Jeremiah 12:4
is set in the context of the prophet Jeremiah being rebuked by the LORD for his
impatience as recorded in Jeremiah 12:1-5.
From Jeremiah 12:4, it is apparent that
the prophet has been mocked for preaching the word of God. This is in line with the crux of Isaiah 42:4 which states that the
Promised Messiah will meet with intense opposition. In fact, all the prophets in the Old
Testament met with great opposition which points to the ultimate rejection of
the Messiah Himself by Israel.
In the words of Acts 7:52 of the Amplified
Bible, “Which
one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who
proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and
murderers you have now become”.
The verse serves to support the claim that all the Old Testament prophets
preached the coming of the Promised Messiah.
Romans 1:22
says that men who profess themselves wise became fools. In 1 Corinthians 1:22 -24, we see that
Jews demand attesting miracles and Gentiles pursue worldly wisdom and
philosophy. Both of them disregarded the
message concerning Christ crucified Who is the power and wisdom of God. It is for this reason that those who preached
Christ crucified will be mocked. As
recorded in 1 Corinthians 1:21, the
straightforward message of salvation seemed foolish to unbelievers. The apostle Paul was proficient with Old
Testament writings and Jewish law as well as conversant with Roman
statutes. He was also a man of logic and
rhetoric. However, when he preached the
Gospel, he focused on the straightforward message of salvation and did not rely
on rhetorical techniques of persuasion.
In the words of 1 Corinthians 2:1-2, the apostle
Paul did not proclaim the testimony of God with regards to salvation through
Christ with lofty words of eloquence or of philosophy as a Greek orator might
have done it. Instead, he focused on the
meaning of the redemptive, substitutionary death, and resurrection of Christ
Jesus. In Acts 26:19-29, we have a scene of
the apostle Paul preaching to King Agrippa of Judea. The apostle Paul was deemed to be out of his
mind because he spoke of salvation through the suffering and resurrection of
Christ Jesus. We see the consistency of Paul’s preaching in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 where his
sermon centered on Christ Jesus having died for our sins according to what was
written in the Old Testament and that He was buried and bodily raised on the third
day, and appeared to His disciples as well as 500 others thereafter.
It is stated in 1 Corinthians 2:14 that the things
of God are spiritually discerned. We
need the indwelling Holy Spirit to help us understand the things of God. 1 Corinthians 2:12 tells us
that we have received the Holy Spirit so that we may
know and understand the wonderful things freely given to us by God.
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