BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE

We have all found ourselves there. Caught between 2 choices, not knowing which way to go, whom to turn to, where to be. We know we can’t stay where we are – too dangerous, too deficient, life not very good here. What do we do.

The people of God found them in just such a situation in Jeremiah 40 – 45. They were caught between Nebuchnezzar’s army on one side, and a rebel named Ishmael of their own people on another. All were threatening to kill them. What to do? They did what we all should do. They asked the One who is Omniscient (Who KNOWS EVERYTHING) what they should do. They did not have our advantage of the Holy Spirit living inside of them. They didn’t really know God personally. So, they went to God’s prophet and asked him to intercede for them. We don’t have to do that today. We can have a very personal relationship with our God and Father through His Son, Jesus, Who gave us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us and teach us. Jeremiah had prophesied truly all through the years when the false prophets just told the Israelite kings what they wanted to hear. He had been the one who was right! The true test of a prophet is that what he says comes to pass. In Jeremiah 42:6 their appeal to the prophet was very moving. Please help us, ask God what we should do, we will listen to and obey whatever God says not matter what it is. OK. Jeremiah agreed. So, he went to God. God did not answer him right away, but only after 10 long days of waiting.

Maybe you have had to wait for an answer too. Maybe it didn’t come when you thought it would. This quote from A.S. Peake from Jeremiah, (The Century Bible) is helpful: “Jeremiah does not confuse the desires of his heart or the conclusions of his judgment. Otherwise he wouldn’t have had to wait 10 days. His waiting was not that his own mind might be made up, or to still the excitement among the people; for to prolong the suspense, especially when every hour seemed precious, would have been fatal to such an endeavor; nor yet in the hope that new circumstances might guide his decision. It was quite literally because he would not announce as a Divine revelation an answer which he did not definitely know to be such. It was an element in his prophetic gift that he could clearly and sharply distinguish between objective and subjective, between the Word of God and the thought of his own heart”

Did the people listen to and obey God? Read it for yourself and find out what happens when we listen to our own feeble, human minds instead of what God has to say. God promised them nothing but peace and safety if they would follow what Jeremiah told them. Did they listen, as they said they would, did they obey, as they said they would? Read and you will see, and also the results of following your own mind, will, thoughts, reasoning and ignoring what God has told you.

God loves you. God only wants the best for you. God sent His best (Jesus) for you. Why do we continue to reject Him and His ways and go according to our own or the faulty human reasoning of others?

Rev. Joyce Kaplan, M.Div., retired United Church of Christ pastor