Can any idols of the nations bring rain? Or can the heavens give showers. Is it not you, O LORD our God? We set our hope on you, for it is you who do all this. Jeremiah 14: 22, NRSV.
Dear Heavenly Father and God, Creator and Sustainer, we wait on You, because You are mighty to save, and Your salvation is sure! This we know; and for this we give You thanks, in the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
It would seem as if there was not much of a difference between the situation in which Israel was living and the situation in which we are living today. Israel was constantly sinning and “repenting.” They did not enjoy being punished, so they would repent, that the punishment might go away. But they did enjoy sinning. Therefore, as soon as the punishment was lifted because of God’s love for the sinner, His enduring mercy, and His amazing grace, Israel would once again be found waddling in her iniquities.
Because of this love of sin, there was suffering all around. They were undergoing a terrible drought. The wells were dried up. There was no grass in the fields. The wild beasts were suffering as a consequence of these conditions (verses 1-6). In the midst of all of this were the false prophets, prophesying of better days to come. These were the prophets through whom God had not spoken! Instead of calling the people to repentance, they were promising the people peace – in the name of God. They were telling them the things that they wanted to hear, instead of the things that they needed to hear.
And then the prophet Jeremiah humbles himself before God, and asks for the LORD’S forgiveness – not because of anything they deserve, but because there is no god like our God! The One and Only Creator and Sustainer! The One who forgives sin, and shows mercy, and extends grace, to the children of humankind! The prophet appeals to God’s justice: It is not about us, O God, It is about You! You have Your holy name to protect. You have the glory of Your throne to defend! Remember God, that You have established a covenant with us. Remember, not for our sake, but for Yours!
When we start praying like this I believe that we will have more testimonies to give. When we call to remembrance that God is God in His own right, and that only He can make rain fall upon the earth. When we acknowledge that the heavens cannot produce rain, but that it is God who gives the command for the clouds to release the water that has been stored in them – that causes rain to fall! Because He alone, can do these things, because He alone, is Creator, and Sustainer, because He alone, “do all this[,]” therefore, “We set our hope on you[.]”