Jeremiah 8: 18-9:1
O my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Listen to the cry from my people from a land far away: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?”
“The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”
Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?
Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.
A Thought
Jeremiah is called the “weeping prophet” because of such passages as this. Jerusalem along with most of its prophets have turned their back on God by turning to worthless foreign idols. God has given them time to repent but they refuse to turn away from their idols and to return back to him. The people are wounded as a result of their sins. Jeremiah mourns for the people because he knows that God is their only hope.
In our world of today, some ministers of the Bible only preach God is love, omitting that God is also a God of judgement. Praise God for his ministers who preach the “good news” of the saving love and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and also that judgement will come. It is time for the Church to weep and mourn for the lost while it is still time to repent.
Our Prayer
Father help us to follow the leading of your Holy Spirit to be your disciple and to make disciples for you. Give us a boldness to share your love and mercy for this people of today. Give us a burden for the lost. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.
