The Seventh Sunday of Easter (OT)

Jeremiah 20:7-18

      7       O LORD, you have deceived me,

      and I was deceived;

                  you are stronger than I,

      and you have prevailed.

                  I have become a laughingstock all the day;

      everyone 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.

            9       If I say, “I will not mention him,

      or speak any more in his name,”

                  there is in my heart as it were a burning fire

      shut up in my bones,

                  and I am weary with holding it in,

      and I cannot.

            10       For I hear many whispering.

      Terror is on every side!

                  “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”

      say all my close friends,

      watching for my fall.

                  “Perhaps he will be deceived;

      then we can overcome him

      and take our revenge on him.”

            11       But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior;

      therefore my persecutors will stumble;

      they will not overcome me.

                  They will be greatly shamed,

      for they will not succeed.

                  Their eternal dishonor

      will never be forgotten.

            12       O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous,

      who sees the heart and the mind,

                  let me see your vengeance upon them,

      for to you have I committed my cause.

            13       Sing to the LORD;

      praise the LORD!

                  For he has delivered the life of the needy

      from the hand of evildoers.

            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

      that 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 forever great.

            18       Why did I come out from the womb

      to see toil and sorrow,

      and spend my days in shame?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. 2001 (Je 20:7–18). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

It is my Birthday this week.  I am sure when I get older there may be days when I think like Jeremiah and say, "cursed be the day I was born."  But I do not say that yet.  Because even though life is full of suffering and sorrow, I am glad that I was not killed in my mother's womb.  I did not make a grave in my mother's womb.

There are way too many children who have been granted this wish of Jeremiah.  Jeremiah makes this wish because of all the torment and grief he is receiving from the kingdom around him.  Jeremiah sees his Kings turn against him.  Jeremiah sees his holy city fall.  He sees many things that cause him great distress.  And Jeremiah makes a wish that he had never been born.

I am sure you could come to many different conclusions from this Text.  You could talk about how Christ has died for those children who were killed in the womb.  You could talk about those who have killed children in the womb have forgiveness of their sins (if they repent and believe).  You could talk about God desiring us all to Live through his Son Jesus Christ.

But Jeremiah stood up in the midst of violence.  He had enemies on all sides.  He was truly in the midst of wolves.  But Jeremiah stands up and speaks the truth.  This message causes him so much pain and suffering he wishes he was never born, but he still speaks.  Let's all stand up with Jeremiah and at least speak up.  Christ has died.  Christ has risen.  Christ will come again.