Jeremiah 11:18–20 (ESV)

¹⁸The Lord made it known to me and I knew;
      then you showed me their deeds.
¹⁹But I was like a gentle lamb
      led to the slaughter.
I did not know it was against me
      they devised schemes, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
      let us cut him off from the land of the living,
      that his name be remembered no more.”
²⁰But, O Lord of hosts, who judges righteously,
      who tests the heart and the mind,
let me see your vengeance upon them,
      for to you have I committed my cause.

In the first chapter of the Book that bears his name, Jeremiah writes in verse nine, “Then the Lord put out His hand and touched my mouth.  And the Lord said to me, ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.’”  Those words in the mouth of Jeremiah were either unwelcome news or good news to the hearer.  In any case, the Word of God is powerfully effective. It can “pluck up and break down, destroy and overthrow,” or “build and plant.”  Simply put, Jeremiah was proclaiming God’s Word and God did what the prophet said; however, his listeners did not like it.  The people of Jeremiah’s hometown were secretly plotting to silence him.  They were not just scheming to attack him, they wanted to wipe out any trace of his existence, so “that his name be remembered no more” (19b). The prophet was clueless about the attack until God revealed their plot to him.  

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God always did what His prophets said or asked.  So, when Jeremiah prayed for God to punish his enemies saying, “let me see Your vengeance upon them” (20), God promised Jeremiah’s enemies would get their come-upends in the end (cf.11:21-22).  

In the same way, God gave Jesus, the greatest Prophet (cf. Luke 7:16), what He asked.  In His High Priestly Prayer Jesus prayed for His disciples and asked that God’s Word would glorify Him, unite His Church, and enable His people to fulfill their calling in a troubled world (cf. John 17).  That is what God has done and continues to do for His people on this side of heaven.  Like Jeremiah and the prophets of old, Jesus’ Word also brings a word of judgment or salvation.  His Word is powerful, and it does what it says. His own people thought He was a threat and wanted to kill Him.  Jesus proclaimed the plots of the religious leaders that God had revealed to Him saying, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him.  And when He is killed, after three days He will rise” (Mark 9:31).  Jesus is the Lamb that was led to slaughter, and God did just what Jesus said, “The third day He rose again from the dead.”  

If God raised Jesus from the grave, what request of His would the heavenly Father not fulfill?  In Matthew 25 beginning at the 31^stverse Jesus says on that Judgment Day He will put the sheep on His right and they will “inherit the kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation of the world” (34).  He will also put the goats on His left and say to them “go away into eternal punishment” (46).  

So, what is the word from this Great Prophet for you today?  The Word is that your sins were forgiven when Christ Jesus “bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24).  You hear the Lord’s Word spoken to you in the words of Absolution (the forgiveness of your sins), in Holy Baptism, and Holy Communion.  They are your “Judgment Day sentences” given to you before the Great Day of the Lord!  This prophetic Word of the Lord will not fail because God gives His Prophet what He asks!  

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