You gotta feel sorry for poor Jeremiah. He’s only doing what God told him to do. People reject him, ridicule him, try to kill him, etc, etc, etc. And yet he intercedes for the people. He mourns that he was even born. God reassures him. He complains. God chastises him and even tells him in Jeremiah 15:19 that if he (Jeremiah) will repent then God will let him keep on doing what makes him whine. God tells him not to marry, not to mourn, not to feast.  So what does Jeremiah do? Give up??? Hardly!!!

Jer 17:16-18
I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you. Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster. Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction.

Jeremiah doesn’t run away from His calling, even though it is not something he desired to do. His attitude at this point is for God to bring on the people what they deserve. 

Jeremiah 15:19b

Let this people turn to you,but you must not turn to them.

Hard, but applicable words for us today. Don't compromise when we are in the right.

How is it with us? Do we run away from God’s call because it isn’t to our liking? Do we continue honoring our idols and Asherah poles?  God has something to say about that.

Jeremiah 16:17-18 
My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols. ” 
Vile images today could be such things as movies, videos, pictures, etc.  Idols, of course, take many forms.


Jeremiah 17:5-8 is a study in contrasts.  Here is a paraphrase:
Cursed is the one who trusts in man.  Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.
Cursed is the one who depends on flesh for his strength.  Blessed is the one whose confidence is in the Lord.
The cursed one will be like a bush in the wastelands.  The blessed one will be like a tree planted by water.
The cursed one will dwell in the parched places of the desert in a salt land where no one lives.  The blessed one does not fear when heat comes; leaves are always green with no worries in a year of drought. This blessed one never fails to bear fruit.


In thinking about those of us who are blessed, those of us who are called by His Name, we have an obligation to bear fruit.  The seed to perpetuate the tree is in the fruit.  The seed for others' understanding is in our fruit.  Pretty heavy responsibility.


Today's reading ends with these words from Jeremiah 17:16

"I have not run away from being your shepherd."
We keep thinking about how hard this must have been for Jeremiah.  God gave him the job of preaching to a people who would not listen.  And yet, Jeremiah did the job, whining and complaining but yet weeping for the people - so human - and yet so obedient.   Lots of lessons for all of us today.