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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
This is the word that came to
Jeremiah from the Lord:
“Stand at the gate of the Lord’s
house and there proclaim this message: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you
people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what
the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions,
and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say,
“This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”
If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other
justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do
not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to
your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your
ancestors for ever and ever.’”
Jeremiah
7:1-7
This ends today’s reading from God's holy
word. Thanks be to God.
Have you ever dealt with conditional situations in life?
Actually we do it all the time and conditional situations
can always be found when we have “if- then” scenarios.
For example, if you are employed by someone, the
conditional scenario goes something like this with your employer saying, “If
you work for me and carry out these duties, then I will pay you a certain wage
per hour.” The pay is dependent on the work being done.
Another way to illustrate this conditional situation
scenario would be to look at a parent-child relationship and it may go like
this with the parent saying, “If you clean up your room and behave, then we can
go and get ice cream.” The treat is dependent on the child’s compliance with
the parent’s wishes.
I think you get the point but it’s important to get
thinking in the right mindset before we look at our scripture verses for today
as we look at the opening words of Jeremiah 7 and see a call to reform from God
to His people, a call that definitely sets conditions for the Israelites to
meet before they could return to God’s favor. Look again at these words here:
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
“Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message:
‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these
gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel,
says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.
Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the
temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and
your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the
foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this
place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let
you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.’” Jeremiah 7:1-7
As we see in these verses, the Lord is sending a message to
His people through His chosen prophet Jeremiah who was to stand at the gate of
the Lord’s house and proclaim the words of God so that all who came through to
worship could hear.
What was the message?
It was a call to reform, a demand for the actions of God’s
people to change and it came with a set of conditions and demands from God.
Jeremiah was tasked with conveying those orders so the people clearly knew what
God expected of them and he did so with a classic “if-then” statement:
If the people of God would really
change their ways and actions, if they would deal with one another justly, if
they would refrain from oppressing the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow,
if they would stop shedding innocent blood in t, and if they would cease to
follow other gods, if they did all these things, then God would allow them to live
in the place He had blessed them with, the land that He gave to the Israelites’
ancestors before (of course, God is referring to Canaan).
Note there were many demands from
God but they all had one common thread. They all would be fulfilled if the
people of God would remain obedient to the word of God.
It’s really as simple as that.
We know the history of what
happened with the northern and southern kingdoms of Canaan. Israel, the
northern kingdom was attacked and overrun by the Assyrians with few Israelites
ever returning to their homeland. The southern kingdom of Judah along with the
holy city of Jerusalem were attacked and left in ruins by the marauding
Babylonians who hauled the people of God away into exile for seventy years
before they were allowed to return and rebuild when the Persians defeated the
Babylonians and assumed power.
Of interest, when the Israelites
were allowed to return after those seventy years, one of the first things that
happened was that they returned to the word of God, the scriptures read aloud
to them so they would be reminded of what God expected from them. You can read
the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah to get a great account of that return from
exile.
All this leads to a question for us
all here in this present day:
Are we in need of reform as a
people of God?
I don’t think there is anyone who
could say “no” to the question for even if we were trending toward the kind of
righteousness and righteous living God commands and expects, we still would be
falling short of the mark of perfection which means there is always room to
grow and improve. We can always find a place to get better.
Ultimately, the most important “if-then”
statement from God to anyone today is simply this:
“If you believe My Son Jesus Christ
is your personal Savior, sent to pay the price for the sins you have committed
out of My deep love for you, then you will be saved.”
It’s the greatest call to reform we
have ever received, a call to not only accept Jesus as Savior but then as
Christians to live like Him within every day we are blessed with.
Have to answered the call today?
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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