Sermons
"You Have Deceived Me"Pastor Ken Hilston |
When we read Jeremiah's words today, addressed to the Lord God, we would first automatically assume, theirs is not the best of relationships. These are words filled with venom, anger, disgust, and probably somewhat exaggerated and blown out of proportion. You would assume the relationship was one sided, almost like Jeremiah is only receiving punishment from the Lord God the way he verbally strikes back at Him. You would assume Jeremiah is doing all that he can to get out of, and sever the relationship that apparently only causes him torment and aggravation.
Jeremiah lets fly with words that we would normally think could easily dissolve the best of relationships. These words we would at first feel are only negative, ironically become the test of his faith relationship with the Lord God, and highlight a very strong relationship.
Jeremiah 20 "O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; every one mocks me. 8 For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, 'Violence and destruction!' For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
14 Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! 15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, 'A son is born to you,' making him very glad. 16 Let that man be like the cities which the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, 17 because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb for ever great. 18 Why did I come forth from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?" RSV
Generally in any good relationship, people like to hear the opposite of Jeremiah's words, only nice things. Jeremiah is caught in a vice, and is going to have to upset someone, either God's people or the Lord God. Jeremiah is not going to be able to please both sides. The Lord God is angry at His people, and needs Jeremiah to tell them ugly truths they don't want to hear, truths which will sound most UNpatriotic and almost treasonous. Still, they were truths told to help strengthen, not dissolve God's relationship with the people. Jeremiah is going to receive the brunt of their anger toward the Lord God. Most people still assume, "blame the messenger!" He wants to be faithful to his people and the Lord God, and that is not going to be easy. The vice keeps getting tighter. The people don't want the truth! Jeremiah is frightened by the truth.
Feeling the crush of the people, their threats, accusations and brutal actions, Jeremiah lashes out against the Lord God for causing them to happen, "You have deceived me! You should have known better. My ugly situation is your fault!" He blames the Lord God for putting him into this untenable situation, asking not only the impossible, but what is surely dangerous.
Rightly or wrongly, Jeremiah says some mighty ugly words to the Lord God. "You have deceived me!" That sounds pretty vicious, but really is nothing compared to the Hebrew words. In Hebrew the word "deceived" has a much more stinging meaning. Here in Hebrew, the accusation is more like words that come from a savagely attacked rape victim, a violent physical assault. Jeremiah is pulling no punches.
Then, just in case the Lord God has not noticed what has happened to him, Jeremiah lets Him know. "You have made me a laughingstock, all the day, everyone mocks me. Your words You ask me to proclaim are to me a reproach, a derision all day long."
Then while he is on a roll, Jeremiah really turns up the heat on his relationship to the Lord God. "If this is the case, why should I be alive? Why could not even my mother's womb, become my tomb and save me all this grief? And it is not bad enough that I had to be born if this is what I'm going to have to go through, but cursed even be the man who told my father thinking it was good news, 'you have a son.'"
All this sounds like a man at the end of his rope, cutting off all ties to the relationship and all ties even to life.
Why would the Lord God allow this to be a part of His Holy Book? Why did the Lord God not only put up with this, but allow and accept this? How is all of this then lifted up as an example of words coming from and promoting a GOOD faith relationship? Can this kind of venom ever be a real part of a good relationship we have with those around us?
*However, his venom, is the truth as he knows it from his heart, mind, gut and soul. He is holding nothing back. He is hiding nothing from the relationship. If he feels it, he lets it out. When it comes to the Lord God, it would be quite hard to lie, anyway. Yet the vice he is in, doesn't allow him much room to feel warm and fuzzy with all that he has to accomplish, when it appears that he has no good relationship with either the Lord God or the people. What does he have left?
*How does all this indicate a GOOD relationship? What does, and does not break up relationships?
For our negative example we look at Adam and Eve. For any good relationship to work, there needs to be trust and guidelines and boundaries, which Adam, Eve and the Lord God could either observe or ignore. Adam and Eve could either trust that the Lord God had their best interests at heart or not. The Lord God was honest with them: you can have the fruit from all the trees in the garden but one, and that one is off limits in the relationship. But they were not honest with Him.
