Introduction: I was reading Jeremiah 20 again and again. Why? Jeremiah was ministering at a time (500s B.C.) when Judah continued its spiritual and moral decline. They’d grown spiritually fat and happy, so to speak, thinking judgment would not really fall. Enter Jeremiah, God’s man.

Historical context: Jeremiah had the divine but difficult commission to tell the truth about his times. He was like the men of Issachar in that he understood the times and knew what the nation should do. But knowing that, and being faithful to herald that message, entailed many risks and great suffering. (Sound like the gospel, perhaps?) Scripture is one coherent story; it all hangs together.

The religious leadership in Jeremiah’s day was especially corrupt. Those who are supposed to be set apart for leading people in the things of God were the most morally compromised and corrupt. Therefore, they hated the truth-teller, Jeremiah. That’s what Jeremiah 20 is all about. But Jeremiah was faithful to his call from God. He had counted the costs of being a disciple of God.

Text: “But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten” (Jer 20:11, ESV).

Teaching: The true prophet of God (Jeremiah) calls the Lord a dread warrior. In other words, God’s a warrior. He is fierce. He is a fighter for light and truth. He is sovereign and the king. Though sin darkens the souls of men, though spiritual wickedness infected the religious leadership, God was still God and still had his prophetic truth-teller Jeremiah to herald the truth of God in an environment where most did not want to hear it. But here’s the good news: some did long for the truth and did have the intestinal fortitude to receive it and live by it. There’s always a remnant, in short, due to God’s sovereign grace.

Most will take the broad way of destruction; that is the clear teaching of Scripture (Matthew 7:13-14, e.g.). But some will recognize the darkness and turn to the light. Why? Because they, like Jeremiah, understand that God is their Dread Warrior.

Encouragement: Scripture teaches “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31). Why? Because God is the Dread Warrior. That reality should drive us to God, not away from God, when we realize that God’s grace is extended to us in the Gospel. Jeremiah would go on and on in his ministry to teach faithfullly. He labored profoundly to reach the people. He loved them enough to warn them of the biblical commands to discern the true from among the false. And Jeremiah’s one of the greatest of the prophets in history. Why? Faithfulness. It comes down to that. He knew God was his Dread Warrior, and that there’s no ultimate success in hiding from Him.