Jeremiah and the Cost of Speaking Truth

"Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent on usury, nor men have lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me" (Jer. 15:10). Do you know why Jeremiah was the odd man out at every turn among God's people? "Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man [Jeremiah] be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt" (Jer. 38:4). Do you know why he was considered an enemy of 'the establishment' among God's people? Think about it a little bit. I'll give you a hint: Nothing has changed, not from before Jeremiah, and not since Jeremiah. Knowing or not knowing the true answer to these questions could most assuredly bear eternal weight for the souls of God's people. And why is that? Let's allow the great apostle Paul to answer that for us: "... That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, being made conformable unto his death; IF BY ANY MEANS I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" (Philip. 3:10,11). He said the same thing another way in another place: "It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: If we suffer [with Christ], we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us" (II Tim. 2:11,12). Jesus suffered for the sake of the same thing that Jeremiah suffered for: HE HAD GOD'S WORD, AND HE KEPT IT AND DELIVERED IT TO GOD'S PEOPLE FAITHFULLY! That has always been the reason that the faithful have suffered persecution from their brethren that simply wanted none of it. Nothing has changed, my friend. Oh yeah, I did forget one important detail. The reason that God's people have always persecuted the few who have truly carried his word, is because everybody else THOUGHT they had God's word too (II Chr. 18:23; Jer. 28:1-9; Jn. 9:39-41; I Cor. 14:36-38) . Folks just don't care to be wrong about anything, regardless of the untold benefit of letting the wrong go and taking hold of the truth. Especially when their whole social standing among God's people depends on them holding to their guns. Jesus said it this way: "How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" (Jn. 5:44). That is a number that we do not want to be in. Amen.