Jeremiah 16

I was somewhat bemused as I started reading this chapter of Jeremiah. It seems God had some very interesting instructions for His prophet: “Then the word of the Lord came to me: ‘You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place’… For this is what the Lord says: ‘Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,’ declares the Lord… ‘And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink.’” ( vs 1-2, 5, 8 )

First, the Lord tells Jeremiah he can’t marry. Then He says Jeremiah must neither mourn… nor celebrate. (And I’m left wondering, what can Jeremiah do?!) Without a doubt, given the customs in ancient Israel, following God’s instructions for his life would have made Jeremiah look very strange to his fellow countrymen. Perhaps this was part of the point—to get his friends and neighbors to ask him why in the world he was behaving so differently.

For God, this seems to be a pattern, in that He frequently asked His prophets to allow their relationship with Him to affect their lives. He asked Hosea to marry a prostitute (Hos 1). He asked Isaiah to name his son “a remnant will return” as a sign to the Israelites (Isa 7). He even asked Ezekiel not to mourn his dead wife (Ez 24).

The point? God wants to invade your life! He doesn’t just want to be someone you “attend to” one hour out of the week when you head to church. He doesn’t want to be relegated to a sanctuary with a pipe organ and stained glass windows. When you leave the church, He wants to go with you! When you drive home, He wants to be in the car! When you go to work, He wants to sit across the desk! When you go shopping, He wants to tag along!

It’s so easy for us to stuff God into a box, to compartmentalize Him into the “spiritual” part of our life. But, the truth is, when we’re serious about having a relationship with God, every part of life becomes spiritual. Our whole day—everything we do!—becomes an advertisement for God. Sometimes it may be a good ad. Sometimes it may be an attack ad! But if we’ve crammed God into the “spiritual” box, He won’t stay there very long. Like a nosy mother-in-law (which is proverbial for me, because I can’t speak from experience on that point!), He’s interested in getting His clutches into every area of your life.

I have to close up shop today with Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of Romans 12:1-2—

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.

Do you have God in a box? Have you heard pounding on the lid? Strange noises coming from inside? Watch out! God invades life! When you invite Him in, you’ll find it won’t be long before things may start to look very different.