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"Have You utterly rejected Judah?"

Text: Jeremiah 14:19

JEREMIAH CONTINUES TO PLEAD

Jeremiah was aware that God told him that his prayers for the good of the children of Judah would not be answered (Jeremiah 14:11). Nevertheless, his love for the nation compelled him to seek God in prayer. He sought, if nothing else, a deeper comprehension of God’s plan for the future!

“Have You utterly rejected Judah?
Has Your soul loathed Zion?
Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us?
We looked for peace, but there was no good;
And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.
We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness
And the iniquity of our fathers,
For we have sinned against You.”
Jeremiah 14:19-20

1. Questions from Jeremiah

a) “Have You utterly rejected Judah?”

i) He understood God’s judgment against Judah.

ii) God was right and just!

iii) But does it mean that God had “utterly rejected Judah?”

b) “Has Your soul loathed Zion?”

i) God had every right to be angry with Zion (Jerusalem).

ii) The Temple had been defiled by the priests and the people.

iii) But does it mean that God’s Soul loathed Zion?

c) “Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us?”

i) Being punished for sins is within divine justice.

ii) In the past, God would heal the wounds.

iii) Was there no healing this time round?

2. “We looked for peace, but there was no good; and for the time of healing, and there was trouble”

a) There was a search for peace.

i) There was no peace.

ii) There was no glimmer of anything good forthcoming.

b) There was a search for healing.

i) But there was no healing.

ii) Only more trouble in the horizon.

3. “We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You”

a) Jeremiah interceded for the children of Judah.

b) He did what other servants of God had done.

c) Moses was an example of one who prayed for the children of Israel (Exodus 32-34).

d) Jeremiah’s confession:

i) Acknowledgment of wickedness.

ii) Confession of iniquity of forefathers.

iii) Sorrow for all the sins that had been committed against God.