Scripture Daily

Context No. 1762 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 17:17-27: in context

17Don’t be a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of evil. 18Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but don’t let me be disappointed. Let them be dismayed, but don’t let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction. 19The LORD said this to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem. 20Tell them, ‘Hear the LORD’s word, you kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates: 21The LORD says, “Be careful, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22Don’t carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day. Don’t do any work, but make the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. 23But they didn’t listen. They didn’t turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction. 24It will happen, if you diligently listen to me,” says the LORD, “to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein; 25then there will enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on David’s throne, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will remain forever. 26They will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the LORD’s house. 27But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem. It will not be quenched.”’”

In the midst of his trials, Jeremiah prays a short and steadying line: do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of evil. Then the LORD sends him to the gates of Jerusalem with a message to the kings and people about keeping the Sabbath holy, promising blessing if they hear and ruin if they will not. But at the heart of the prophet's own prayer stands his confession of where he takes shelter when trouble comes: you are my refuge in the day of evil.

Jeremiah's life was full of days of evil, opposition, threats, imprisonment, the hostility of a people who hated his message. And in the middle of it, his prayer names God as his refuge: you are my refuge in the day of evil. A refuge is a place you run to for shelter when the storm breaks, a stronghold that holds when everything else is exposed. Jeremiah had learned to make God that place, to run to him when trouble came, to shelter in him in the day of evil. There is something worth learning here about where we turn when the hard day comes. Days of evil come to all of us, seasons of trouble, threat, loss, opposition, fear; and in them we look for a refuge, somewhere to shelter, something to hold onto. We are tempted to make our refuge in lesser things, in our own resources, in other people, in distraction or escape. Jeremiah's confession points to the true refuge: God himself, a shelter that holds when others fail. To have God as our refuge is to have a place to run in the day of evil that cannot be overrun, a stronghold that stands when the storm is at its worst. This is not a refuge from all trouble, for Jeremiah's troubles were real and continued; it is a refuge in the trouble, a shelter within the storm, a God to run to when the day of evil comes. Blessed are those who have learned, before the storm, to make God their refuge, so that when the day of evil comes, they know where to run.

When the day of evil comes, trouble, threat, loss, fear, where do I run for refuge, to lesser shelters that fail, or have I learned, like Jeremiah, to make God my refuge, a stronghold to run to in the storm that cannot be overrun?

Sources