Jesus Is In Our Hands
Jeremiah was a prophet of God sent to the nation of Israel to bring them back to God’s righteous ways. Throughout his preaching ministry, Jeremiah was of all preachers most miserable. The people treated him with contempt and rejection. Ultimately, they were treating God the same way. When you reject the prophet, you reject the God who commissioned him.
In chapter thirty-seven, Jeremiah was thrown in prison for his preaching. In thirty-eight, he was thrown into a cistern full of mud.
When the evil officials were scheming to have Jeremiah put to death for the judgment of the nation to whom he was preaching, they approached the King with the matter. King Zedekiah, not wanting to become so personally involved, made an astounding statement to the officials. He said, “He is in your hands… The king can do nothing to oppose you.” (Jer. 38:5) As a result of this statement, they felt completely free to “do as they wanted.” So, they took Jeremiah and did something worse than putting him to death. They threw him into a cistern filled with mud, allowing him to be stuck there with hopes that he would die a lonely and miserable death.
While this is not the point of the text, let’s look a moment at the statement the king made to these officials and compare it to Jesus and us. “He is in your hands.” Obviously this meant that Jeremiah was at their disposal. They could do as they wanted with him.
Now I know that God is still in control of the world. He is still all powerful. But Jesus, for all practical purposes, has been put into our hands. What an awesome challenge! Because God designed the gospel’s spread through His people, Jesus is in our hands.
When Jeremiah was placed in the hands of the evil officials, they took the choice of selfishness and hostility. They did what they considered best for themselves. They put him down in a hole and hoped to never have to face the responsibility that he had pointed them toward.
I wonder, since Jesus is in our hands, if we do the same thing. Do we lift Him up and let the world see Him and the truth of His message? Or do we put Him down in a hole, far, far away from us so that we do not have to face our responsibility to Him and the principles that He exhibited?
Lives that are selfishly lived have no place for Jesus. He stands through His life and His testimony in total opposition to such selfish living. As long as we can put Him down in a cistern somewhere, we do not have to face the reality that goes along with living righteous, pure and productive lives.
When we have so much to offer a lost and dying world, how could we not share Jesus? The fate of the world is in our hands. Jesus Himself is in our hands. What will we do with Him?