20:11,12
Jeremiah now moves to faith. “The Lord is with me like a mighty warrior”, therefore he knows that his enemies will come to nothing, they are the ones who will be defeated. He calls on the Lord to show His vengeance. So what is going on here? At the start (20:7) we saw Jeremiah calling God a liar, now he has moved through to great faith. We should not be afraid of our emotions, we should not pretend that we don’t have them, but neither should we be ruled by them. The religious types tend to reject emotions or think of them as a bad thing. Others see our emotions as the be all and end all, things that must be bowed down to. Both these approaches are equally wrong, and the latter is the dominant error today. Emotions matter, but emotions do not determine truth.
What about the vengeance bit? Surely Jeremiah should be pleading for mercy on them? We should remember that these people were beyond mercy. They had had chance after chance to repent. Jeremiah’s plea is probably more realistic than our often sentimental approach.
20:13-18
Jeremiah now breaks out in praise to the Lord. “He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.” Jeremiah has worked through the situation, but then we come to verse 14! “Cursed be the day I was born!” He seems to be back in the depths of despair. I guess we all know what this is like. Our mood can swing dramatically from high to low and back again. Jeremiah is now regretting ever having been born. A day that was greeted with joy, but that now seems a day of disaster. Severe mood swings are normal and are something God can handle.
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