DOOMED TO PERISH

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In Christ, Mark

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

“Why are we sitting here? Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there! For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him. We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror. The snorting of the enemy’s horses is heard from Dan; at the neighing of their stallions the whole land trembles. They have come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who live there.”

“See, I will send venomous snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,”
declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 8:14-17

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

It couldn’t have been a good feeling.

The people of God in Israel were staring down His judgment and there was nothing they could do to stop it. Unpleasant times were ahead, times that would see their lives turned upside down as their homeland was overrun and ransacked by the marauding army of the Babylonians who would then carry off all of the people into exile for seventy years.

The Israelites were doomed to perish and we get a sense of their state of mind as we look at our scripture passage for today from Jeremiah 8:

“Why are we sitting here? Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there! For the Lord our God has doomed us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him. We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror. The snorting of the enemy’s horses is heard from Dan; at the neighing of their stallions the whole land trembles. They have come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who live there.”

“See, I will send venomous snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the Lord.  Jeremiah 8:14-17

Did you note the sense of surrender in their voices?

I mean, who wouldn’t feel that way knowing that you were up against God Himself, the only One who possessed infinite power, power that no man or woman could withstand if it were leveraged against them. It was this threat that completely defeated the Israelites emotionally as they felt the weight of disaster looming before them.

“Let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there.” The words of the people of God reflected their realization that no matter where they went, there would be no safety or shelter. They had hoped that they might get another chance but they had used up all their chances. No peace or good was in their future, only terror and the ensuing hardship that would come from the coming attack.

Of course, no one should feel too sorry for the Israelites. They had only themselves to blame really. Even they acknowledged that.

You see, it could have been so much different. The people of God could have avoided experiencing His wrath if they had really showed themselves as His people. Instead, they revealed themselves as more devoted to false gods and idols than the God who commanded them not to have any gods or idols before Him. By their own admission, the Israelites sinned against God and played with fire. It was now their time to feel the burn.

We might want to turn away from these passages of scripture because they aren’t easy to receive. God’s judgment never is pleasant whether it is falling on us personally or on others. But to refrain from taking on these words of God, we would be setting ourselves up for failures that could rival or even exceed those of the Israelites. We need to always be reminded that willing sinful behavior will always put us in opposition with a God who hates it and will punish it. It’s the one true deterrent that should keep us in check and away from failing and falling out of the righteousness that the Lord expects.

In the end translation, we have a choice.

We can either experience the fullest measure of God’s abundant blessings, blessings He wants to give us to overflow or we can choose sin instead and doom ourselves to perishing.

Weighing the two, only a fool would opt to sin. I pray you aren’t counted in that number.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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FALSE WISDOM

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In Christ, Mark

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

“‘How can you say, ‘We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord,’ when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?”

“The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?”

“Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”

“Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished,” says the Lord. “‘I will take away their harvest,” declares the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.”

Jeremiah 8:8-13

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

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

The word of God could not be clearer, could it?

If we are going to fully know what we need to know in living this life we have been blessed with, we cannot trust our own wisdom or understanding because it will not lead us to walk in the kind of righteousness the Lord commands and demands, the path that leads straight to life as He expects it to be lived, now and forever.

The same applies to relying on the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of others as well. For it’s only when we submit ourselves to the Lord and place our full trust in Him that we can ensure we will always live in a way that is obedient to His will and pleasing in His sight.

So what can happen when we fail to do this? What is the outcome of placing our faith in the direction and guidance of others vice the Lord?

We see the answers to these questions in today’s scripture passage from Jeremiah 8. Look again at these verses here:

“‘How can you say, ‘We are wise, for we have the law of the Lord,’ when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?”

“The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?”

“Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”

“Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished,” says the Lord. “‘I will take away their harvest,” declares the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.”  Jeremiah 8:8-13

We see right away that the people of God had accepted instruction and guidance that was far from the truth. Although they proclaimed themselves as wise, they were doing so based off false wisdom received from the scribes, those entrusted to be the ultimate authorities of the law given by the Lord to dictate the way His people should live. The Israelites invested their belief in the scribes without testing the validity of the instruction they were given, instruction that the Lord called falsehood. Even the priests, those appointed by God to be the spiritual leaders of the people, were in on the misleading twisting of the real meaning intended by God’s word. Consequently, those who were supposed to be wise were really fools, corrupted after having rejected the word of the Lord for deceptive direction and guidance. The Lord called their conduct detestable. Not good.

So what was the penalty for spreading and receiving false wisdom, essentially turning away from the words of God to buy into words that misrepresented the truth?

It wasn’t pretty.

We read where God would give the wives of those spreading falsehood to other men; their property would be taken from them and given to new owners. The deceivers would “fall among the fallen” and be “brought down to where they are punished”. Their harvest would be taken from them by the Lord as well as anything else He had given them.

In other words, the Lord is not going to bless anyone who turns away from Him and the perfect wisdom He offers to receive dishonesty and lies from any human being. Choosing wickedness and its evil outcomes will always place someone firmly in the crosshairs of God’s judgment. Rest assured of that.

Given all this, one question is applicable for us all:

Do we rely on our own understanding or others to give us understanding, or do we place our fullest trust in the Lord with all our heart, knowing that He and He alone will make our paths straight and guide us on the way of righteousness?

The former involves buying into false wisdom and invoking God’s punishment.

The latter involves investing our full hope in God’s wisdom over anything else and receiving His fullest measure of blessing as a result.

Do yourself a favor. Live out the words of Proverbs 3:5-6 and go for God’s wisdom every time. You’ll never go wrong doing so.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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WHY DO WE TURN AWAY?

