“As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right.”
~ Jeremiah 26:14
Hi James and Ellen,
If you knew that you would be possibly killed doing something today, would you do it? Jeremiah did it. Jeremiah knew that he would be possibly killed being a prophet spokesman for God to God’s specially chosen guys and gals but he still did it. Uriah did it. Uriah said more or less the very same things that Jeremiah said while being a prophet spokesman for God. Jeremiah had an ally in Ahikam. Ahikam advocated for Jeremiah when the local priests and prophets decided that it was time to kill Jeremiah. Uriah did not have an ally. When Uriah got word that the local priests and prophets were going to kill him, Uriah took off for Egypt. Elnathan was tasked to go to Egypt with some other guys to find Uriah to take Uriah back to the city of Jerusalem where he was killed with a sword and where his corpse was left where common folks were buried. Jeremiah recounted these days and the incident with Uriah in Jeremiah 26 – in his Jeremiah Book. Jeremiah’s attitude about being killed is in verse 14, “As for me, I am in your hands; do with me whatever you think is good and right.” Jeremiah does go on to say that if he is killed by the guys who want him dead that these guys would have innocent blood on their hands. Jeremiah assured the guys who were wanting to kill him that God would never ever forget them if . . .
Jeremiah was for over forty years a faithful prophet spokesman for God to His specially chosen guys and gals. Jeremiah’s life as a prophet spokesman for God spanned the reigns of three kings who ruled over the guys and gals who lived in the land area of Judah and the end of the existence of the nation that was made up of these guys and gals who lived in the land of Judah. Jeremiah’s vocation as a prophet spokesman for God began when Josiah was king over the guys and gals who lived in the land area of Judah. Josiah was eight years old when he began his reign as king. Manasseh was Josiah’s granddad. Manasseh had for fifty-five years reigned as king over the guys and gals who lived in the land area of Judah. Fourteen years after Josiah began reigning as king over the guys and gals who were living in the land area Judah, Jeremiah got the call from God to be one of His prophet spokesmen to His specially chosen guys and gals. Your grandpaa thinks that Jeremiah spent a lot of time with Josiah – that Jeremiah influenced the revival that ended up spreading throughout the land areas where God’s specially chosen guys and gals were living. Jeremiah got to see what life was like when God’s specially chosen guys and gals focused their worship times and gifts on and for God instead of on and for inanimate manmade idol gods handmade from wood, stone, clay and metal. When Pharaoh Neco’s army killed Josiah – when Josiah unwisely decided to try and stop the Egyptian’s nation’s army from forming a coalition with the Assyrian’s nation’s army, Jeremiah ended up having to deal with one of Josiah’s kids – Jehoiakim. Jehoiakim would spend the eleven years that he reigned as king over God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah listening to a whining group of priests and prophets – who his dad had displaced after the Book of the Law told him to do so, who wanted to return to worshipping inanimate manmade idol gods that had been handmade from wood, stone, clay and metal.
The prospect of getting killed by some priests and prophets did not stop Jeremiah from continuing to warn God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem of their pending fate if they . . . would you continue to share your faith in God if you knew that by sharing your faith that it would have you possibly killed? Christ-followers throughout the centuries have been killed because of their being willing to allow God to have their lives ended by guys who found abhorrent their visible, vocal faith in Him. Dying figuratively for Christ involves being willing to literally die for Christ. Making a decision of faith includes sensing what it meant to Jesus to die for you. Dying willingly and literally is the least that a Christ-follower can do for all that Jesus has done for him or her. Jeremiah was willing to literally die for his convictions in what he was saying to God’s specially chosen guys and gals. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were the administrators of the rural resident leadership training center in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez in Bolivia, your grandpaa would assign a variety of practical ministry assignments to each one of the learning center (Centro de Capacitación) students to do. Your grandpaa also assigned each Centro de Capacitación student an area village that he would be responsible to visit once in a two-week period. The Centro de Capacitación student would have another Centro de Capacitación student assigned to go with him to his assigned village. Plinio Vaca was a Centro de Capacitación student. Plinio was from Puerto Suarez – a town that is located on the Brazilian/Bolivian boarder. It would always take Plinio, his wife Mirtha and their two kids at least two days to make the trip from Puerto Suárez to Concepción. They would first have to take a train to get to Santa Cruz from Puerto Suárez. That was always at least a twenty-four hour trip. They would then have to find a vehicle to take them to Concepción – which would be another full day of traveling for them. The Centro de Capacitación students would use either a 125 Yamaha motorcycle or two bicycles to make their visits to their assigned villages. When the assigned village that Plinio was visiting told Plinio that if he showed up again that they would . . . Plinio had every other Centro de Capacitación student wanting to go with him on his next visit to his assigned village. Plinio was willing to go back to his assigned village even though he knew that he just might be . . . God expects His specially elected guys and gals to speak out for Him even it means facing death.
Jeremiah 26 (541)