What do you make of this prayer?

Yes, I know. I know that Jeremiah was a miserable prophet. 

He lived at a time of misery for his nation – Judah. They (aka Israelites) had lost (to the bellicose neo-Assyrian Empire) ten twelfths of their territory over 100 years earlier. When Jeremiah wrote the remaining two twelfths as well as the capital city of Jerusalem had been totally overcome by the neo-Babylonian Empire in 587 BC. Virtually all his seniors, friends and young people had been sent into captivity – into captivity to slavery. 

But miserable Jeremiah could pray – and record in writing his prayer:  O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble. 

This reminds me, today, of Evgenii & Maryna Lvov in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine where Evgenii is a follower of Jesus Christ and part of Baburka Church. 

Zaporizhzhia continues, now – today, to be one of the cities most affected by the war, as one of the main gateways from the Russian-occupied territories, and only 60km from Europe's biggest nuclear power plant. Missile attacks on the city are frequent, and the flow of refugees continues to be much higher than other cities. Evgenii is a seminary Bible teacher and deacon in the church, which has continued to serve the many displaced people in the city very sacrificially.

 

Do you think Evgenii and Maryna might pray as Jeremiah did?

But what do you think of the four positive aspects of Jeremah’s prayer? They were positive because he prayed: O LORD, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: (1) to (4) …

One day, the nations will come to the LORD and say (1) Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies ... What do you make of that? Will thinking humanity ever reach that conclusion?

One day, the nations will come to the LORD and say (2) Our fathers have inherited nothing but worthless things in which there is no profit ... What do you make of that? Will many thinking human beings realize that everything they spent their whole life and energy getting and keeping will always left behind – and will therefore be everlastingly worthless to them. Jeremiah was positive that that would be the case.

One day, the nations will come to the LORD and say (3) Can man make for himself gods? What do you think? Is the US government led by gods? What about Unilever and Microsoft? Who’s in charge? When it comes to climate change, will mankind find someone to be the gods that will save the planet? Jeremiah was confident that this would be the case – that human beings would find “the LORD”.

One day, the nations will come to the LORD and say (4) Such are not gods! The “such” are the purported gods that man will make for himself. Again, what do you think? Will some human beings become aware that the solutions provided to all of us day by day are not solutions at all? Will folk begin to know that instead of being “gods” (like those who say “we’ll do whatever it takes” or “we are taking steps to ensure this damaging failure will never happen again”) these creative solutions are empty or inherently catastrophic or, perhaps more likely these days, somewhere in between? Jeremiah was positive that this would be seen.

 

I’m confident too. Because, like Evgenii and Maryna Lvov in war-smitten Ukraine, I’ve seen the Son of the living God put to death on a cross and being raised from the dead. And I know that he went through that so as to be able to forgive all those who put him there (and their successors), in fact so as to forgive and to give new life to all those who turn to this same LORD, to whom Jeremiah prayed in his distress.

As Jeremiah said: O LORD, [you are] my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble …