CALL UNTO ME

This is not so much an example of prayer as an encouragement to pray.

We might have thought it was hardly needed. After all, Jeremiah was ‘yet shut up in the court of the prison’, 33. 1, and it is the experience of all God’s people that suffering stimulates prayer. ‘In my distress I cried unto the Lord, and he heard me’, Ps. 120. 1. As Thomas Watson writes, ‘Affliction quickens the spirit of prayer; Jonah was asleep in the ship, but at prayer in the whale’s belly In times of trouble we pray feelingly, and we never pray so fervently as when we pray feelingly’.

But Jeremiah, it seems, required some spur to kindle his praying spirit. He might have been out of the reach of men in the prison, but he was certainly not shut out from the presence and power of God! The invitation to ‘call unto me’ is peculiarly gracious, because it informs us that God enjoys communion with His people.

The recent communications explosion means that people are more accessible than ever before and as a consequence often resent the constant intrusion upon their time. But God delights to hear His children. Baal, like all fraudulent deities, remains stubbornly out of contact despite the loud cries and self-mutilations of his followers, 1 Kgs. 18. 27, while Jehovah can be approached by the simplest, briefest words of petition.

And if God rejoices in the prayers of His people, so may we in the assurance of His response, ‘Call unto me, and I will answer thee’, v. 3. The answer here is not so much a supernatural intervention as a disclosure of Himself and His ways. Jeremiah was not suddenly vindicated like Joseph, nor elevated from misery to a lavish lifestyle. Rather, he got to know his God better.

Prosperity theology, which claims, blasphemously, to command material blessing from the Lord, is naively only seeking the riches that are vulnerable to moth, rust and thieves. But to be brought into an intelligent enjoyment of divine counsels is wealth beyond measure. If we would progress in grace, we must pray.