Reading… and Thinking

If I say, “I will not mention him,
   or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
   shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
   and I cannot.

— Jeremiah 20:9 (ESV)

It cost Jeremiah to speak the word of the Lord. He was ridiculed, he was hated, he was treated as a madman — until they started treating him like a criminal. Then, he was put in stocks, he was beaten, he was imprisoned, he was thrown into a cistern and left to die. There are clues that his rightful place as a priest (possibly even the high priesthood) was denied him. And the cost was not limited to what men did to him. The Lord told him that he could not marry or have a family, that he would be solitary all his life.

On top of that, the Lord warned Jeremiah that no one would pay attention to what he said. And so it turned out. So, here he was, suffering for his preaching, and it wasn’t doing any good anyway! No wonder he decided to just stop!

But he couldn’t hold it in! The word was like a fire inside him. He had to get it out!

Now I have no doubt that inspiration is a powerful force. But, contemporary with the later part of Jeremiah’s ministry, we find Ezekiel in Babylon. Ezekiel was similarly inspired, but he was unable to bring himself to speak the word that God had given him! He sat in stony silence before the elders, who knew that he had words from God to speak. And he wouldn’t open his mouth. God warned him, and finally made him act out a series of parables.

So having the word of the Lord come to you doesn’t compel you to speak. This remarkable young prophet, Jeremiah, was driven by his own conviction, and his anguish over the fate that was determined for his people. He felt the word as a force that had a power he couldn’t withstand.

Is the Word that kind of a force in my life? There are times when its power is very real, but I have to confess that there are other times when I don’t feel it with the intensity that Jeremiah did. And I can’t excuse myself by saying, “Well, the word of the Lord hasn’t come directly to me like it did to him.” Nonsense! It has indeed come to me. The word that came to Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and all the other prophets and apostles, is all right in front of me, in my Bible. It has come to me, no less than to them.

The difference isn’t in the Word – the difference is within me. I need to let the Word light such a fire in me, so that I can’t hold it in. For I am sent with a message, no less than Jeremiah was. And so are you. Oh, and by the way, Jeremiah was probably high school age, no more than college age, when the Lord called him. So there’s no excuse for any of us, based on age or experience!