DISGRACED AND HELPLESS

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the people of Israel are disgraced—they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets. They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns.”

Jeremiah 2:26-28

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How often do people turn away from God to chase after the things of the world, forsaking and abandoning Him, that is, until they get into trouble in life and then decide to cry out to Him for help?

Too often, I’m afraid.

The people of Israel were like this in Old Testament times. We know because our scriptures from Jeremiah 2 tell us so, painting a very vivid picture of the sins they committed that led to God’s wrath and judgment. Look again at these verses:

“As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the people of Israel are disgraced—they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets. They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns.”  Jeremiah 2:26-28

Note here the two characteristics that marked the Israelites in the midst of their sinfulness.

First, they were disgraced before God who had lost all respect for them, mostly because they had failed to show Him any. He had caught them in the act of unfaithfulness as they turned their backs on Him and gave their devotion to false gods and idols, turning their desire and attention to icons fashioned out of wood or stone.

This led to their second characteristic for that idol of wood or stone was as lifeless as their faith and would not respond to them no matter how hard they prayed to it. In other words, the Israelites were helpless because they had placed their faith and hope in things that could not bring them help.

Thus, in their realization that they were helpless when their false gods and idols failed to help, the people would turn back to God and seek His aid but as we see in the scripture passage, all they would receive is His mocking as He asked them what was wrong with the gods they had made, wondering why they couldn’t come to save them instead.

You can’t say God doesn’t have a sense of humor but the Israelites asked for it. They deserved to be disgraced and helpless because of their disrespect and disregard for the Lord God Almighty, the Maker and Creator of all things, the One who held all power in His hands. All he asked was for His people to place their full faith in Him and be obedient to His will, way, and word.

And yet, His people decided to test Him and as we have seen in today’s devotion, that didn’t turn out so well.

So why on earth would we ever want to repeat the mistakes of the past? Why would we wish to place ourselves in a position where we are disgraced and helpless, especially when we have a God who is our very present help in times of trouble, a God who wants to hold us in esteem and will do so as long as we remain devoted fully to Him and Him alone?

I don’t know why. I just know that a lot of people are doing it today.

I pray you aren’t counted in that number but if you are, you need to change your ways today. Turn back to God and cast off anything in life that is taking you away from having a committed, authentic relationship with Him, acknowledging Him with all your heart and mind and soul that He is the one and only God for you now and forever.

It’s the only way to ensure that you won’t find yourself in the place that the Old Testament Israelites were in.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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