The book of Jeremiah, in addition to being a prophetic book is a book that displays the corruption that lies in man. In this book, we see the deceitfulness of man and the love of pleasure that slowly and surely brings him into destruction. The love of the world and self is made apparent in the book and worst of it all is that it starts from the top to the bottom. Indeed, Jeremiah writes at a time where Judah is so entrenched in sin that they have diluted the commandments of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for those of pagan gods which their forefathers never knew. Sin has a way of blinding us to ourselves to the point where we do not see the wrong in what we are doing. Judah was so proud of its identity as God’s very own that they thought they were invincible to the world; they believed that being the people of God meant God would always be on their side no matter their disobedience. It is hard to imagine that the very ones that should have known better were the ones encouraging the people into sin. Indeed, the priests who were supposed to guide the people into God’s law were themselves lawbreakers. The corruption of Judah was deep, that is why the LORD was against it and promised to bring His judgement upon the nation. As I continued my reading of Jeremiah, this week I was reminded that God’s character does not change, He will not compromise unlike us, there is no favouritism with Him. He calls us to obedience and that is what He expects. Therefore, let this post encourage you to stay the course in following His commands.
God’s people forsook their first love. They went after gods made by human hands and gave offerings to such gods (Jeremiah 18:15). Worse, they even burned their children alive as an offering to such gods (Jeremiah 19:5). An act so atrocious to God that He vowed to bring disaster upon Judah. This act was also perplexing because it is not a command that God had ordained and as God himself says, it was not a thing that came to mind. This was despicable and cruel. However, Israel did not realize they were despicable to God, they kept thinking that their actions could go unpunished. It is possible that they even thought they were doing “novelties” or revolutionary things through their actions not knowing they were simply showing their depravity and death state. This is a clear example of the deceitfulness of sin. Indeed, apart from the LORD we are nothing and we can do no good thing. As Paul reminds us in the book of Ephesians, “we were dead in our trespasses and in the sin we once walked in, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:1-2). This was true of Israel then and it is true of us today apart from Christ. Indeed, when our trust is not in the LORD but in man or in “horses and chariots”, we are cursed as it says, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD” (Jeremiah 17:5). In other words, there is no life in such a man, no prosperity, no growth, no happiness, no joy, no presence of God. God’s desire for His people has always been their good and He knew that without Him they could not prosper so He often called them back to Himself, back to repentance. He is the one who searches and tests the deceitful and desperately sick heart of man to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds (Jeremiah 17:10). Being a just God, whose judgement is true and right, His call to repentance is so that sinners will not face His righteous judgement which eventually means an eternal separation from Him but instead face a union with Him. Like the father of the prodigal son, God is ready to receive us, wayward children into His family again if we would just return. This cry of God for His people was consistent as He sent prophets after prophets, oracle after oracle. Sadly, the corruption of the people was too much, they could not hear the warnings from the LORD, the clarion call the LORD was sounding. They dismissed the warnings, being fed lies by their false prophets who were not prophesying in the name of the LORD and by bad shepherds who destroyed and scattered their sheep (Jeremiah 23:1) instead of taking care of them. Unfortunately, Judah had to go through exile as punishment for their sins. The nation that had the Great I AM as God became a shadow of itself, yet God in His mercy declared to redeem her.
Truth be told, we may fool ourselves, but we cannot fool the One who created all things. He sees our heart; He knows our heart and knows us better than we know ourselves. When the LORD confronts us, we must simply confess and repent. Indeed, the LORD knows we cannot win the battle against our flesh on our own, we need His intervention. However, we do need to want and receive His help for without that we will not have any victory. Salvation is already available to whoever would receive it because God in His kindness and grace made a way for us sinners to be victorious over our flesh in Christ. By his death on the cross, Jesus, the son of God who knew no sin but became sin so that we would become the righteousness of God reconciled us to the Father and in so doing also gave us the privilege to be called sons of God (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:26). Moreover, because of him, we have received the Holy Spirit who is our helper, counselor, defender, the one who helps us fight the flesh and win against it and keeps us in check with the word of God, convicting us when we go astray. To those who will believe in Jesus Christ, new life appointed by the LORD awaits them with the beauty of living for Him which involves going and bearing fruit that abides to the extent that whatever they asked the Father in the name of Jesus they will receive it (John 15:16). May we see our dependence on the LORD as of utmost necessity for our survival in this life and the next. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 