NO ONE SPARED

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In Christ, Mark

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

 “But I am full of the wrath of the Lord, and I cannot hold it in.”

“Pour it out on the children in the street and on the young men gathered together; both husband and wife will be caught in it, and the old, those weighed down with years. Their houses will be turned over to others, together with their fields and their wives, when I stretch out my hand against those who live in the land,” declares the Lord.

“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 I punish them,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah 6:11-15

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

In the last several devotions from the Book of Jeremiah, the word of God has challenged us to assess how we are living in the here and now to see if we are repeating the mistakes of the past, specifically the errors found in the ways of the Old Testament Israelites whose sinfulness enraged God and initiated His judgment upon them.

There’s a good reason why we should take God’s challenge seriously. For we should never want to experience the punishment He brought upon them. Not now, not ever.

That punishment involved an invasion by foreign combat forces, first from Assyria and then Babylon. These forces had God behind them and so they would not fail at their mission which involved destroying the northern and southern kingdoms of Canaan and hauling the Israelites (at least those who survived the onslaught) into captivity. All that was beautiful and sacred at one time would be left in ruins including the holy city of Jerusalem. Not only would the land God gave to His people be emptied of its splendor, it would also be emptied of its population.

Who would be impacted?

As we see in the scripture passage for today, no one would be spared. Look again at these words:

“But I am full of the wrath of the Lord, and I cannot hold it in.”

“Pour it out on the children in the street and on the young men gathered together; both husband and wife will be caught in it, and the old, those weighed down with years. Their houses will be turned over to others, together with their fields and their wives, when I stretch out my hand against those who live in the land,” declares the Lord.

“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 I punish them,” says the Lord.  Jeremiah 6:11-15

Note here that God’s wrath would be poured out on the young as well as the old. Even children would not be exempted from the penalty God had brought down on His people. Ditto for the young men and married couples. Even the elderly would be impacted as the Lord saw to it that they would lose most of what they worked for such as their homes and fields. After the invasion, their property would be taken over by the Babylonians.

Note as well that even the people considered holiest in the Israelite society would not be overlooked. In fact, God made it very clear that He was completely displeased with the prophets and priests who had become just as evil as the people they were supposed to lead to righteousness. Instead of setting a divine example for the people to adopt, the spiritual leaders were just as sinful if not more so. The Lord called their conduct detestable. That should about tell you all you needed to know about His state of mind in their regard. They would face the same verdict as the rest of the Israelites.

Did I tell you that no one would be spared?

Friends, we had better take these words of God from Jeremiah very seriously. Because I don’t think any of us would say that we are making great progress toward avoiding God’s judgment. Rather, it appears more and more like God will have to send His consequences upon us in order to get our attention.

I pray that doesn’t happen but if and when it does, we can be assured of one thing.

No one will be spared.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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