Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, “A child is born to you—a son!” – Jeremiah 20:15

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 16, 2017): Jeremiah 20

From an Eastern perspective, the day of our birth is not something that is worth celebrating. After all, life is nothing more than an opportunity to suffer. The main idea of this existence is to escape the cycle of suffering that is brought one by life. Of course, from an Eastern perspective, even death does not release you from the cycle of suffering. Death only leads reincarnation and rebirth, which only leads to more pain. So birth is a sad event, not one to be celebrated.

Jeremiah is depressed. After giving his statement of faith, he finds himself at the end of his strength and wishes that he had not been born. The prophet no longer wants to be the witness to what is about to happen. Jeremiah is not a believer in Eastern religion. He has no conception of an idea like reincarnation. There is no reason to believe that his current existence is tied in any way to a previous one. And so he blames the day of his birth, confident that if the day of his birth could be erased, so would his entire existence cease to be.

He is careful not to curse his parents. In Israel, that would be a capital offense. The fifth commandment (of the big ten) demands that parents be honored in all circumstances. Jeremiah’s current situation is not about mom and dad. His circumstances are about depression, a country that has refused to listen to their creator, and a God who has now decided that Israel has passed their point of no return. Jeremiah has no desire to watch what comes next.

But Jeremiah has also missed the point. His desire to erase the day of his birth didn’t go back far enough. God mark on Jeremiah’s life predated his birth. “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’”

God had appointed Jeremiah to be the witness to what was about to happen. There was nothing that could change that one fact. What Jeremiah in his depression couldn’t see was that the events he was called to witness were also the first step of God’s restoration of Israel. And sometimes the dark events of our lives are also the first steps of our restoration. The God who called Jeremiah, and still calls us, has never left his throne. He is still in control.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 46