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In Christ, Mark

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

“Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says:’”

“‘When people fall down, do they not get up? When someone turns away, do they not return? Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away?”

“They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Each pursues their own course like a horse charging into battle. Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But My people do not know the requirements of the Lord.”

Jeremiah 8:4-7

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

Think about the God we serve for a few moments.

He possessed the power to create the heavens and the earth and everything within them, including us.

He delivered His people from Egyptian oppression by dividing a sea and allowing them to escape on dry land.

He brought water from a rock and manna and quail from heaven to provide for His people.

He is the fount of perfect wisdom and no one on earth has the knowledge and intellect that He has.

He resurrected His only Son Jesus from death to life.

God did all this and more. So why would we turn away from Him?

Or maybe the better question is, “Why do we turn away from Him?”  As we see in today’s scripture passage from Jeremiah 8, God had the same question. Look again at these words:

“Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says:’”

“‘When people fall down, do they not get up? When someone turns away, do they not return? Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away?”

“They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Each pursues their own course like a horse charging into battle. Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But My people do not know the requirements of the Lord.”  Jeremiah 8:4-7

Note here how the Lord tries to show the nonsense involved with people rejecting and abandoning Him.

After all, if you would fall down, you wouldn’t remain down unless you were injured so badly you couldn’t stand. No, when we fall, we get back up again. It only makes sense, right?

The same applies when we turn away from something that we really need. When that happens, we always tend to come back around to get our need met. It wouldn’t make sense to continue to turn away and deprive ourselves.

So why do we decide to turn away from the Lord and then remain away? Why would we even turn away from Him in the first place?

It’s just crazy that we even consider it let alone do it like we do.

God was always there for His people, faithful to them in every way. He never turned away from them until they chose to turn away from Him in unfaithfulness, disrespecting and disregarding Him through their worshipping of false gods and idols. The scriptures tell us that the people of God were unaware of His requirements and that their sin was grounded in deceit, a commitment to their own desires, and a stubborn refusal to repent and seek to restore their relationship with God. Rather than draw near to Him, the Israelites allowed their wickedness to distance themselves from the One who they were to serve fully, their Master and Maker who would also soon present Himself to them as their Supreme Judge. They had chosen to turn away from God and so they would soon find out how difficult life would be without Him as they would be displaced from their homeland and hauled away into seventy years of exile by the Babylonians.

The people of Israel were soon going to find out that turning away from God carries with it dire consequences.

This brings us back to today and our behavior. For we should know by now that God is never going to honor any of His people who willingly and willfully choose to ignore and reject Him. Instead, He will always bring His punishment and discipline, born out of the anger He feels when His people abandon Him. We are to be subordinate to God in every way. He dictates to us what we are to do and we are to comply in absolute, uncompromising obedience. That’s the way it is and we have no place to try and rewrite the rules. In fact, our only proper posture before God is to be fully compliant, humbly surrendering and submitting ourselves to Him, the One who reigns over all creation.

And yet, how often do we fail to do this? Why do we turn away?

I’m sure God is still asking the question as much today as He did in Old Testament times.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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AN END TO JOY AND GLADNESS

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In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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

 “The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes”, declares the Lord. “They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears My name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate.”

“At that time”, declares the Lord, “the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground. Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life”, declares the Lord Almighty.

Jeremiah 7:30-34, 8:1-3

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

In yesterday’s devotion, we learned that the truth had perished in the lives of the Israelites because they had chosen to abandon God’s word and stop listening to His direction and guidance. Instead, they opted to give their full dedication to the very false gods and idols that God had commanded them never to adopt and worship.

The people of God could not have separated themselves from Him further but that’s exactly what happens when sin is chosen over righteousness. Of course, that’s not all that happens because when we decide we would rather live in wickedness rather than holiness, there are always consequences that come along with that decision. And as we will see in today’s scripture passage, those consequences would be harsh as the Lord was bringing an end to His people’s joy and gladness. Look again at the words of this passage one more time:

 “The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes”, declares the Lord. “They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears My name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate.”

“At that time”, declares the Lord, “the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshiped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground. Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life”, declares the Lord Almighty.  Jeremiah 7:30-34, 8:1-3

We know the people of Judah and Jerusalem had elected to sin even though they knew God hated it but as we see in this passage, the evil being committed was beyond comprehension. It was bad enough that Israelites had set up the very idols that God detested in His temple, defiling their holy place of worship, but what came next was deplorable beyond imagination. For at the high places built specifically for the worship of other gods, the people of God had actually sacrificed their own children, burning their sons and daughters. It was an indicator of just how far gone they were.

As you can imagine, God had seen enough and His anger would rage against His people. His people who had slaughtered their children against the will of God would find themselves massacred in the same place, their remains given no more regard than the regard given to the sons and daughters they senselessly murdered. The bones of kings, officials, priests, and prophets who had sanctioned the illicit worship practices of the Israelites would be laid out before the very elements they worshipped, not worthy in God’s eyes of a proper burial.

In the end translation, desolation was coming to Judah and Jerusalem with the people banished to Babylon for seventy years. Any survivors of His judgment would wish they had perished instead of having to live in exile, separated from their homeland and the God who granted it to them. Indeed, their days of joy and gladness were about to end.

Of course, this is what any people can expect when they decide to blatantly live sinfully in plain sight of the God who despises it so much because He will never bring blessings to anyone who decides to live under the influence of Satan and the wickedness He brings instead of following Him in obedience and consequently living fully in His righteousness.

And so with this, I ask you today:

Are you living in a way that ensures you will receive the fullest measure of God’s favor and blessing?

Or are you living in a way that signals your days of joy and gladness will be over soon?

Only you know the answer.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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

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