T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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Not by the wine poured out his complaints to God and even went so |a r as to say th a t he would speak, no more in his name, yet he never once tu rned away from the p ath of duty. Imprisoned repeatedly, p u t in the stocks,- 20:2, lowered hy rope into a m iry dungeon, 38:6, mocked and set a t naught, 20:7, accused of treason to his country, 38:4,, opposed by false prophets, 23 and 28, confronted hy an angry people who clamored for his life, 26, carried against his will hy his coun trym en into Egypt, 43:1-7, under all these changes of fo rtune Jerem iah went on faith fu lly delivering his message for more th an fo rty years, One em i n en t Bible scholar has w ritten of him on th is wise, “So fa r as we have d ata fo r a judgm ent, Jerem iah was th e healthiest, strongest, bravest, grandest man of Old T estam ent history.” . To him was comm itted th e hopeless ta sk of trying to bring back th e people to God a t the eleventh hour. He prophesied th e seventy y ears’ exile of th e Jews in Babylon, urging them to settle down in th e city and to seek its peace. He prophesied ju st -as certainly th e u lti m ate resto ration of his people through God’s unchanging love for them. He was such a strik ing type of Christ t h a t : it is no t surp rising th a t some m istook th e Man of Sorrow for th is prophet of th e broken h eart, Matt. 16:14. He wept over th e people as Jesus wept over them , 9:1. He likens him self to a lamb or an ox brought to th e slaughter, 11:19. His fearless rebuke of n in brought him reproach, suffering and rejection even as it brought our Lord. T radition has lo cated th e “ Grotto of Jerem iah ” in the face of a rocky hill on th e western side of Jerusalem where his lam enta tions were poured out over his fallen country and where the ruined city could be seen. “Measure th y life by loss and not by gain,
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