"I am with you."

Read Jeremiah 1:13-19

Jeremiah's preparation began with two visual aids. The almond tree may have looked dead (v.11), but just as there was life within, so God, who appeared to be disinterested or simply unaware of what was going on in the country, was actually very interested and was watching events closely.

The seething cauldron in the north (v.13) stood for Babylon, the regional power rising into even greater prominence at that time; and it was from this quarter that the new threat would come. The invasion would be God's judgment on the idolatry which still riddled Judah despite King Josiah's reforms.

In verses 18 and 19 there is a vivid description of how God would fortify His timid servant. It reminds me of Churchill's fine description of Anthony Eden at the time of his resignation over the policy of appeasement before World War II. "There seemed one strong young figure standing up against the long, dismal, drawling tides of drift and surrender, of wrong measurements and feeble impulses... He seemed at this moment to embody the life-hope of the British nation..." That was how Jeremiah was intended to stand for God - a bulwark against the swirling waters of evil. That is how we should stand.

Have there been times when you have had to stand alone like that, and have succeeded, because God has said, "I am with you" (v.19)?

O Lord, make me a fortified city in which others can find refuge, an iron pillar to which they can cling, bronze walls behind which they can shelter, not in my strength but in Yours; through Christ my Lord. Amen.

Image: the city of Babylon.