Jeremiah's Complaint

I read, with new amazement, “Jeremiah’s Complaint” which he had kept for his readers in his twentieth chapter. The prophets are men who belong to God. Flesh, their flesh, is a dwelling place for Him. They all have had words that open the present onto the time to come. Jeremiah's assignment was to deliver the word against the Babylonian king, who was coming from afar to exile his people from their land. But the people did not believe his word. They waited for heaven to belie him or for aid to come from Egypt. Pashhur, the governor in the house of the Lord, was an image of this people. Jeremiah foretold him his fate. He told him that his name was no longer Pashhur, meaning deliverance or peace, but it had become "Magor-Missabib," meaning fear on every side. This is the punishment of the word we do not believe. The complaint remains, revealing the prophet in his utmost confusion. Jeremiah does not want his people to perish. He wished for death for himself. He said it would have been better if he had not been born. This is due to the pressure of preaching, the consuming fire ignited by the word within the bones until it bursts forth. The Word is meant to keep bursting forth.