Jeremiah, it must haved sucked to be you
Speaking impending destruction to this people was no small task; I would have literally hated being Jeremiah at this point in time. In the first couple of chapters we see that Jeremiah had to be convinced to take on this job. Even in all the convincing though, God was not giving Jeremiah options, you see, God had a message for His people and Jeremiah had to deliver it. When God tells you ‘...do not be terrified by them or I will terrify you...’ you know He means business. Many have referred to Jeremiah as the weeping prophet and you get that sense when you read the book. To deliver the message of God the way he did, he must have needed to really feel and know the heart of God.
Hear O Kenya...
Yes, I started reading the book for personal reasons but I could not help but see the parallels between the nation of Israel and the nation of Kenya especially as we are in this season of election and there are so many calls to pray for our country lest we succumb the path that we know we are capable of. There are many things that God was telling His people that Kenya needs to hear as well, and even though I speak of Kenya as a whole, Kenya is you and me. We need to begin at that personal level before we fully grasp the picture in totality. This is especially because we claim to be a country that is 80% Christians, in many ways we only bear the name, we do not really know who our God is, we do not love what he loves and subsequently we do not know nor obey His commands. Dear Christian, this is for you.
This is what the Lord says:
Will you steal, murder and commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods whom you do not know and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say ‘’We are safe to do all these detestable things?’Jeremiah 7:9-10
We have lost reverence and respect for God, is what I read here. It is bad enough that we want to bear His name without living up to it, its worse still that we want to live our lives in our own terms, show up every Sunday and lift up our hands to him without acknowledging our sins and repenting. God was angry with the Judah for straying away from His leading and following other gods, living lives short of who they are ‘...exchanging their glory for idols...’ Jer. 2:11; however, what really caused Him to pronounce judgement was the fact that they claimed that they had not sinned Jer. 2:35. This is what the Lord says, we must search our hearts and our lives and acknowledge where we know we have sinned. This must begin in the house of God, we are more susceptible to the deceit of thinking ourselves righteous and yet in the eyes of God we are far from it.
From the least to the greatest all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike all practise deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘’Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they do not even know how to blush. Jer. 6:13-14
The memory of the 2007-2008 elections has caused the message of peace to be spewed out of all our media outlets. Any politician who wants to win favour must somehow find a few seconds in his speech to preach peace. Yet, if we do not cure the root cause of our past, it will not matter how many times we speak peace...it will remain a distant vision. It is our greed that pushes us to violence, both the have and the have-nots want more and we go to all lengths to get it. The very same people who cry for peace, are the very same people who will ‘do anything’ to get the next promotion, the next political post, the extra shilling in the bank account. The haves, amass more wealth so that they can have more power, the have-nots use any means necessary to put food on the table; we have no limits. We must work on curing the very root of the violence, which is our greed so that we can see lasting change in our land.
As we look forward to choosing our next leaders, let us also have the bigger picture in mind. This election will come and go, and the next one we will still be talking about the same thing. Dear Christian, let us fall on our knees in repentance, let us bow our heads in humility and ‘...ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is...’ Jer. 6:16 so that we can walk in it; not only today but for the years to come and not only for our country but in our personal lives as well.