Jeremiah 16:19-21
19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.
Here Jeremiah is told by God that he should not marry or have any children because God was going to Judge Judah severely. In someways I believe Jeremiah would have wanted to get married and have children but God showed him what type of grief this would have caused him.
God also showed a great mercy to Jeremiah when he showed him what his loss would bring him; namely the salvation of the gentiles. It is because of sacrifice that the gentiles were brought into God’s kingdom. As my pastor just pointed out Sunday, when the gospel goes out it always cost someone something.
One of the key topics of Jeremiah is idolatry. Judah took on the idols of the Gentiles and some of the Gentiles would eventually understand that these are vanity and turn to the true God that Judah forsook.
The point here, I believe is that when God requires us to sacrifice he will reward us for this. It is our job to die to our self and our desires and let God use us as HE desires.
S.T.
I Thessalonians 5:24
"Faithful is he..."
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