All right, all right, join the Journey family, friends, and guests. You're listening to Join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter. Thanks for joining. Today, we are reading Jeremiah 12 through 15, and I am in the podcast studio with Faithful Watermark member, David Samanski.

Hey, guys. How's it going? It's going so well, David. I'm so glad you're here. We crossed paths years ago when you were serving with production. I was on the porch team and now we're reunited on this lovely morning. We've come full circle. We've come full circle. But for those who don't know you, would you share a little about what God's done in your life and then what you're up to today? Yeah, I moved to Dallas about five years ago, got connected with Watermark then, and worked, came down here for a job with Raytheon for about two and a half years. I don't know what Raytheon is. Oh, they're like a big defense contractor. Okay, okay, cool. Yeah, there's a few of those around the U.S. and one of them's here. Nice. So it worked there for a bit and now I'm over at a cybersecurity company. But been a lot of moving parts in life lately. I got married about two weeks ago. Congrats. Congrats. Two weeks ago. Yeah. So fun. Yep. Yeah. So it's been fun kind of learning role as a husband and navigating life together as a married couple. And in the meantime, too,

it's been sweet. As we cover Jeremiah 12 through 15 today, that's been kind of another thing that the

Lord, by his grace, has brought full circle. Watermark actually came to me back in, I think, August

the last year, asking to write about this. And at that point in time, my mom had just actually passed away due to a rare form of bone cancer.

So it's a sweet grace of his that two months ago, y'all would ask me to join the podcast and cover the same topic, which is really sweet.

And Jeremiah 12 through 15 actually has a really special place in my heart.

I'm so glad, David, you're the perfect person for today's episode and to talk about this text. I'm just grateful for the work the Lord has done in your life and that this gets to be a really sweet, full circle moment for you. Yeah. With that in mind, do you want to just set the stage for chapter 12? Absolutely. Is that sound good?

Yeah.

Okay.

That sounds great.

So up to this point, Jeremiah is witnessing a lot of rebellion from the people of Judah

against God.

And in chapter 12, Jeremiah is coming to God with the headings as a complaint, right?

I think there's a frustration in Jeremiah over what he's

witnessing and he kind of comes to the Lord with, I think, a little bit of entitlement of like,

Lord, like, you've given me this task. And the task that you've asked me to do is not even going

smoothly, it's just not working. Like, I'm hitting a wall here. Yes. So, you know, he, I mean, right off the bat in 12-1, he says, righteous are you, O Lord. He's declaring what is true about God, but then he kind of does a almost like a sarcastic flip there, like, righteous are you, O Lord, when I complain to you, yet I would plead my case

before you. You know, it's this, it's like, yet something's not checking out. Exactly.

Exactly. And so in 12, you know, Jeremiah is just covering this frustration. And then God actually

responds to Jeremiah, starting in verse 5. And it's profound because essentially what the Lord is

telling Jeremiah is, hey, like, if you think this is the biggest challenge that you're facing,

...