Shalom, Jeremiah. You’ve always fascinated me. I’ve tried at least 3 times to read your entire book. I always find myself getting caught up in the first seven chapters that I never get to the end. Let me explain, it grabs my attention but it’s so deep. I feel like in order to really grasp what’s happening I have to read each chapter like 6 times. I remember the first time I decided to study your book and within 6 chapters half of my notebook was full– it’s just so much to take in.

You were so courageous! Many people would not have accepted the call from God. As a young man, you stood up against your whole nation, to speak for the God they forsook. I can imagine you trying to make sense of the path that you were about to go on, knowing that what was ahead wouldn’t be a bed of roses. How do you tell your countrymen that they would be attacked and exiled? How do you confront them of their idolatry and God’s desire for His people to return to Him? Every time I read your book, I could sense the heart of God broken over the decisions of His chosen people. It makes me think about how my decisions might have broken God’s heart. I begin to reminisce about the time I spent being disobedient to God. But I am thankful for God’s grace that redeems us and restores us to Himself!

Jeremiah, It’s easy for us to become judgmental of the children of Israel. But how many of us have exchanged God for idols? How many of us go astray in our hearts forgetting that God took us from a place of bondage into freedom? A place where we are no longer chained but can live life in abundance. As God promised, the children of Israel dwelled in the land of milk and honey, yet it was easy for them to forget who brought them there. They forgot the warning God gave them about what they were suppose to do while living in the Promised Land. The instructions was to remember the covenant and worship Him only but they failed to heed His word. It was for this reason you were born. It still blows my mind that in the midst of people’s idolatry God already made provisions for how He would help them back to Him. His love for us is truly relentless! The chapters that I have read so far has reminded me that God’s love for us is beyond what we do. He loves us enough to help us out of the bondage we create for ourselves yet He doesn’t condone it!

In the midst of your own limitations you chose to be God’s mouthpiece. Jeremiah, what you did was against the culture of your time… In our era there’s a saying “do it for the culture”. This saying implies that certain things are done solely to represent the cultural climate. I think that subconsciously, we are lured into agreeing and aligning our self with culturally accepted norms. That may have been the case in your time too, Jeremiah. Some people were so afraid of not fitting in that they did what everyone else did. I would like to think that your obedience was for the culture– God’s culture… It was for the restoration of the Israel’s culture. Where they remembered who took them from Egypt. A culture that celebrated the God of their ancestors– who parted the Red Sea, gave them the 10 commandments, provided manna and quail in the wilderness and gave them the Promised Land.

Israel traded their true culture for the culture of other nations. But God used you to show them the way back to Him, even if that meant exile! Jeremiah, I pray that God’s chosen people in today’s society will fully return to Him. Not waiting until their sinfulness becomes so ripe that the only way God can bring them back is for Him to allow everything He gave them to be taken away.

Jeremiah, you took on your whole nation, but I know you weren’t alone! God promised to protect and deliver you! The same God that your people traded was backing you. I know even with God’s help it wasn’t easy. I find it hard to go against the grain in obedience even with the Lord’s help! I look forward to rest of your story Jeremiah, until we meet again! Shalom!

A woman trying to live for God’s culture, Nadesha

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