A Moment Frozen in Time

I love this photo, because I think I could pass for someone who knows how to golf. The blessing of a still photo is you don't see what happens 3 seconds later. Frozen moments in time do not tell the real story. In this case, the frozen moment presents a false positive impression. In my Bible study today, the frozen moment presented a false negative.

Jeremiah the prophet, is sent by God to prophesy to His people who have turned from Him. Judah proclaims her innocence, but God chastises Judah, with her false prophets and idols that Judah has turned to and believed. There is much weeping and gnashing of teeth, and the people are angry with Jeremiah because of his true prophecies of God's displeasure and punishment. It is classic shoot the messenger mentality.

Jeremiah suffers mightily for proclaiming God's truth. He is scourged, ridiculed, maligned and hated, imprisoned, dumped into a deep muddy pit with a stone placed over its mouth...and seemingly, his words fall on deaf ears. Poor Jeremiah cries out to God with understandable despair: Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends! I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

This is poor Jeremiah's moment frozen in time. His ministry seems useless, and he has suffered for many years doing what he knows God has called him to do. He was ultimately saved from the deep muddy pit, but he never saw the fulfillment of God's restoration of His people. 

Yet, God promises Jeremiah that it will happen. He tells him, “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. God tells him of the new covenant that will be poured out upon all people, fulfilling in a big way the hopes of Jeremiah.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people. 

 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”

One of my favorite verses in the whole book, is when Jeremiah is given this message and vision by God of what the unseen future holds, and he responds:

At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me. 

I hate that Jeremiah had such a difficult life when he was striving so hard to obey God. It is not fair if all we are given is our life on Earth. But clearly, that is not all we are given, and our sojourn on Earth is just a moment frozen in time of a limitless eternity. One day, all will be made right. It makes me glad that Jeremiah already is receiving his reward. This gives me hope when I am frozen in a false negative.

While I love the verse reminding me that Jeremiah had a moment of comfort, my favorite verse in the book of the "weeping prophet Jeremiah" is this:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11

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I will be off on another jaunt to help my folks in NY starting today, so be forewarned that there may be several times over the next two weeks without a new blog post. In the meantime, bask in God's unlimited love, and the hope and future He has planned for you.

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Speaking of another moment in time, check out this screen shot! Joe- The Horse Nobody Loved, which is free one last day is #1 Horse book, #5 Non-fiction in all of Amazon, and #49 best seller of all free books on Amazon! Best ranks any book of mine has achieved.

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