God's Got Your Back

“Find Jeremiah and keep him safe. Take good care of him and do whatever he asks.” Jeremiah 29:12

It’s nice when God protects His prophets. As a matter of fact, it’s greatly appreciated. When someone puts out the effort to speak for God, especially when God asks you to let people know His is unhappy with their behavior, well, it is just nice to know that God has your back!

So, I could wax on as I write about how good it is, how God never lets bad things happen as long as we are doing what He wants, and a whole lot of other drivel that is entirely unsupported by life experience and the Scriptures themselves. In fact, even this little verse doesn’t tell us that God has kept poor Jeremiah from harm.

Jeremiah has been put in prison, ignored by the king and had other false prophets accuse him of being downright unpatriotic. “Who are you to tell us that our country is going to fail? You should join our rallies. We have a flag salute, we include God in our pledge, and we maintain a fairly good average of attendance at the scheduled sacrifices. Get your facts straight, Jerry. You’re bringing the whole national mood down!”

Even the king refused to believe that God had spoken to Jeremiah. The prophet’s primary message was, “God is upset with Israel’s behavior. To get Israel’s attention, He is going to send them to Babylon in exile. After a certain amount of time, if they return to me, I will restore them.” So, based upon the message God had given Jeremiah, he told the king to give in to King Nebuchadnezzar, and not to try to defend the nation in war. The king didn’t like the advice and had his eyes poked out by the invading forces, while Jeremiah is invited into Nebuchadnezzar’s court.

It is old Nebby himself (his whole name is painful to type over and over) who speaks these words about Jeremiah: “Keep him safe. Take good care of him and do whatever he asks.” Jeremiah finally is treated well, but by a pagan king! His own people, professed followers of the One True God imprisoned him when he came with that very God’s message for them!

I wish I could say the church has done better. (Perhaps it has). But we all know many lovely follower of Jesus who have been mistreated by those who should have been their source of help and aid. We not only ignore the prophets who announce messages we find distasteful, we sometimes rough up the very ones who need our help the most.

My daughter told me just yesterday about a new friend at college. Her friend used to be a faithful church-goer. As we all know, a teen who is highly motivated about church is usually fairly serious about their faith. Unfortunately, she and her boyfriend had sex. They had not been sleeping together, nor did they excuse the one time they gave in. But, yes, they had sex.

I’m not here to judge her, or even her treatment. But I am concerned. You see, she doesn’t attend church anymore at all. The one she attended openly shunned her. She got email and letters from teens in your youth group calling her a “slut” and “whore”. I so wish someone had mentioned the bit about “the teen without sin” sending the first email!

If we are not careful, this young lady will find help from Nebuchadnezzar. Well, not Nebby himself, he died some 2700 years ago. But she will tell her story, people who have little knowledge of what Jesus really teaches will take her in, wipe her eyes and join the familiar chorus of those who wonder why the church talks about love and hurts those who need it the most.

Look, I know that much of what the church gets is undeserved. I’ve served Jesus long enough to know my way around the really good stuff. I’ve been on the receiving end of loving prayer, caring help and even financial aid from followers of Jesus who didn’t even know me that well.

But, I’ve also seen the uglies. I’ve seen wonderful men and women of God mistreated. I’ve experienced groups actually praying “against” fellow believers. I’ve watched brothers in Christ get red-in-the-face angry over grudges decades old. I’ve been there when someone failed and cried loudly for help, only to have an anchor rather than a life jacket thrown to them.

I’ve also seen people we would characterize as “non-believers” treat people better than the church does sometimes. During the six years I spent pastoring among Native Americans, two men, neither of whom ever professed to follow Christ at all, were my closest friends. I knew that, given the chance, either one of them would have died for me.

This is not a “bash the church” blog at all. It is reflective. It all started as I thought about Jeremiah finally being treated well, but at the hands of a pagan king! It made me think that God knows how to take care of us, and that care won’t always come from the presumed source. It would have been nice if Jeremiah’s own nation had cared for him, and the king listened to him. It would have been nice.

But life doesn’t happen the way we think it should. The quicker we know that, the more peace we have. I truly believe that. We waste so much energy moaning the fact that life didn’t turn out one way of the other.

That’s what I love about Jeremiah. He has a hard message to deliver, he would wish to be treated well, but he is not. And he expresses that hurt as well. But, having received good treatment from a pagan king, he doesn’t waste it all with bitterness. You see, I would have probably written a blog that day about how stupid it was that my believer friends never helped me and this pagan fellow did.

Yes, God took care of His prophet, but in a way that no one would have expected. I think I’ll still try to stay real close to hearing God and doing what He wants. I think I’ll still love His church dearly because, well, it’s His church. But I also think I’ll expand my expectations and realize that He ways of taking care of me (and you…and you, over there) that just don’t fit into my high minded notions.