Jeremiah 17:1
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved,
for you are my praise.
Tag: God Saves and Heals
Jeremiah is commonly called the "weeping" prophet. The reasons for this title is because he cried out to God a lot. Jeremiah was sent by God to the nation of Israel to do an impossible task. He was sent by God to tell the leaders and spiritual teachers of the nation, as well as the people, to give up in their fight agains the surrounding nations. In particular, give up in your fight agains the Babylonians. God had sent the Babylonians to take Israel captive because of the many, many sins against their God, Yahweh!!! Jeremiah was the messenger, not the message. However, the nation not only hated the message, they hated the messenger. They constantly tried to silence Jeremiah and he was often threatened by the leaders. In one of those moments when the spiritual leaders were particularly trying to vex Jeremiah, the "weeping" prophet calls out the above verse to God. He recognizes that his punishment for being a messenger for God was unfair (they had tossed him in pits, they whipped him, they locked him up, etc). Yet, in the unfairness and in the injustice, Jeremiah knew that God was worthy to be praised. He also knew that only God could heal him of his wounds and his hurt (these were his countrymen who were hurting him). He also new that only God can save. Thus he says at the end of the above verse, "... for you are my praise." Jeremiah took the pain of his life and wept for God's healing and God's deliverance and THEN praised God!!! Amazing!! His faith in God's ability to save and heal caused him, in the midst of his pain and suffering, to not only praise God, but to go on and deliver God's message. He quit looking at the pain and the suffering and started to focus on the God who heals and saves. Once he saw how big God was, he was able to move on and complete his task(s). God is bigger than problems and able to heal and to save!!
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