WHAT TUGS AT YOUR HEARTSTRINGS? ~ A Study in Jeremiah

For most of us, being a Christian in the United States of America has been relatively painless in our lifetime. My generation has watched the world change at a rapid rate, and my grandmother’s generation was no different. In fact, if she were alive today, in just two generations she would barely recognize the world as we know it. Certainly, she would not be able to fathom all the changes technology have brought us, but I suggest she would not apprehend the general nature of the people in this world as compared to those in her day. It would only be through knowing her Bible that she would perceive the signs of the times. While the world has become increasingly more intolerant to truth and the Gospel, we have had little persecution that has had any rampant physical ramifications…to date.

I’m not sure why it seems as though all hell has broken loose in the year 2020 alone, but I will say that it is evident that it won’t be long before true believers will need to take a bold stand for their faith, quite possibly even unto death. Only those who possess true saving faith will stand steadfast and firm against the enemy whose subtle tactics are becoming increasingly more overt. We see this in the threat Pastor John MacArthur is facing over his stand in defiance against discriminatory orders that completely disregard the Constitution with regard to churches in California to have the right to gather in worship during this obviously blown-out-of-proportion pandemic.

Christians need to remember that persecution always fails in its malicious intent to destroy the credibility of true believers. What is intended to tear down, break down, and shut the mouths of the saints only serves to strengthen them to proclaim truth all the louder.

Were God’s own people persecuting Jeremiah for the hard messages he was sent to proclaim to them? No doubt. As we study the book of Jeremiah, we must also study God’s choice servant chosen for such a time as this, as it were. How did he respond to the persecution that came from speaking the truth? How do we typically respond to persecution? Do we dig in our heels and let the arrows of truth flow with a vengeance but in a spirit of love? Is that wrong?

The word heart is used repeatedly by Jeremiah. When we think of someone who is called ‘the weeping prophet’ we may begin to paint an unrealistic portrait of Jeremiah in our mind based on any preconceived ideas we have taken from our own day. A weeping man in our age would be considered a weak, mealy-mouthed coward who is afraid of his own shadow. Jeremiah’s resolve was laden with steel. His heart was tender, compassionate, and consumed with the love for God’s people and for God and His holiness. I could use the phrase ‘tugging at his heartstrings’ to describe the turmoil Jeremiah was in, and it would be an accurate assessment. According to Merriam-Webster: “Before a song or movie or heart-shaped card accompanied by a box of chocolates could tug at your heartstrings, the job was more likely to be accomplished by a surgeon: the word heartstring used to refer to a nerve believed to sustain the heart.” Who knew? What was that nerve that sustained Jeremiah’s heart? It was that nerve that tied his heart to God’s in love. Jeremiah revealed God’s own strength and heart. The words we see coming next from his mouth come directly from God’s own heart:

My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot be silent, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. (Jeremiah 4:19)

We have all known those sudden rushes of adrenaline wherein we experience physical reactions to fear or anxiety. When the investigation began into my husband’s company, every time the phone rang and it was his attorney, every time there was a knock at the door, every time there was a legal paper served upon us, I knew that instant pounding and racing of my heart and the pit in my stomach. When I would get called to my counselor’s office for legal mail in prison, the same reaction always accompanied me there. There have been circumstances involving responses to situations with my children that have induced similar physical manifestations.

