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As my one and only New Year’s resolution for 2004 I am setting myself the goal of studying the book of Jeremiah. I hope to share any insights from this study aperiodically on this blog site.

Why Jeremiah? I am drawn naturally to this prophet because as “the prophet of doom” he is the original “Puddleglum.” He is also known as the “weeping prophet.” After the kind of year 2003 was for me, I resonate strongly with that weeping.

Another reason concerns his willingness to be transparent about his feelings to others. In Chapter 12, verses 1-3 he openly questions the Lord’s justice. “Why does the way of the wicked prosper?” He goes on to call on God to judge the wicked, and “drag them off like sheep to be butchered.” Over the last year a number of people have commented—both favorably and unfavorably—about my willingness to share deeply personal things about my own struggles with Susan’s illness and death on this web site. So again, I feel like Jeremiah is a kindred spirit in this area as well.

Some historical background is warranted before delving into the book itself. When I turn to the historical diagrams in the front of Susan’s NIV Study Bible (which I gave to her for Christmas exactly 7 years ago), I find something interesting. The diagrams start in roughly 2100 BC, with the birth of Abram in 2166 (I’m surprised they can pin it down to a single year). Thus, as we dwellers in the 21st century march forward in time towards 2100 AD, we are about as far away from the centerline of human history–the birth of Christ–as Abraham was in the past. Jeremiah’s time was roughly 600 BC, so the reflection of his day around the Christ centerline would put us at 600 AD, a date which roughly marked the beginning of large conversions of pagan Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in the British Isles. The other striking thing is the brevity of Jeremiah’s life and ministry compared to the 4000 years from Abraham to us. Of course, his brevity is our brevity. One hundred years (give or take 10 or 20) is only 2.5% of recorded human history. This contrasts rather dramatically with the long-lived patriarchs of Genesis who lived almost a full millennium. For our age, with all our vaunted technology, it is nevertheless very much as Psalm 103 says: As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,and its place knows it no more. Those winds blew over me twice during the past year as both Mom and Susan left me for the heavenly courts above. And I’m finding that despite all my efforts to the contrary, their places are starting to forget them. Even with the videos and the photos, my family and my friends and myself are letting their memories slip away as their priorities are displaced by the more pressing things of “today.”

Jeremiah 1:4&5

Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying ,”Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

As Susan faced her final weeks of life on earth she often cited a similar verse to the above from Psalm 139: Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them. (verse 16). Though these verses were uttered by two huge Biblical personages: Jeremiah and David, the church has traditionally applied them in a general sense to all believers. Often this idea of God’s appointment for us is assigned the term “calling.” Paul, for example, in his description of the church using the analogy of the human body (I Cor. 12:12ff) implies that even the humblest member of the Kingdom of God has his/her appointed gift to share with the rest of the body. We are thus called to use that gift that God our Creator had in mind for us when He “formed us in the womb.”

The US Army tells us “be all you can be.” The Bible tells us: “be all God has appointed you to be.” For Jeremiah–and other great Bible heroes–figuring out what their appointment from God is seems relatively easy. God spoke to them directly. “The word of the LORD came to me saying….” Has the word of the Lord come to us in a similar way?

I am grappling with exactly this issue now in this the final phase of my earthly life. During the last 3 years as I looked after my beloved wife during her illness my appointment from the Lord seemed clear. I commented on this previously in this blog under the title “The Pruning.” Now that she is gone, I am suddenly faced with figuring out: what is my new appointment? For starters I believe I am called to remember her. Just as the Old Testament saints were called to periodic remembrances of God’s mighty works in their midst, so it seems appropriate to remember how God showed His grace to me through Susan during the 38 years of our marriage. This I hope to do via old photos, letters, tapes and my fading memory on the “Remembering Susan” blog. I made a start at this in the “Coin Toss” article a few months back.

But once this appointed task is finished, and the learning from these remembrances have been implanted in my brain and my soul, what next? The book of Jeremiah is full of surprises: not only for the reader, but also the prophet. Like him, I expect 2004 will be one of many surprises for yours truly. And possibly for you also. In that spirit I wish for you a special measure of God’s grace in providing you a very “happy new year.”