Sunday, during our 9 am service, I was sharing about Jeremiah’s “crisis of faith”. This was when he entered into a new prophetic season while still in prison from the last prophecy he had given. Literally.
Jeremiah had prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. King Zedekiah had him put in prison to stop the prophet, and hopefully the prophecy. While in prison, the Lord first told Jeremiah and then orchestrated his cousin to come and ask Jeremiah to redeem (purchase) property just outside of Jerusalem in the region of Benjamin, because it was his right to redeem. After Jeremiah had purchased the property, complete with title deeds and witnesses, he had his assistant Baruch take the deeds and put them in a claypot. This was so they would be preserved for many days. Then Jeremiah prophesied:
“For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.’” Jeremiah 32:15
Jeremiah was stuck. He prayed to God, beginning by praising God and His great power, outstretched arm and ability to do anything! Then he rehearses God’s great acts in bringing Israel into the land, and then Israel’s disobedience. In finishing, Jeremiah points out to God the reality of Jerusalem’s imminent destruction, sieged walls, and all. Jeremiah ends his prayer with these words:
“And You have said to me, O Lord God, ‘Buy the field for money, and take witnesses’! – yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.” Jeremiah 32:25
Jeremiah was inside an old prophecy being fulfilled and in a new prophecy being acted out. His soul could not reconcile these opposites. His prayer was honest and genuine. God answered:
“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?” God continues with: “Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it.’” Jeremiah 32:22, 28
God expounded on the immediate future and reasons for it. He then says,
“Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely.” Jeremiah 32:37
From one “Behold” to another “Behold”, the Lord moved from glory to glory. Jeremiah was being carried by God’s words, His ability and limitlessness. Like watching a movie where we are brought in and out of time sequences to understand the larger story, Jeremiah is being brought in and out of glories of God, being transformed by each glory.
In chapter 33, Jeremiah has gotten His wings! Read as he was effortlessly moving from one glory to another glory, declaring and decreeing what was and was to be. What was going to undo what was done, and the sound of joy where only desolation of which had been spoken. The door? BEHOLD!
My world rocked in a moment! Could I? Would I?—Allow God to prophecy my future in conflicting realty? Or must I have conclusion or closure before I will see more? Am I willing to Behold multiple glories of God being transformed into the images of each one? When nothing makes sense, am I, will I, behold?
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18
