Day 1: The Humanity of God's Spokesmen
The Watchman’s Devotional: Encouragement and Guidance for Men of God from the Book of Jeremiah
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah.
Jeremiah 1:1a
Thinking of walking away from ministry?
Has the burden grown too heavy, the frustrations too frequent, the pain too intense?
You’re not alone. Men in the Bible thought about this, too.
Moses sought death rather than continue in ministry. Jonah ran to the other side of the world to avoid it.
And then there is the prophet Jeremiah, whose anguish over ministry erupted into one of the most heartfelt confessions in all the Bible.
Before we turn to that confession, let’s be reminded of the man who made it.
A Man Like No Other
There is no one quite like Jeremiah in all the Bible. Consider what God said about him.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” he said in Jeremiah 1:5. And in 1:9–10, he told him: “I have put My words in your mouth [and] set you over nations and over kingdoms.”
Apart from Jesus Christ, have things like this ever been said of another man?
Jeremiah’s uniqueness also appears in the way he conducted his ministry.
I am humbled and inspired when I read how fearlessly and faithfully he declared God’s word to those who had no interest in hearing what he had to say, and even less in obeying it.
When I consider the whole of his calling, life, and ministry, I find myself lacking in every way and can only long to be more like him.
But then I remember—he was just a man.
A Man, Like All Others
The opening words of his book reveal this: “Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah.”
He was a son, a man with a father and a mother, he was born under the curse of death, and he was subject to the same weaknesses as every other man.
Those weaknesses become abundantly clear in the confession we spoke of earlier.
In chapter 20, just after he was beaten by Pashhur the priest and imprisoned, he said this:
O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; everyone mocks me.
For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, “Violence and plunder!” Because the word of the Lord was made to me a reproach and a derision daily.
Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.”
The word “induced” in verse 7 can also mean “to deceive.”
Let that soak in. Here is Jeremiah, that fearless prophet and preacher, charging God with tricking him.
“You deceived me,” he says.
And because of the years of suffering brought on by his calling, he actually tried to walk away from his ministry altogether.
“I will not make mention of Him anymore,” he says.
Can you believe it?
For the Doubting
So, I ask again, Have you ever thought of walking away?
I have. Many times. I never considered abandoning my faith, but there have been many occasions when my calling was just too much for me.
Too hard, too dark, too lonely.
I could not bear it any longer, and I thought, This just isn’t worth it. I would be better off if I just quit ministry altogether.
I am ashamed of that. I’m ashamed that I wasn’t stronger, that I wasn’t man enough to take the beatings and the sadness and the darkness.
Why couldn’t I just be more like Jeremiah?
Then I realized—I am just like Jeremiah. I am like him in my doubts, I am like him in my weaknesses, and I am like him in my humanity.
I take great comfort in that. And if you doubt your calling today, I pray you will do the same.