My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people. My eyes flow and do not cease, Without interruption, Till the LORD from heaven Looks down and sees. My eyes bring suffering to my soul Because of all the daughters of my city.--Lamentations 3:48-51
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
The content of this study is not mine. I will use my own words to explain but the ideas and the title are Jon Courson's. I was so encouraged after reading it that I thought I would interrupt the Spirit of Heaviness series to share this post with you.
This is a topical study from Lamentations 3:48-51. Jon Courson considers the prophets Jeremiah and Jonah and discusses their similarities. Here they are:
1. Both Jonah and Jeremiah hesitated when called to ministry. Jonah hesitated out of hostility...he did not wanted to preach to the hated Ninevites. He wanted God to annihilate them. Jeremiah hesitated out of self-doubt. He said, "Lord, I can't speak...I am but a child."
2. Both Jonah and Jeremiah were sent into a city. Jonah was sent into Nineveh--the capital of the powerful Assyrian Empire. God had a hard time getting Jonah into Nineveh. (if I can say that) He needed a storm and a big fish to get him there. Jeremiah was sent to Jerusalem. God's city. In contrast to Jonah it was impossible to get Jeremiah to leave Jerusalem. In fact, Nebuchadnezzar sent an emissary to Jeremiah telling him that he could go anywhere else in the empire...Jeremiah chose to stay with the people.
3. They were both separated from their families...Jonah by physical distance and Jeremiah from his friends and family emotionally when his friends abandoned him and his brothers betrayed him.
4. Both were manhandled and both were cast into a pit...Jeremiah a cistern and Jonah the belly of the whale.
5. Both cried out to the Lord and were delivered.
6. Both Jonah and Jeremiah preached to the people. This is where it really gets good. Jonah preached a one sentence sermon to the entire city of Nineveh. "In forty days Nineveh will be destroyed." He offered no solutions, compassion or instruction. Jeremiah preached to Jerusalem for more than 40 years with tears and a heart filled with compassion.
7. Jeremiah and Jonah both saw the people respond to God. Jonah through his one sentence sermon saw the whole of Nineveh turn and repent in dust and ashes. Jeremiah after preaching for forty years, did not have one convert. He witnessed the rejection of God. Who would be the popular preacher today? I love what Jon Courson says here. Jonah would be on the cover of Christianity Today and Jeremiah would be sitting in the back row of one of Jonah's Effective Ministry seminars battling discouragement. But what an example Jeremiah is for us of endurance, obedience and leaving the results to God. Girls, the greatest revival took place through a man whose heart was NOT right with God. Paul says in 1 Cor 4:5 that we are not to judge anything before its time. Ministries cannot be evaluated based on who is successful and who is not because only God knows the heart.
8. Both Jonah and Jeremiah sat on a hillside at the end of their ministry. Jonah whined about his gourd that had been destroyed by a worm, but Jeremiah wept for the people who were facing judgment. The very people he had warned for forty long years. The people who had rejected, imprisoned, tortured and mocked him. I might have thrown an "I told You So" party if I had been Jeremiah. Not Jeremiah, he wept! He had compassion on them.
So what do we do...do we weep for those who walk in darkness. Jon Courson's asks "if our tears were measured over the last 5 years...how many were for the unsaved? We are so concerned with our little world. So concerned whether our gourd is providing us with enough shade...so concerned with our comfort...that we become very, very small people.
So how do we become more like Jeremiah? In Luke 19:41 it says "And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it." Jesus stopped on a hillside outside of Jerusalem just as Jeremiah had done and wept over the city. Knowing that they would reject Him and crucify Him. Knowing that the city would be destroyed in a few very short years. The answer girls is what the answer always is...Jesus. How do we become more like Him? By spending time with Him...as we spend time with Him and His word we become more like He is. We see with His eyes...our hearts soften and expand...His grace and His love are there and shed abroad in our hearts by His Spirit.
I want my whining to turn into weeping and my self-pity to compassion...Lord...soften my heart!
Love
Mom--who hopes you are noticing that the solution is always to immerse yourself in His word...
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord--2 Cor 3:18
