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Jeremiah, Surrender

There are few people in the Bible that endured as much as the prophet Jeremiah. God called upon him to prophecy to Judah during a time when no one would listen. He was arrested, beaten, ignored, and cut off from his own people. In fact throughout his forty some odd years of ministry, there are only two people shown to have listened. Two! 

The time frame of Jeremiah's ministry is very different from that of Isaiah's. Isaiah prophesied during the days of a good king, Hezekiah, who listened for God. There was still a chance for Judah to be spared from judgment and repent. Jeremiah's message is much more bleak than Isaiah's. He preaches that the judgment is coming no matter what, the only thing the people can do is surrender.

Background

The book of Jeremiah was written by Jeremiah with some assistance from his scribe, Baruch. It was written in pieces over the course of Jeremiah's ministry, which roughly ranged from roughly 630 BC to 590 BC. The pieces were then collected and put into one book.

The book of Jeremiah can be somewhat tricky because of this. The pieces aren't always in an order that makes sense. There are time jumps backwards and forwards in time, and it can seem like Jeremiah is suddenly changing the subject. This is simply due to the fact that the pieces were simply put together into one book. It's like if Paul's letters weren't divided up in the Bible. It would still always be the same author with the same theological message, but writing at different times to different audiences.

Themes

Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible. Psalms may have the most chapters, but Jeremiah has the most words. As you can probably surmise, this means there are several themes that run throughout the book. Today we are going to look at the central theme; surrender.

Now surrender is definitely not new to the book of Jeremiah. In fact one could argue that the Bible's theme is surrendering to God. In Jeremiah this theme is particularly strong. The people are so depraved, so caught up in sin, that the only way for them to be saved is to surrender to God's judgment.

Jeremiah repeatedly calls the people to surrender to what God is going to do. He urges them not to fight the Babylonian army that will come and destroy the nation. He pleads with them to accept God's punishment as just and righteous. Jeremiah argues that salvation for Judah can only be obtained through surrender to judgment.

Theological Point

This idea of surrendering to God's judgment has not gone away for us. One of the great misconceptions we have in churches is that because of Jesus we will avoid God's judgment. This is simply not true. Because of Jesus we will SURVIVE God's judgment. 

Think about it. Are we not called to become living sacrifices, to crucify ourselves, and to die with Christ? Are we not supposed to die while Christ lives in us? God's judgment of our sin is death. No matter what, we are called to die for our sin. The question is do we face God having died with Christ and therefore being alive with him? Or do we try to face God alone?

Jesus died so we can live, but not as we are. He did not die so our sinful nature can rule supreme. He died so we can be utterly transformed by the Spirit, putting to death the sinful and letting the holy live. This is something we will definitely revisit later, as I think we have skewed what the cross of Christ does for us.

Conclusion

God calls us to surrender, just as he called Judah to surrender. It is only through surrendering to God that we can have true life. Jeremiah also serves as a role model for us today. We stand in a world that does not want to listen and is hostile to the Word of God, much like Jeremiah did. He surrendered to God's will and persevered, as should we.

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