Then the officials said to the King, "This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin." – Jeremiah 38:4

Today's Scripture Reading (September 4, 2026): Jeremiah 38

A theme runs through Jeremiah; it is repeated throughout the book. The external reality of Jeremiah's words is that Judah as a nation is ending. There won't be many more days left in her existence. Repeatedly, Jeremiah comes to the powers that be and tells them what he has heard God say, and they repeatedly reject everything he tells them. The prophecy Jeremiah provides to the officials is not the one the national leadership wants to receive. And they aren't all that different from some of our contemporary leaders; all they want to hear are people willing to tell them they are the best and the nation is lucky to have them. Everyone else is just more fake news and should be silenced and ignored. As a result, Jeremiah pays a price for speaking the truth that he has heard from God to those in power over the nation of Judah.

I am not sure that I believe that everyone can be a Jeremiah. Some of us don't clearly understand what God is saying. Somehow, the message gets messed up in our heads, and we get sidetracked by unimportant issues. And sometimes, we just don't have the opportunity, or don't know how to put God's truth into words; but even though we all can't be Jeremiah, we all need a Jeremiah to speak truth to us, even when we don't want to hear it.

Even though we need Jeremiahs to be in our lives, we often don't accept their presence. The miserable truth is that we aren't all that different from our leaders. We begin to call the Jeremiahs God places in our lives false and purveyors of just more fake news. Nothing really seems to have changed from the last days of Judah and the ministry of Jeremiah. We have the message that we believe is true, and when anyone else says something different, even if they are a Jeremiah, well, they must be wrong. The truth is that as much as we all need a Jeremiah in our life, their presence is often very painful. In Judah, there were many prophets willing to change their messages to something palatable for the King and his advisors. Then again, growth is always painful, and for a Jeremiah, that is the outcome for which they always seem to be searching.

The message Jeremiah gave Israel was not that they had been abandoned, but that God had found a different path for them to follow. It may not have been the message Israel wanted to hear or the path they wanted to walk, but if they were willing to accept it, they would grow and continue their journey with God. However, if they rejected the message, then the result would be even more painful.

If you know of a Jeremiah in your life, thank God for their presence, and then listen to the message that you hear and grow through the times that are ahead. We need our Jeremiahs, and we need to remember that it isn't any more pleasurable to be the bearer of bad news than it is to receive it.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 39