In | A Burning Heart and His Audience, Part 2

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O LORD, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You have overcome me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
Everyone mocks me.

For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long.

But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,”
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding it in,
And I cannot endure it.
Jeremiah 20:7-9 NASB

The people mock Jeremiah, but they will be broken. Jeremiah isn’t gloating over this outcome; he’s overcome by a message and a calling he didn’t ask for. The image in this passage is of the Lord forcing His prophetic word on Jeremiah without the prophet’s consent.

Once Jeremiah is “pregnant” with God’s word, it takes on a life of its own. Jeremiah either has to give birth to it—enduring the scorn and violence of the people who will hate him for it—or struggle to hold it in. Though he’s increasingly “weary” of the “burning fire shut up in his bones,” he will give birth to God’s words of judgment and life.

Reference: Crenshaw, Defending God Biblical Responses to the Problem of Evil, 2005, p. 89.