Jeremiah 20:11-13 “But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten. O Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause. Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.”

Jeremiah gives us three descriptions of the Lord that give us courage for what we have to say. First of all, the Lord is with us like a mighty warrior: someone like Goliath, whose size and strength kept the entire Israelite army hiding until David came along.

Perhaps a more up to date picture for us would be an action-adventure hero. In one hand he carries a 20 millimeter machine gun, in the other a grenade launcher. He single-handedly wipes out the enemy. Our mighty warrior may not be very loud or very visible to us today, but he is with us nonetheless. Remembering that Christ stands behind us, and is going to vindicate us in the end, may make us feel a little less lonely when we need to take a stand.

Second, Jeremiah reveals that God has a purpose in letting us take some heat for speaking out against evil. He is the Lord “who examine(s) the righteous and probe(s) the heart and mind…” God is testing us and refining us when the world is taking us on. Our faith becomes purer and more certain when believing or doing what is right has been particularly challenging, and we have had to put our trust more firmly in the Lord and his word. We may not like it when our stands make us unpopular, but, like so many things that taste bad or feel bad, it’s good for us.

Finally, God be praised, for “…he rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.” If there is one thing we should never forget about our God, it is that he is the God who rescues. Bible history is one long litany of events in which he rescues his people. He rescues Noah from the flood. He rescues Jacob from Esau. He rescues Israel from famine. He rescues Israel from Egypt. He rescues David from Goliath, and Saul, and Absalom. He rescues Jerusalem from Assyria. He rescues Judah from Babylon. Finally, he rescues the world from sin and hell by letting his Son be crucified to death and rise again to life. God is going to return to rescue us from this world on the last day.

If our Lord has gone through all of that to rescue us as a people for himself, we don’t have to be afraid or ashamed to stand with him against the sin and deceit of the world in which we live. He will come to our rescue. In fact, he already has.