When Obedience Hurts

In Jeremiah 1, God tells Jeremiah that He appointed him to be a prophet to the nations, but the people of Judah didn’t listen to him. Jeremiah warns them that God will discipline them for their disobedience if they don’t change their ways. In Jeremiah 20, Pashur, the chief officer in the temple and second to the high priest, was furious at Jeremiah’s message. So Pashur had Jeremiah beaten and publicly humiliated. Jeremiah had obeyed God, but where did that get him? It got him beaten! What follows is a lament, or a complaint to God by Jeremiah. He brings his honest, raw emotions to God in prayer. Real faith doesn’t hide the hurt; it brings it honestly to God.