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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.
“Flee for safety, people of
Benjamin! Flee from Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa! Raise the signal
over Beth Hakkerem! For disaster looms out of the north, even terrible
destruction. I will destroy Daughter Zion, so beautiful and delicate. Shepherds
with their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents around
her, each tending his own portion.”
“Prepare for battle against her! Arise,
let us attack at noon! But, alas, the daylight is fading, and the shadows of
evening grow long. So arise, let us attack at night and destroy her
fortresses!”
This is what the Lord Almighty
says:
“Cut down the trees and build siege
ramps against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; it is filled with
oppression. As a well pours out its water, so she pours out her wickedness. Violence
and destruction resound in her; her sickness and wounds are ever before me. Take
warning, Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you and make your land desolate so
no one can live in it.”
Jeremiah
6:1-8
This ends today’s reading from God's holy
word. Thanks be to God.
The people of Israel were asking for God’s judgment.
Maybe we are as well today in nations around our world.
How would we know if our nation is or isn’t? We look to the
scriptures today, the opening verses of Jeremiah 6:
“Flee for safety, people of Benjamin! Flee from Jerusalem! Sound the
trumpet in Tekoa! Raise the signal over Beth Hakkerem! For disaster looms out
of the north, even terrible destruction. I will destroy Daughter Zion, so
beautiful and delicate. Shepherds with their flocks will come against her; they
will pitch their tents around her, each tending his own portion.”
“Prepare for battle against her! Arise, let us attack at noon! But,
alas, the daylight is fading, and the shadows of evening grow long. So arise,
let us attack at night and destroy her fortresses!”
This is what the Lord Almighty says:
“Cut down the trees and build siege ramps against Jerusalem. This city
must be punished; it is filled with oppression. As a well pours out its water, so
she pours out her wickedness. Violence and destruction resound in her; her
sickness and wounds are ever before me. Take warning, Jerusalem, or I will turn
away from you and make your land desolate so no one can live in it.” Jeremiah
6:1-8
God was fed up and judgment was coming. He would bring
disaster from the north as the armies of first Assyria and then Babylon descended
on Canaan and exacted God’s punishment on His people. The attack would be harsh
in nature, carrying with it terrible destruction. Once beautiful Zion would be
destroyed and utterly laid to waste while its people would be displaced and
hauled away into seventy years of exile. Even the holy city of Jerusalem would
not be spared.
So what led to all this? What actions or inactions angered
the Lord so much?
Back to the scriptures where we find four specific charges
against Israel that shows they were simply asking for God to judge them:
1. They practiced oppression.
This city must be punished; it is filled
with oppression.
The city itself obviously wasn’t doing the oppressing; its
inhabitants were.
You would have thought the people of Israel would have
known better because it was Egypt’s oppression of their ancestors that drew God’s
anger and attacks on Pharaoh and his land until Israel was freed.
Did they think He would respond any differently when it was
they who were doing the oppressing?
2. They poured out wickedness.
As a well pours out its water, so she pours
out her wickedness.
Picture a well full of water. It’s far more than just a
puddle. There’s depth and volume to it.
It was quite a sad analogy of where the people of Israel
were regarding sinfulness. They weren’t just committing a sin here or there.
Rather, they poured out transgression upon transgression, iniquity streaming
from them all in the sight of a God who hated sin and promised penalties for
anyone who willingly committed it.
3. They committed violence and resultant destruction resounded.
Violence and destruction resound in her.
A people practicing oppression and pouring out wickedness
were surely going to commit violence and destroy the lives of others, perhaps
even taking lives in the process. Ironically, all these things would come back
on the Israelites as they would experience the violence and destruction that
comes with military attack as well as oppression in captivity after those
attacks and destruction occurred.
4. They were spiritually sick.
Her sickness and wounds are ever before me.
All these charges God made against His people could be
connected to one thing.
The Israelites were spiritually sick.
A people who belonged to God should have been the model
population for other nations to follow. They had the perfect opportunity to be
shining examples of righteousness for others to follow. But that wasn’t the
case because the people of God chose sin and wickedness instead of God’s
goodness and holiness. They willingly decided to follow false gods and idols in
direct disobedience the God’s most fundamental orders and became spiritually
sick as a result.
Friends, look at the nation, city, or community you live in
today and ask yourself these questions:
Is oppression being practiced?
Are there consistent displays of wickedness happening?
Do violence and its subsequent destruction seem to occur
more often than not?
Has sinfulness become more prevalent than righteousness, an
indicator that spiritual sickness has settled in?
If your answer is yes to one or more of these questions,
beware because there’s a distinct possibility that the area where you reside
may be just asking for it, having put yourselves in a position where God’s
judgment could come at any time.
It did for the Israelites and it could for you as well. I
wouldn’t push it.
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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