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"Do it for Your name's sake"

Text: Jeremiah 14:7

A MOVING PRAYER OF JEREMIAH

Jeremiah was moved deeply by the suffering of the children of Judah. He could not help but be driven to seek God in intercessory prayer.

“O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us,
Do it for Your name’s sake;
For our backslidings are many,
We have sinned against You.
O the Hope of Israel, his Saviour in time of trouble,
Why should You be like a stranger in the land,
And like a traveller who turns aside to tarry for a night?
Why should You be like a man astonished,
Like a mighty one who cannot save?
Yet You, O LORD, are in our midst,
And we are called by Your name;
Do not leave us!”
Jeremiah 14:7-9

1 “O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for Your name’s sake;
for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against You”

a) Confession must first be made.

b) There was candid confession of sin by Jeremiah on behalf of the people.

i) There were iniquities.

ii) There was the problem of backsliding.

iii) The children of Judah had sinned against God.

iv) There was no mitigation of the sin problem.

c) What was the basis of this prayer?

i) It was simply for the sake of the Lord’s name.

ii) The Temple at Jerusalem was tied to God’s name.

iii) So were the children of Judah!

2. “O the Hope of Israel, his Saviour in time of trouble, why should You be like a stranger in the land, and like a traveller who turns aside to tarry for a night?”

a) God was appealed to:

i) As the Hope of Israel.

ii) As the Saviour of the people.

iii) In this time of trouble (The Droughts).

Jeremiah pleaded with the Lord to deliver (save) them out of their trouble.

b) Jeremiah’s grief:

i) God was like a stranger in the land.

ii) He was like a traveller passing through the land, staying only for the night.

He pleaded that God would not be a stranger or a traveller passing through the devastated land.

3. “Why should You be like a man astonished, like a mighty one who cannot save?
Yet You, O LORD, are in our midst, and we are called by Your name; do not leave us”

a) Jeremiah pleaded even more emotively.

i) He knew that God had the power to save.

ii) He was not a mighty man who cannot save!

b) Pleading ever more strongly.

i) God was in their midst.

ii) The children of Judah were called by the Lord’s name.

iii) A plaintive cry went up to the LORD. “Do not leave us!”