“Why do you prophesy as you do?”
Jer. 32: 3-44
Zedekiah, king of Judah had imprisoned Jeremiah there,
saying, “Why do you prophesy as you do?”
Jeremiahs response, “The word of the Lord came to me…”
Jeremiah presses on to say all the things the Lord had said
to him about the land, the empire, and the Babylonians.
What sticks out to me the most is this, when questioned “Why?”
Jeremiah immediately spits out what the Lord had placed on his heart in the
past. He goes back to that place that the Lord spoke to him. He remembers. Not
that he had forgotten, but he takes a second and remembers why he speaks as he
does.
Last night, I was somewhat in charge of leading worship for
team Haven and team Mor3. We were having an interesting time of worship. We,
due to my lack of musical gifting/preperations and some “impromptu ideas thrown
down by Lia Frederick”, had no songs played, just a beat on a guitar laid out
by Julian Sutton and Phillip Henry. We stood, kneeled, sat, or danced as we
felt the spirit move. We sang our own song to the Lord. We gave Him our own
personal praise. It was not the words of some strangers’ song, nor prayer
written long ago. We gave him everything we had within us, and even though we
all had different words, hums, dances, and prayers, it turned out to be some
amazing worship where the spirit of the living God came down and filled us up.
A little ways into the worship I remembered that I had been
boiling some milk fresh from the cow as to kill the bacteria. As I “remembered”
the milk, I “remembered” that God had been laying that exact word on my heart
for the last few days, “Remember”. I felt as though He was speaking to me
saying “William, why are you here? Why do you serve me as you do? Do you
remember? Remember where you came from, what I have brought you through.” And
just as in the Lion King, Mufasa speaking to Simba from the clouds, I felt him
repeating the words “Remember, remember, remember”
I stepped out of worship to check on the milk and make sure it
wasn’t turning to cheese or something like that, and as I did, I felt God
saying look up the promise I gave the Israelites in the Exodus.
Ex. 3:7-8 – “The Lord
said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying
out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring
them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with
milk and Honey.”
I began to remember the stories of old, and the land that
God led the Israelites out of. I knew I wanted to do communion with the group,
but could not find the bread or the juice. As I looked around, God laid Luke 22
on my heart, “Do this in remembrance of
me“. Is not the point of communion to be in remembrance of our Christ? Is
it not just a moment that we take to remember all He was and is, all He has done
and is doing? So with 4 liters of milk, just come to a boil in front of me, I
poured some into a jar and we took communion with fresh milk, taking the time
to remember just what it was that God first spoke to us the day we met Him. We
remembered what He has done in our lives, and where He has brought us from.
Just as He promised the Israelites “A land flowing with milk and honey”, He
promises us a similar promise of life with Him.
So take some time to remember why you live as you do. Take time to remember why
you speak as you do. Take some time to remember that land that He has offered
you. Take time to remember the land he has brought you from, and words He
spoken into and over your life. Remember that He is good, that He loves and
adores you, that He has carried us all through many toils, dangers, and snares.
Remember, remember, remember…
