Written and delivered for the National Baptist Congress of Christian

 

Education Ministers’ Division Book, June 2002

 

 

 

Text:

Jeremiah 12:5

 

Subject: Cheer Up: The Worst

 

 Is  Yet To Come!

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The story is told of an ant that was dragging a straw that seemed almost too heavy to be carried.  The ant came to a crack in the ground that proved too wide to cross.  The ant stopped for a while, as if perplexed.  Then he put the straw across the crack and walked over it.  He converted his burden into a bridge. Today we have come to a point in history that we don’t know what will take place next.  We have gone through two world wars. Medical Science has learned to alter genetics.  Tribal genocide has erupted in the name of ethnic cleansing. Terrorism has struck around the world.  But cheer up the worst is yet to come!

 

Two Thousand five hundred years ago Jeremiah wrestled with this dilemma, as his nation was poised between triumph and tragedy.  So Jeremiah burst into the presence of God, hot, angry, and stunned by the cruel usages of life.    He told God that life was unfair.  He said to God you are righteous and I bring my case to you; why do the wicked prosper?    Why do all who are treacherous thrive? (Jeremiah 12:1)

 

To this protest the prophet received a disturbing reply that was not so much an answer as it was a challenge.  If you have raced with men on foot and they have wearied you, how will you complete with horses?   And if on a level field you fall down how will you manage in the jungle of the Jordan?  (Jeremiah 12:5). God was saying to Jeremiah I know you have had a great deal of trouble and struggles over these past eighteen years.  I recognize you have been beaten and tossed around like a football.  Also in God’s reply there was no hint of success, he did not tell him that he would emerge on top.  I know all about the contest and skirmishes of failures, but the worst is yet to come!

 

I have given you an elementary course in conflict so that I may promote you to a more difficult field of battle.  What God is saying to us is that our suffering will equip us for even more challenging adventures.   Every struggle of life that we overcome fits us more fully to face the testing of yet greater crisis. So consider it a compliment when you graduate from the minor skirmishes of the daily round and are ready to take on the really great battles that decide the major issues of life.

 

Jeremiah, the worst is yet to come.  I know you want justice to come quickly but I must give you a more challenging situation.  If you think this is bad, how are you going to cope when it gets really tough?

 

Jeremiah I know this is not an easy answer but all of my answers are not nice and easy to cope with.   I know you have been faithful but the worst is yet to come!  Up to this point it seems as if your family have been with you but they are going  to  turn  on  you.     The  house  of  thy  father;  even  they  have  dealt treacherously with thee; you just don’t know it yet. Your own family has called a multitude against you.  In your face and your presence they talk like they are with you but don’t believe them.  In reality they want you to stop talking about their moral and social habits.   They are saying in private that you are the only one preaching this kind of gospel.  They are going to silence you because the false preachers are telling them what they want to hear.  In the future Jeremiah, they are going to sacrifice their children, they are going to practice cannibalism, and they are going to eat their own children.

 

I know you preached at the Valley of Hinnom, I know you preached in the temple the centers of idolatry.  But they don’t want to hear you.  So Jeremiah told God things are not getting any better so I’m turning in my preaching credentials.  You say the worst is yet to come!  But Jeremiah should have been like the ant and later on he did do like the ant.  He stopped for a moment but the word was like fire shut up in his bones.  He turned his depression and despondency into triumph.

 

We, like Jeremiah have seen a lot of change over the past twenty-five years. Malls open on Sunday, football, baseball, baseball games at high church hour, false churches, false preachers preaching a prosperity gospel, aids, now same sex marriages, the abortion era, high divorce rate, scandal after scandal in the church, drugs and alcoholism, and now terrorism and anthrax.  But cheer up the worst is yet to come!  If running with the footmen worry you the horses have not arrived yet.  We have been on a level playing field up till now and we have stumbled.