Jeremiah's Complaint

O Lord, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.
But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.
I hear many whispering, "Terror on every side! Report him! Let's report him!" All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him."
Jeremiah 20:7-10 (NIV)

If I have a favorite passage from the Bible, this is it; what is often called Jeremiah's Complaint. It may seem an odd choice but it illustrates very clearly two things that Christians need desperately to know today.

The first is the human aspect. Jeremiah was one of the greatest prophets that Israel has ever known. Even today he has a reputation for an unfailingly pessimistic message for it seemed that he was always warning of the doom and justice to come. And, of course, he was right.

We might have expected that a man with such a uniformly grim message might be himself somewhat grim and forbidding, but this passage opens a door into the soul of the real Jeremiah, shows us just how hard it was for him to be the Lord's messenger. He has reached a point where he can bear it no longer and, in anger and despair, he turns and shouts his protest at God.

That looks pretty human to me. And this is the first reason I love this passage. Can you think of any other prophet in the Old Testament who has so openly bared his deepest thoughts for our inspection? There is none; Jeremiah is the only one who, for a moment, turns from his task and says, "I don't care what it does to my reputation. I'm hurting and I'm not afraid to say so!"

And he goes straight to the source of his woes and points a finger and yells his pain. To paraphrase his complaint, he is saying, "This is all your fault, God. Because you always give me terrible messages to deliver, everyone hates me. Give me something nice to say for a change, for crying out loud!"

Now those are fairly strong words to yell at your God. It is only anger that forces them from Jeremiah and speaking them out soon eases some of the pain so that he remembers just who he is accusing. For a brief moment he struggles to resume his composure:

But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fall and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten.
O Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.
Jeremiah 20:11-12 (NIV)

It's the party line; Jeremiah knows full well the answer to his complaint - that the Lord will bring justice in the end. But note that the prophet's anger has not dissipated yet: he wants to see that moment when his enemies are brought to justice; just the promise is not enough right now.

Perhaps it is this thought that enabled Jeremiah to burst out briefly in praise of his God:

Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.
Jeremiah 20:13 (NIV)

Jeremiah has answered his own complaint. He knows the prescription for his ailment, understands that God will uphold him through all his troubles. To anyone who has been in a Pentecostal, Charismatic or Evangelical church, it sounds very familiar. And yet...

And yet there are times when it's just not possible. Fine words, nothing wrong with the theory, but we are human and sometimes trouble is too intense for us to swallow the medicine. And my friend, Jeremiah, does not fail us at this point; his agony boils to the surface and, no longer able to shout at God, he turns on himself instead:

Cursed be the day that I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, "A child is born to you - a son!"
May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon.
For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever.
Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?
Jeremiah 20:14-18 (NIV)

In this outburst, we see the extent and depth of Jeremiah's feelings. He holds nothing back; it is a cry of pain, anger and despair. And here it sits, in the middle of a book of huge, nation-shattering prophecies, a moment in time when the great prophet turns from his God-given task and screams at life. In doing so, he speaks to each one of us who has experienced similar feelings of anguish in the depths of our troubles.

And the message we can take from this complaint? That it's okay to be human; that we don't have to pretend to be some sort of superhero who never feels pain, who never stumbles and always keeps his eye on the ball. To me, that's a powerful message; one that far too many Christians seem completely unaware of.

But I have not mentioned the second great message in the passage. Do you see God peeking through the words? Do you see how He sits quietly and hears Jeremiah's complaint and says nothing? Where is the answering anger from the deity in being accused in this way, where the clip round the ear for his errant servant, where the bolt of lightning to show the prophet who is in charge?

The answer is, of course, that there is none of these responses. This is not some God like that of Islam who requires the slightest insult to his honor to be avenged in blood; this is not some smiling Buddhist statue that rests unaffected in its metallic imperviousness. This is the God who became human and shares our pain, who knows and understands and does not demand that we be robots forever rigid in our obedience to His every whim. He allows Jeremiah his protest and lets him come to terms with the magnitude of his task in his own way. Such is the God that Jeremiah knew; lord and master, yes, but also friend and confidant.

So this is why I love this passage, this jewel inserted so unexpectedly in the midst of the monumental Old Testament. Here we are spoken to most immediately and directly, our weakness addressed simply and with compassion, and a glimpse of God's mercy and love shines through to give us hope. I, for one, am glad of this moment when old Jerry the prophet lost his temper, spat out the pacifier and yelled his anguish for all the world to see. Angry at God? Hey, you wouldn't be the first...