There are many different types of scenarios that can trigger our body’s natural fight or flight response driven by our nervous system. This response is our body’s way of dealing with danger designed to help us survive stressful and life-threatening situations. “The fight or flight response, or stress response, is triggered by a release of hormones either prompting us to stay and fight or run away and flee,” explains psychologist Carolyn Fisher, PhD. “During the response, all bodily systems are working to keep us alive in what we’ve perceived as a dangerous situation.” Without you even telling it what to do, your body is assessing what is going on around you and determining your options on how you most likely could survive the event. Here’s what can happen during the stress response: Your heart rate and blood pressure increases; you’re pale or have flushed skin; blunt pain response is compromised; dilated pupils; you’re on edge; memories can be affected; you’re tense and trembling; and your bladder or bowels might be affected (it is not uncommon to lose voluntary control of your bladder or bowels in a truly stressful or dangerous situation.) During the fight or flight response your body is trying to prioritize, so anything it does not need for immediate survival is placed on the back burner. This means that digestion, reproductive and growth hormone production and tissue repair are all temporarily halted. Instead, your body is using all its energy on the most crucial priorities and functions. The stress response can be triggered in a single instant, but how quickly you calm down and return to your natural state is going to very from person to person (and it will depend on what caused it). https://health.clevelandclinic.org/what-happens-to-your-body-during-the-fight-or-flight-response/  

Most of the above article comes from a secular viewpoint, so the reader must take that into consideration; but bodily responses to stressful situations do happen as described in the article from a medical viewpoint. This helps us understand why we are repeatedly told in Scripture not to be anxious or worry which is sin. Giving in to anxiety and worry instead of taking our concerns and fears directly to God in prayer can result in many diseases that are harmful to our bodies. And this is exactly what we see Jeremiah doing.

God had raised the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war calling for a deep lament from His people. The prophet heard the sound, and it cut him to the quick. He knows exactly what it means. He has not turned a deaf ear to the blasts; he responds as all the people should have responded.

My soul, my soul can literally be translated, my bowels, my bowels. The definition of this word can mean the inward parts, digestive organs, organs of procreation, womb, place of emotions or distress or love, or external belly. To be in anguish is to twist, to whirl about, to writhe in travail with, to bear, bring forth, to wait anxiously, suffering torture, or to be born. Isaiah 13:8—They will be terrified, pains and anguish will take hold of them; they will writhe like a woman in labor, they will look at one another in astonishment, their faces aflame. Jeremiah in anguish in this situation was likened to a woman writhing in painful labor. His heart is pounding. While his physical heart is no doubt literally pounding, it is because of something he knows or understands in his mind. The heart is the inner man, mind, will heart, understandings, or seat of emotions and passions. We see here how our mind, our emotions and passions, and our wills all works together.

Ultimately, what did God want from His people? He wanted their hearts. He wanted devotion to Him from the heart, for only that type of worship glorifies Him as He desires and deserves to be glorified. Jeremiah had a right fear of God, and his reverence for God was revealed in his reaction to the judgment that was to come upon his people. The bottom line here is that Jeremiah’s reaction was proof that he believed God. The people did not.

His heart was pounding which means it was making a loud sound, causing great commotion or tumult. It means to rage, war, moan, clamor, mourn, roar, be troubled, or be in an uproar. The message was so dire that he could not remain silent. He could not be like the false prophets that only brought a message of peace. He had to plough or cut through the façade of a false peace. He could not and would not turn a deaf ear to God like the false prophets had conditioned the people to do. He could not be quiet because they had heard the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.  

Those people who want to shun believers who seek to speak the whole truth, take notice. Woe to those false teachers who prophesy falsely speaking only messages of peace and safety. Ezekiel 3:18—When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. Ezekiel 33:6—'But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet and the people are not warned, and a sword comes and takes a person from them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require from the watchman’s hand.’ Again, obedience to speaking the whole truth, no matter the reaction from the people, is evidence of belief in and love for God. Those who try to make people believe it is unloving to speak the truth of God’s wrath and judgment have missed the truth by as far as the east is from the west.

Part of the idea behind the shofar, a ram's-horn trumpet used by ancient Jews in religious ceremonies and as a battle signal,is the understanding that it was used to give a clear, sharp sound. Jeremiah is pointing out that God’s rebellious children had not missed the warning, they were just refusing to heed its call to repentance. God had declared war against His people with the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. They knew what the blasts meant; they just chose not to believe it could happen to them. They were comfortable in their deception. Their lives were good in their eyes, and nobody was going to upset their best life now. Jeremiah humbled himself before God. There would be no excuse that would stand before Almighty God for anyone who did not do the same.