“My anguish, my anguish, I writhe in pain. Oh the walls of my heart, my heart is beating wildly. I cannot keep silent for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.”
– Jeremiah 4:19
What a picture of the anguishing heart of God in Jeremiah as a prophet. He’s anguishing over people and their sin and the effects of that before God, he knows, he knows that the judgment of God is coming. He knows that the people that God has called him to speak to are about to experience the wrath of God and foreign armies coming upon them and he’s writing. The language here is so strong. He’s writhing in pain, the walls of his heart are about to burst, his heart is beating wildly which provokes him to speak.
Jeremiah 4:19 Reminds Us of the Weight Of Judgment
Christians must sound the alarm and proclaim Christ because of the weight of judgment coming for those who do not trust in Jesus.
Oh, God’s word has this kind of effect, and it’s not just for Jeremiah and the prophets, it’s intended to be for us, for every one of us who knows the word of God. It’s surrounded by people who are at this moment under the judgment of God and wrath is coming and this is what the Bible teaches.
We can’t soften over this. We need to feel this and we need to feel this in our hearts with anguish. People around us, peoples around the world who don’t know and believe the gospel, when they die, will experience eternal judgment. Separation from God, the wrath of God due sin. That’s what’s coming for people who don’t hear and believe in, trust in Jesus.
So do our hearts writhe in anguish over them. Do our hearts beat wildly in such a way that we are provoked to speak. We can’t stay silent because we hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. We know what’s coming.
Jeremiah 4:19 Leads Us to Ask God for Help
Oh God, give us this kind of writhing and anguish in our heart. Lord, I pray for my own heart and I pray for others who are listening to this right now. God please, please help us to feel the weight of what’s coming. Help us to feel the weight of what’s coming for those who don’t know Christ. Pray that you would help us to feel that weight when we think about our friends, family members around us right now, co-workers. Help us to alarm them, help us to let them know. God, use us to let them know that judgment is coming. Mercy is available in Christ.
This Verse Leads Us to Think About the Tamil People
We have this word, may it cause our hearts to beat for those who are under impending judgment around us and not just around us but around the world. God, I think about the Tamil people in India today, over three million of them, Muslims, and no known followers of Jesus. If maybe a few followers of Jesus among three million of them. They’re in mainly Southern India. God, we pray for the spread of your gospel. Grace to them, our hearts beat wildly for them. They don’t even know the name of Jesus. They don’t know the gospel of Jesus. They’ve never heard it, and so God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to them.
Please, oh God, please, please, please raise up labors from North America, raise up labors our brothers and sisters in India and near there. God, cause the Tamil people, we pray, to come to Christ. God, we plead for this. Please oh God, save Tamil people from their sins. Cause our hearts to break over them and people groups around them. Cause our hearts to break for the individual people around us who are right now under your judgment. They are separated from you, headed toward eternal wrath if they don’t hear your word, help us to say we cannot keep silent. We will speak your word to them. In Jesus’ name we pray.
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.
