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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.
They said, “Come, let’s make plans
against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not cease, nor
will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let’s
attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.”
“Listen to me, Lord; hear what my
accusers are saying! Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit
for me. Remember that I stood before you and spoke in their behalf to turn your
wrath away from them. So give their children over to famine; hand them over to
the power of the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their
men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle. Let a cry be
heard from their houses when you suddenly bring invaders against them, for they
have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.”
“But You, Lord, know all their
plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from Your
sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your
anger.”
Jeremiah 18:18-23
This ends today’s reading from God's holy
word. Thanks be to God.
We are often a very rebellious people.
It’s true and it traces back to our earliest years, years
when our parents tried to guide us toward doing things that were right but we
seemed more interested in doing what we wanted to do and often that was completely
counter to what they wanted.
So what happened in response to that? Didn’t we receive
consequences?
I think all of us have although we typically called it
getting in trouble and growing up we seem to be in trouble a lot, having to
experience discipline that our parents doled out to try and get us to change
our ways and become the people they envisioned for us to be.
You might think that this stops when we become adults but
it doesn’t. It’s just that we are no longer rebelling against our worldly,
human parents but rather against an Almighty, Heavenly Father, the Creator
Parent of us all.
A perfect snapshot of our adult rebellion can be found in
today’s scripture passage as we look at the closing verses of Jeremiah 18. Look
again at these words again here:
They said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching
of the law by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor
the word from the prophets. So come, let’s attack him with our tongues and pay
no attention to anything he says.”
“Listen to me, Lord; hear what my accusers are saying! Should good be
repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember that I stood before
you and spoke in their behalf to turn your wrath away from them. So give their
children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword. Let their
wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young
men slain by the sword in battle. Let a cry be heard from their houses when you
suddenly bring invaders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and
have hidden snares for my feet.”
“But You, Lord, know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their
crimes or blot out their sins from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You;
deal with them in the time of Your anger.”
Jeremiah 18:18-23
The Israelites were poster childs for rebellion against
God. God had commanded them, as He did their ancestors, to worship no gods
before Him as He was to be their God and they were to be His people. He told
them He was a jealous God, making it clear that there was no room for them to
relate to any other god but Him. If they did, then consequences would follow.
That was the message God sent to His people in various forms but the one we
will focus on here is through the prophet Jeremiah. He had been chosen as God’s
messenger but the Israelites were no more interested in listening to him than
they were God Himself. The only thing that was different was that the people
could go after Jeremiah as he was flesh and blood, living within their midst.
And so God’s word tells us that the
Israelites made plans against Jeremiah, conspiring to attack him with words
while choosing to close their ears and refuse to listen to what he was saying.
He was speaking the very words of the Lord but the people didn’t want to hear
them. Such was the depth of their rebellious spirits.
Therefore, just as our parents
needed to correct us to get us to comply with what they wanted us to do, God
needed to bring consequences on His people and show them yet again that He
hated sin and would never repay evil with good.
What would those consequences look
like?
Jeremiah called on some pretty
harsh measures, asking God to do the following:
- Give the Israelite children over
to famine and the sword.
- Make wives unable to bear
children and widowed, both of which would lead them to be shunned and pushed to
the fringes of society.
- Put the men to death with the
young men slain by the sword in battle.
- Bring invaders against the
Israelites to overthrow the Israelites before Him.
How well did
God listen to Jeremiah’s punishment recommendations against His rebellious
people?
Pretty closely,
I would say because God would indeed bring invaders into Judah who would attack
and destroy the kingdom to include the holy, sacred city of Jerusalem. No one
would be spared in the attack as men, women, and children would be victimized. The
Israelites would be completely defeated and those who were fortunate enough to
survive would be taken away to Babylon for seventy years of captivity. Yes,
they would be allowed to return and rebuild but not without having to pay a
deep price first.
Fast forward to
today and the fact that we are still a rebellious people who choose regularly
to turn our backs on God and often reject anyone who speaks on His behalf.
What will God
need to do to us in order for us to wake up and obey Him?
None of us know but I can say that two things for certain
about that coming judgment:
1. It will come.
2. It’s going to hard whatever consequences He brings.
It would be easier just to refrain from being rebellious.
Are we ready to do that and save us from ourselves?
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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