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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.
“So do not pray for this people nor offer any
plea or petition for them; do not plead with Me, for I will not listen to you. Do
you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women
knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out
drink offerings to other gods to arouse My anger.”
Jeremiah
7:16-18
This ends today’s reading from God's holy
word. Thanks be to God.
How do you know when your sinful actions have totally
wrecked your relationship with the Lord?
When even the prayers of others, pleading and petitioning
on your behalf, go ignored and unanswered.
This is where the Israelites of Judah and Jerusalem found
themselves as we continue to look at the scriptures in Jeremiah, Chapter 7. And
we know so because the Lord tells us Himself. Look at these verses again:
“So
do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not
plead with Me, for I will not listen to you. Do you not see what they are doing
in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather
wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes
to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to
arouse My anger.” Jeremiah
7:16-18
God’s judgment was coming on His people in a big way and
they completely asked for it. You’ll recall that one of the first commandments
God gave His people after rescuing them from the clutches of the Egyptians was
that they were to have no other gods before Him and were never to bow down and
worship idols (Exodus 20:3-4). And yet as we fast forward from that point in
history to the days of Jeremiah, we find that the people of God had chosen to
disrespect and disregard His command and had given their devotion to false gods
and idols.
How bad was the issue within Israelite society?
So bad that it had become a family affair.
Note how the children were sent to gather wood for the fire
to burn offerings to the Queen of Heaven, an obvious connection to gods outside
of the one true Lord God Almighty. The father would light the fire while the
wife would prepare the cakes to be offered to the gods along with additional
drink offerings. All members of the family unit thus were active participants
in the sinful practice.
By His words, it was obvious that God was fed up, so much
so that He was about to turn away from His people just as they had turned away
from Him. It was so bad that once judgment fell, God advised others to not even
waste their time with pleas and petitions on behalf of the suffering Israelites
because He was not interested in hearing them. The people chose to pay no heed
to Him and so they would get a taste of their own medicine and see how it felt
to be shunned and slighted. My bet is that the Israelites were going to regret
their wicked choices and do so very quickly.
So what do we take from this scripture today? What is God
trying to say to us?
I think the message is very clear.
God expects us to be completely obedient to whatever He
commands. Period.
He is our Lord and Master, the Maker and Creator and Ruler
of us all. He dictates all that happens and we owe Him our complete
subordination and respect and honor. That means that we do not give our full
devotion to anyone or anything in life except Him.
When we give Him our all, we can expect He will give us His
all in return.
However, if we choose to abandon Him and worship the things
of the world instead, then we can expect to find ourselves abandoned and in the
midst of His judgment. And just like the Old Testament Israelites, any pleas or
petitions to the Lord on our behalf will simply be wasted because He will not
be listening.
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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