27 April Daily Manna
Text: Jeremiah 20:1-6
KEY VERSE: Jeremiah 20:2
Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.
No treachery is worse than the betrayal by a family member or friend, Julius Caesar knew such treachery. Among the conspirators who assassinated him on March 15, 44 B.C. was Marcus Junius Brutus, a trusted friend whom Caesar had favoured as a son. According to Roman historians, Caesar first resisted the assassination but when he saw Brutus among them with his dagger drawn, he asked the famous question “You too Brutus?”, and then succumbed.
Jeremiah was put in prison in our text by someone who was supposed to be a priest and a leader in the house of the Lord. Jeremiah was a priest himself before he received the call to the office of a prophet. His message, no doubt, offended many in his country who felt he was not patriotic enough in his denunciation of Israel.
Read Daily Manna for yesterday here
But those messages came from God to Jeremiah. Pashur, wanting to dance to the gallery, arrested a fellow preacher of the gospel like himself and put him in an unhealthy dungeon. When Jeremiah was eventually brought out, he declared the deserved judgment of God upon him for his wickedness and treachery.
Sometimes, a preacher is cast in the unpopular role of preaching what people either do not want to hear or hate to accept. The best place such preachers hope to find solace is with God and his fellow preachers who should support and assist him. When such fellow ministers now become the instrument of betrayal and persecution, it is the worst kind of betrayal.
The lesson here is the need to prepare for anything. Your worst enemy could be your best friend, and your best friend, your worst enemy. When grief assumes such a deep dimension that no word of man can reach and console, the Holy Spirit is at hand to comfort and console.
27 April Daily Manna: THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The genuine preacher of the gospel is always the target of fierce oppositions.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Joshua 8-10
