is currently being ruled over by none other than The Lord Our Righteousness himself – Jesus. If you’re genuinely born-again, you’re a citizen of that Kingdom and The Lord Our Righteousness is your King. Amen!
- Lovely line a few chapters later, also in reference to the Kingdom: “I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel….” If any of you have spent time walking by a river, you’ll know that the lushest greenery is next to it, the freshest air is next to it, and a natural pathway is next to it, forged by erosion over the centuries. God promises to be a father to us, protecting and guiding us, fighting off our enemies, and correcting us through appropriate punishment when we need it. Note that Jeremiah says that God will “cause” us to walk by the river. That means he’ll make it so that we end up there; it will be his doing – not ours – that we walk along this naturally-forged path in the freshest of air and lushest of greenery, with abundant fresh water for the taking. This is life in the Kingdom for the converted. God always delivers on his promises.
- Much of today’s reading centers on the political intrigues and behind-the-scenes plots involving the kings that immediately succeeded Josiah and also on the problems caused by the false prophets. Recall that Josiah was the only king during Jeremiah’s time that “did right in the sight of the Lord”; all the rest did evil. (Check out 2 Chronicles, last page, for a run-down of the final kings before the 70-year exile to Babylon.) We read about Jeremiah getting arrested and imprisoned in various places, his papers confiscated and burned, and his reputation dragged through the mud, all for speaking God’s Word to God’s people. God doesn’t promise his servants an easy time of it, but he does promise them that they will be renewed and refreshed by his Word and protected by his Spirit. We see this in Jeremiah, in that he continually gets rescued from whatever’s thrown at him. Even the enemies of the Israelites rescue him. God uses every resource he has at hand to protect and support those who are loyal to him.
- Jeremiah told the people that God wanted them to leave Jerusalem and the surrounding cities, go to Babylon, and put themselves under the authority of Nebuchadnezzar, whom God called his “servant”. To the Jews in positions of power in Judah and Israel, this was treason. In their view, Jeremiah was aiding and abetting the enemy by telling the Israelites to cut their losses and surrender to the Chaldeans and Babylonians. Why would God tell his people to desert Jerusalem, knowing that when they did that, the temple would be looted and the city destroyed?
- Jeremiah is very clear that God needs to punish Judah and Israel for their centuries of sins. The punishment is to live in Babylon as captives for a period of 70 years, after which, if they repented and turned back to God with all their hearts, they could return to their lands. God would then punish Babylon. God always has a plan, and God’s plan is always best. Too bad that so few people go along with it.
- The remainder of today’s reading shows that those who refused to obey God’s guidance, as given by Jeremiah, either died in Jerusalem, died fleeing Jerusalem, or died shortly after if they went to Egypt instead of Babylon. God is always very clear about his directives; he doesn’t leave room for misinterpretation. The people were told to surrender and go to Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar’s authority and all would be reasonably well with them. However, they chose not to heed the advice. They saw surrender as losing face, and they couldn’t conceive that God wanted them to live as captives under their enemies. They took a position of pride and refused to budge, and it was their downfall. Jeremiah survived and actually thrived as a stranger in a strange land.
- The story of the machinations of the evil kings and their princes, priests, advisors, and false prophets is meant for us to learn from. It is a cautionary tale. Sometimes the right way forward is directly into the arms of the enemy, if that’s where God tells you to go. Always go where God tells you to go, not where human reasoning or pride dictate. God makes use of all the world’s resources to support his children, including resources belonging to enemies. What’s theirs, in some cases, is also ours, if God says so.
The book of Jeremiah shows us the day-to-day life of a prophet of God in ancient Israel. Of all the OT prophets, it probably provides the most details, other than for the book of Daniel. The NT, on the other hand, is full of intimate day-to-day details of lives lived in accordance with God’s will, as we’ll see starting next week. The details are important not only to flesh out the people being described and draw us deeper into their story, but to serve as a guide for what to do (or not to do) under different situations.
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The schedule for the BIBLE READ-THROUGH is directly below.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 