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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.
“Hear and give ear: Do not be
proud, For the Lord has spoken.”
“Give glory to the Lord your God before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness. But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.”
“Say to the king and to the queen
mother, ‘Humble yourselves; Sit down, for your rule shall collapse, the crown
of your glory.’ The cities of the South shall be shut up, and no one shall open
them; Judah shall be carried
away captive, all of it; it shall be wholly carried away captive. Lift up your
eyes and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that
was given to you, your beautiful sheep? What will you say when He punishes you?
For you have taught them to be
chieftains, to be head over you. Will not pangs seize you, like a woman in
labor? And if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things come upon me?’ for
the greatness of your iniquity, your skirts have been uncovered, your heels
made bare.”
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin
or the leopard its spots? Then
may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.”
“Therefore I will scatter them like
stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. This is your lot, the
portion of your measures from Me,” says the Lord, “because you have forgotten
Me and trusted in falsehood. Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your
face, that your shame may appear. I have seen your adulteries and your lustful neighings, the lewdness of
your harlotry, your abominations on the hills in the fields.”
“Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean?”
Jeremiah
13:15-27 (NKJV)
This ends today’s reading from God's holy
word. Thanks be to God.
There is little arguing that we serve a patient Lord. If
you doubt it for a moment, then ask yourself why you are still present on earth
reading this today despite the many sins you have committed against a God who
despises sin. The mere fact that all of us have not been wiped off the face of
creation by just a simply word from God is a testament to the amazing grace we
find in Him.
Truly as the scriptures proclaim, His mercies are new every
morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).
Given this, we need to remember one thing. Yes, we serve a
Creator God who is merciful but none of us should test His patience for just as
God is a God of forgiveness and pardon, He is a God of judgment and correction
and He will send consequences on anyone who persists in choosing wickedness
over righteousness.
In other words, there is always a tipping point when we
decide to toe the line between transgression and holiness. For a point in case,
we turn to the Old Testament Israelites and the closing verses of Jeremiah,
Chapter 13:
“Hear and give ear: Do not be proud, For the Lord has spoken.”
“Give glory to the Lord your God before He causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it dense darkness. But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.”
“Say to the king and to the queen mother, ‘Humble yourselves; Sit down,
for your rule shall collapse, the crown of your glory.’ The cities of the South
shall be shut up, and no one shall open them;
Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it; it shall be wholly
carried away captive. Lift up your eyes and see those who come from the north. Where
is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful
sheep? What will you say when He punishes you? For you have taught them to be chieftains, to be head over you.
Will not pangs seize you, like a woman in labor? And if you say in your heart, ‘Why
have these things come upon me?’ for the greatness of your iniquity, your
skirts have been uncovered, your heels made bare.”
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who
are accustomed to do evil.”
“Therefore I will scatter them like stubble that passes away by the
wind of the wilderness. This is your lot, the portion of your measures from
Me,” says the Lord, “because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood. Therefore
I will uncover your skirts over your face, that your shame may appear. I have
seen your adulteries and your lustful
neighings, the lewdness of your harlotry, your abominations on the hills in the
fields.”
“Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean?” Jeremiah 13:15-27 (NKJV)
The Lord’s expectations for His people were simple. They
were supposed to live in full faithfulness to Him by living in complete,
uncompromising obedience to His commands. If they did so, they would live in
His favor as His people and He would be their God.
But God’s people couldn’t get it right. Just as an
Ethiopian couldn’t change their skin or a leopard its spots, the people of
Israel were bound and determined to keep committing wrongs in God’s sight. They
continuously rebelled against Him and chased after their own desire and will as
if they knew what was best for them more than the One who had made them, the
One who ruled over them. The Israelites were to be subordinate to their Master,
living in unadulterated submission to everything He wanted of them, but they
refused to live that way. Instead, they opted to give their honor and glory to
pagan gods and idols in direct violation of God’s most primary ordinance to
have no other gods before him.
Their obstinate sinfulness would be their downfall as they
pushed a patient God over the edge. Dire consequences would follow as God sent
the Babylonians from the north to destroy Judah and Jerusalem, laying the land
to waste before hauling away every Israelite who survived the onslaught into
seventy years of captivity. The Israelites had lived as if they had forgotten
God, ignoring and forsaking Him. Now they would find out how it felt to be
ignored and forsaken, separated from God while exiled to a foreign land among
foreign people. The once proud people of God would find themselves humbled and
humiliated, unable to fend for themselves when matched against a God who had no
rival. Oppose Him and you were going to lose ten out of ten times. The
Israelites never seemed to learn that lesson.
So have we learned anything from the mistakes of our Old
Testament forerunners? Have we turned from a life attitude of testing God and
moving Him to a tipping point when it comes to His patience with us? Or have we
finally discovered that sinning against God is a losing proposition and one we
need not pursue, choosing full obedience to God’s word, will, and way?
How would you answer these questions?
Do you even want to answer them?
I think we all can agree, we have a lot of work to do and
we had better get started. For God’s patience does run out and none of us
should want to move Him past His tipping point where His judgment and
punishment are waiting.
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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