The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, “The Lord, your God, pronounced this disaster against this place.”
-Jeremiah 40:2
All throughout the book of Jeremiah, he was ridiculed, rejected because he was bringing messages of judgment, of coming disaster, and people did not want to hear it. But he proclaimed it faithfully, day after day, as God told him to. And so you get to Jeremiah 40:2, and this captain takes Jeremiah aside and says, “You were right. God pronounced this. You spoke what God said.”
God help us to believe Your Word even when we are tempted to doubt and help us to proclaim it when we are tempted to be silent.
When I read this verse, I am reminded that the word of God will always prove true, and those who trust in his word and proclaim his word will always be vindicated in time. We can know that what God has said will come to pass, and there are days when we wonder when God’s word is rejected around us, or God’s word doesn’t seem popular.
We begin to question or begin to doubt God’s word, its truth, its reliability. And Jeremiah 40:2 is a reminder to us: Don’t doubt the word of God. Trust the word of God. Don’t reject the word of God. Receive the word of God. Don’t be silent with the word of God. Speak the word of God. It will always, always, always prove true. And everyone who trusts in this word, who obeys this word, who proclaims this word, you will be vindicated over time.
So, God, we praise you for your word. We praise you for its reliability, its authority, its truthfulness, its faithfulness. We know everything you have said is true, will prove true over time. So, God, help us to trust in it, even when we are tempted not to. Help us to believe it when we are tempted to doubt it. Help us to speak it when we are tended to stay silent with it, even when it might mean rejection, even when it might mean … Well, all kinds of different costs.
God help us to proclaim it anyway, just as Jeremiah did knowing that there will come a day when our proclamation of this word … People will say, “You were right.” And not so that we’re right, but because you are right. Because your word is always right.
Jeremiah 40:2 Demonstrates God’s Absolute Word
So, God, help us to see your word this way. Help us to proclaim your word this way. God, we know. We share the gospel with somebody today. They might reject that word, that might affect our relationship with them, but there’s coming a day when they will say “Thank you for sharing that.” So help us to realize this, and help us to speak your word boldly, and clearly, and faithfully as a result. God, we pray that you use us to share the gospel with somebody today.
God, I pray for that in my life. I pray for that in everybody’s that’s listening. Help us to share this word today so that your good news might may known before the judgment that is coming will be made known. In Jesus’s name, we pray. Amen.
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David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
