Throughout Scripture we find many instances of people being instructed by God to write down the things he told them and showed them. Israel was generally a far more literate society precisely because, from the founding of the nation under Moses, the transmission of the law was a crucial aspect of the life of the nation (though not always as central as it should have been). One of the main reasons why prophets like Jeremiah had their oracles transcribed was so that, when their predictions came true, the people would have a written witness to it. They would then also be able to revisit the things that God had said to them to hopefully avoid making the same mistakes. This is why, after Jeremiah’s first scroll was destroyed, a second scroll was made. God wanted to give the exiles something to help them to understand what had happened to them and why. The leaders of Jeremiah’s time would not listen to him, but future leaders in exile and after the exile would. And they would gain a lot from his prophecies. It was a hard ministry for Jeremiah. He would have no ‘success’ in his lifetime. His whole ministry was spent sowing seeds for a generation that he would never meet. There is always a large amount of what we do in serving God that is not about now. God calls us to sow seeds that we might never see come to fruition. There will be a harvest, however, for God never has us serve him in vain. The harvest of your service will be greater than you could imagine.
Commit yourself to faithfully serve God.
Read Jeremiah 36
