Jeremiah had confronted the awful realization that God and the plain moral right of the matter were no longer on the side of his country. God has parted company with the Kingdom of Judah and wars against that kingdom. To take this course cost Jeremiah a terrific struggle. Here we see a soul at war with itself and with God; so much so that Jeremiah did not hesitate to hurl at his God the bluntest accusations of unfairness. It is quite clear that denouncing his people gave him not the least pleasure. He reminded God that he had never wanted the job of prophet anyhow. The butt of jeers, he lashed out at God in well-nigh blasphemous language, charging that God had "seduced" him, and he had let himself be taken in; he had struggled against his destiny, but God had simply overpowered him. Was that not a great victory for so mighty a God! Ostracized and lonely, he felt like a man suffering from an incurable wound. His spiritual resources were at an end. Yet he could not quit, try as he might; the compulsion of the divine Word was upon him:
And if I say, "I will not mention him, not speak any more in his name," then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I wear myself out trying to hold it in, but I can't!The human spirit is not made to endure such tension. The end of it is despair unparalleled, despair which outruns all words and yet for which Jeremiah found words surpassingly moving. Jeremiah did not want to live.
Within there was a boiling tempest; but without there was an impregnable "wall of bronze". Within was all manner of fear and despair; without was a man who, so far as we know, never gave back so much as an inch! Here, indeed, we learn what faith really is: not that smug faith which is untroubled by questions because it has never asked any; but that true faith which has asked all the questions and received very few answers, yet has heard the command, "Gird up your loins! Do your duty! Remember your calling! Cast yourself forward upon God!"
In this connection, Jeremiah refutes the popular modern notion that the goal of religion is a "complete person", freed of its fears, its doubts, and its frustrations. Certainly Jeremiah was no complete person. It is doubtful if to the end of his tortured existence he ever knew the meaning of the word "peace". We have no evidence that his internal struggle was ever ended. The feeling cannot be escaped that if Jeremiah had been complete, it would have been at the cost of ceasing to be Jeremiah! A man at peace simply could not be a Jeremiah. Spiritual health is good; mental assurance is good. But the summons of faith is neither to a complete person nor to the laying by of all questions, but to the dedication of personality--with all its fears and questions--to its duty and destiny under God.
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