they see visions of God—Jeremiah and Ezekiel (Part one)

They see what others cannot see. Their lives were irrevocably transformed. These two prophets paid the price of love.

What kind of love that seems tragic to the human heart, and yet is not really so. Yes, it happens and is duly recorded in the lives of two good prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Let us investigate the prophet Jeremiah in this blog (Part One).

Jeremiah was set aside before birth (1:5) to take a message to the nations, urging a change of heart and a turn to the one true God. His message still applies. In the 13th year of King Josiah of Judah (ca. 627 B.C.), God called Jeremiah when he was still a youth. God appointed Jeremiah to proclaim the destruction and building of nations that would eventually lead to the Kingdom of God. (1:9-10)

His prophetic ministry lasted more than 40 years, during which he wrote both Jeremiah and Lamentations. He witnessed the fulfillment of God’s warnings of disaster, and shared in the sorrow and troubles that would follow the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of the Babylonians (37:4-5; 38:2, 28; 39:1).

Jeremiah led a sad and lonely life. It was believed that he was engaged when young (12:7b). But God told him not to marry (16:1). Reading his two great books, we can see that Jeremiah is a man of vision, goodness, courage, passion and hope for his nation, fellow citizens, and the fulfillment of the best plan God has prepared for them. He can hear God and talks to God since young. He comes from a prestigious priestly family and has a great future if he follows the rest of the family. But he chooses a narrow path after he hears God and preaches a true message from God. He became the most unpopular prophet and priest of the nation. Imagine a bright young man with good family background, great future in social economic status, professional achievement, and human relationship, in the eyes of the world, chooses to forego all just because he hears and obeys God! Not only he has no friend, lost his family’s love and support, he gave up his fiancée, likely a girl he has known since very young and in love with deeply.

I can only read and narrate what happened. I would not explain why Jeremiah has chosen the narrow path and lived his adult life in sorrow and persecutions by others (for forty years). But I want to encourage those who are hurting because of believing and following Christ to read Jeremiah and ask the Lord Holy Spirit to reveal to you what you need to know.

Did Jeremiah fail big time in his profession/ministry because of his political incorrectness unpopularity (in religion and politics) and having only one fruit —one faithful disciple-follower? the answer is NO. His sole faithful attendant scribe follower and recorder is Baruch. Read Jeremiah 36:4,10,32; 32:13-16; 43:3,6 and you will see the importance of having just one good and capable and faithful assistant is worth another ten thousands worthless superficial fair weather followers! Baruch’s faithful and fearless recordings and preservations of Jeremiah’s anointed messages became part of the Bible (and important history)!

What Jeremiah seems to have lost in terms of personal life (a potential marriage to a loved one), has been fully compensated by the faithful companionship of an equally qualified professional assistant to complete the prophetic calling and assignments of God.

For prophetic accuracy, Jeremiah is one of those who tops the list. Jeremiah’s prophecies on seventy years of captivity: Jeremiah 25:11; 29:10; confirmed in Daniel 9:2.

Great promises from God through Jeremiah and are relevant to believers at all time: 24:7 Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart. 29:11-13 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Returning to the subject of Jeremiah’s failed love life, and what could have happened if he had married his fiancee, here is a quote, “From the moment that he became decisively convinced of his mission, Jeremiah’s career is marked by struggles and vicissitudes of the most painful and perilous kind; his perseverance in his allotted path was met by an ever-increasing hardness on the part of the people; opposition and ridicule became persecution, and the messenger of Divine truth persisted in proclaiming his message at the risk of his own life.” During his ministry in Jerusalem he was threatened with death. His politically powerful opponents cast Jeremiah into a cistern, where he sank down into the mud. The intent was to kill Jeremiah by starvation. A Cushite rescued Jeremiah by pulling him out of it, but Jeremiah remained imprisoned until Jerusalem fell to the Babylonian army in 587 BC. History reported that he went with the exiles to Egypt after that and died a sad martyred death. It would have been a very hard life for his wife.

(to be continued in my next blog —Part Two on prophet Ezekiel’s love life.)

Blogger: kzlam36@mediamedia.org, August 21, 2020.