This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord early in the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. “This is what the Lord says: Stand in the courtyard in front of the Temple of the Lord, and make an announcement to the people who have come there to worship from all over Judah. Give them my entire message; include every word. Perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways. Then I will change my mind about the disaster I am ready to pour out on them because of their sins.” (Jeremiah 26:1-3)A preacher has to know that it is more than likely his audience will not listen to what he says.
Oh, they may make the appropriate responses and stuff, may tell you that they really liked the sermon today, pastor. They may tell you exactly what they think you want to hear, but they probably didn’t really listen.
Judah is just about through. Israel has been destroyed because of their sins and God is ready to punish Judah for theirs. They have flaunted those sins in front of God for long enough and he is tired of them.
He sent prophet after prophet to Israel and they refused to listen to them. Instead, they killed several of them. And there is a large contingent that want to kill Jeremiah for having the audacity to run counter to the prevailing conventional wisdom. They had all decided that God loved them and would give them whatever they wanted, so it had to be true. They even had a bunch of officially licensed prophets of their own to tell them this.
How dare Jeremiah come in here and tell them something they didn’t want to hear?
God told Jeremiah something that was sad: perhaps they will listen. Maybe they will hear me and do what is right.
I am reminded of that old Steve Martin routine where he debates with himself over something that he could have done different and then, after he has raised the best case scenario, he says Naaaaah! God looks at Judah, the remnant of that once great nation he had formed from a bunch of slaves and says, maybe they will listen this time. But if he wanted to, he could have said, Naah. They won’t. And he could even have said, why even bother?
But he did. I do not believe that God necessarily knows everything that will happen. I believe he could, and there are times when he is pretty specific about what is coming up. In the last part of Deuteronomy, he tells Moses a very brief and depressing history of a rebellious people right before Moses dies.
But in general, he continues, hoping they will run counter to their previous history and do something good for a change. They never do, but God keeps hoping. He could know they will not, but still, he keeps on.
Just like he keeps on with us. Like we keep on with our children. Like preachers keep on with their churches. The old expression “Hope springs eternal in the human breast” is what keeps us going. And who made the human breast? God, of course. We are made in his image so we keep on hoping against hope just like he does.
He gives second chances so I will. He hopes so I will. He loves so I will.
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