Jeremiah was a prophet, at a time of Israel’s history where the people did not want to know or hear from God. Therefore, as you can imagine, a man whose job it was to tell the people what God said, was having a tough old time of it.
Unfortunately for the Israelites they paid no heed to Jeremiah’s warnings and ended up being taken into captivity and becoming slaves. But before this happened Jeremiah prayed and prayed for God to be gracious to the Israelites and forgive them but in Jeremiah 7: 16 God says to Jeremiah:
“So do not pray for this people, nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.”
That sounds really harsh but it's not. God knew that the people would never turn back to Him so He treated them according to what their sins deserved. God behaved justly and Jeremiah – he kept on praying but God did not change His mind.
You may be thinking oh no, I’m in trouble then if that’s God character. Well breathe easy, that was why Jesus died on the cross, He took all our punishment and all of our pain so that we could know God intimately and be forgiven – THAT’S GRACE!!! Check out Isaiah 53 and see how Jesus took on the wrath of God for us to be free. So God is still just, He still hates sin with a passion and He hates the grip it has on our lives but Jesus stood in the gap for us so that we can be free from sin and death. Today just think about what it is to live under grace and just like Jeremiah’s prayers may have helped to bring Jesus down from Heaven to be our Saviour, pray for your friends and family who do not know how they can be free by accepting Him as their personal Saviour. Pray and pray and keep on praying because you never know what those prayers accomplish in Heaven when they reach God’s ears and explode into His heart.
Sara Jukes
2003-08-26
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