Their relationship deteriorated when they both not only questioned God's word and promise but tried to work behind God's back, finally hiding from Him when they were afraid their deceit was going to be uncovered. They lied, and then blamed everyone else for the awkward predicament. The longer they worked at deceiving the Lord God the wider the gap in their relationship. Instead of admitting the deception and their unfaithfulness they thought somehow they could cover it up and go on as if nothing had happened. All their energy used in deception just dug the hole deeper until the Lord God sent them to the time out corner for a long time. To God's face, they said all the right words, ever so politely. It all seemed so cordial, polite and reasonable, but also very cold. On the surface it looked like a good relationship.
Jeremiah is not like Adam and Eve. Jeremiah is only telling the truth of what he sees going on. Nothing is done behind God's back. There is no deception involved, only a rather harsh truth telling. Jeremiah is not trying to pull a fast one on the Lord God. *He simply unloads his heart and mind and soul, totally as he sees it.
What we see today is the fruit of a life long hard working relationship, nurtured from the start with a closeness and truthfulness all along. They didn't pretend a good relationship always is easy going, and perfect! The little problems were not ignored, but dealt with. Their faithfulness was renewed and reviewed often, even when it was not simple or convenient. Short cuts were not taken.
Their relationship was not like the one movie director who was asked why his movies were so harsh. He said when he was young he was lied to, to make the situation a little easier. He needed to have surgery, so instead of dealing with the fear and uncertainty, his father cut corners. He told him, the nurse will be taking you to the circus, when in truth, it was surgery. He went willingly, that time, because he thought it was a circus. That problem was solved, but at the cost of a complete lack of trust when it would be needed in the future.
Today, the Lord God and Jeremiah are saying, "you are going to surgery, not a circus." Jeremiah is putting up a struggle, but he is not walking away and throwing in the towel on the relationship. He demands to know why. He demands to know why it is happening again. He demands to know how long it will be. He demands assurances. He demands to hear again the promises that founded the relationship. But he is not walking away from the huge task presented him by the Lord God. AND, neither is the Lord God walking away from Jeremiah because he has not just rolled over and accepted the tasks without complaints.
The Lord God needs a critical task done, and He is not deceiving Jeremiah into thinking it would be a cake walk. And Jeremiah is not accepting it lying down. *The bigger the task, the bigger the threat to the relationship, the more hard truths must be shared, examined and exchanged. No tricks. No short cuts. No pulling the punches will be allowed.
Jeremiah's struggle is truthful. He wants the relationship to work. He wants things to be resolved. He is not looking for a way out, but he needs more assurances to keep on going. At the same time, he is taking a great risk, *but the truth is worth it. He is risking one of two things. The first risk is that the Lord will add more tasks to the relationship out of spite and anger for his harsh display, and the second, he will simply give up on him and terminate the relationship. *These risks can only be taken when the relationship has done all the hard work, all along.
How many times do pastoral conversations end up with the need to say things to the Lord God similar to what Jeremiah says? The anger, the fear, the sheer exhaustion. Our fear is not only will the Lord think it disrespectful, but may terminate the relationship. But just as Jeremiah knew, if the relationship was going to survive, if the relationship was worth saving, at least on his side, things needed to be said.
*Jeremiah knew if he just shut down his gut and shut up, he would have a relationship, but it wouldn't mean any thing. He would be in effect, only a slave! *How could you love someone who didn't care about how you felt? How good would the relationship be if it was only one sided? How good would the relationship be if my fears had to be stifled, locked down deep inside me? If my thoughts don't count, it is not really a relationship. Where is the respect in that?
Jeremiah, as we can, take our Lord at His word. If He promises to love us. If He promises to care about us. We truly need to even demand answers to our situations. If He can make the promises to love us, does that not mean in good times, as well as rough times, times when words come easy and times when words are said out of desperation.
The key however, is that what Jeremiah says, and what we are say, has to be the truth, as we know it, and not just HEAD TURTH! The relationship must be based upon the truth. The words said by Jeremiah, as ugly as they sounded were the truth. Jeremiah was not trying an angle, not whining just because things were rough, not trying to intimidate. He wanted to continue to be close to the Lord God, and this was what was on his chest. *From all their hard work together, he trusted the Lord God was big enough to understand!
In ANY relationship, the test is not, is everything fine, but can the truth be expected to be spoken, even when it starts out, "you have deceived me." AMEN