The Ministry of Destruction

by F. B. Meyer

Jeremiah 27

Ours the shame to understand

That the world prefers the lie;

That, with medicine in her hand,

She will sink and choose to die!

Ours the agonising sense,

Of the heaven this earth might be,

If, from their blank indifference,

Men woke one hour and felt as we!

Houghton 

When Jeremiah was first summoned to the work of prophet, it was summarized under six distinct divisions. He was set over nations and kingdoms to pluck up, and to break down, and to destroy, and to overthrow; to build and to plant (1:10). Two thirds of his work was therefore in the direction of destruction. It is not pleasant or easy work. No one would choose to stand amid the choking dust of the crumbling brickwork, which is being destroyed to make way for some palatial structure to be erected on the site. Vested interests, long-established abuses, lucrative wrongs, cry out loudly against any attempt to interfere with their existence. But Elijah must precede Elisha; and John the Baptist must prepare the way for Christ. Before the seed-sowing, the plough; before the outburst of the spring, the stern disintegration of winter, rubbing the soil to powder in its mighty hands. Such was the work that fell to the lot of Jeremiah...

...Suppose that Jeremiah had put away the Heavenly summons, and had lived in the sequestered ease of Anathoth: he might have secured a respectable and peaceable life, but Jehovah would never have spoken to him; the Unseen and Eternal would never have unfolded to his vision; he would never have felt the supreme satisfaction of knowing that the had done his best; he would never have shone like a star amid the darkening clouds of Jerusalem's fall; he would have missed the hero's crown, the Master's "well done," and the exceeding great reward...

...THE NEED OF THIS MINISTRY. –It must be fulfilled with the unconverted.– For lack of it much Gospel effort fails. Of what use are appeals to come to Jesus until the sinner has been led to see the awful peril which he has incurred? Of what avail to extol the balm of Gilead until the soul has heard and accepted the diagnosis of its fatal condition?  Of what advantage to offer a seat in the lifeboat, so long as the sailor is full of confidence in his ship, and is unaware of its crazy and unseaworthy condition? One of the most important ministries of the servant of God is to destroy false confidence, to pull down refuges of lies, and to show the utter futility of venturing on the sea of eternity in any other craft than that which Christ launched from the cross of Calvary. 

     It is a great mistake to heal the wound of the heart too lightly. The consolations of the Gospel are very well; but they must be withheld until men have seen their state before God, and have been held over the mouth of the bottomless pit of their own sin. The greatest revivals always begin in a thorough preaching of the Law, pressing home its demands upon the consciences of the ungodly. Nor is it enough to dwell in general denunciation; we must particularize, till conscience cries, "Thou art the man!"

 

from Chapter 15 of Jeremiah, Priest and Prophet, by F. B. Meyer, published in 1972 by Christian Literature Crusade

Frederick Brotherton Meyer (8 April 1847 – 28 March 1929), a contemporary and friend of D. L. Moody and A. C. Dixon, was a pastor and evangelist in England involved in ministry and inner city mission work on both sides of the Atlantic. Author of numerous religious books and articles, many of which remain in print today, he was described in an obituary as The Archbishop of the Free Churches.

Other books by Meyer: Elijah and the Secret of His Power, Abraham: The Obedience of Faith, Christ in Isaiah, The Shepherd Psalm, Moses the Servant of God, David, Paul: A Servant of Jesus Christ