DEFIANT SINNERS

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In Christ, Mark

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

Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?”

Jeremiah 44:15-19

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

If God had just detailed the sins you committed against Him and pronounced judgment upon you, how would you respond?

I don’t know about you but I would be scared to death. I would be taken to a place where I would be admitting my wrongs and pleading for His mercy and grace and compassion.

My attitude would be anything except for the attitude we find exhibited by the people who made up the Jewish remnant of Mizpah. For as we continue to look at the scriptures from Jeremiah 44, we don’t see them display remorse but rather defiance in the face of God’s promise of punishment. Look again at these verses:

Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord! We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

The women added, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes impressed with her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?”  Jeremiah 44:15-19

Now God had just got done blasting His people for continuing the very practices that had brought His wrath on the kingdom of Judah and its beloved sacred city of Jerusalem. The Israelites had chosen to worship false gods and idols, actions that God referred to as detestable to Him. He had sent His people warnings many times over through His prophets but the people decided to tune Him out, rejecting His commands to stop their wickedness and follow His will, word, and way again. And so God sent the Babylonians to attack, destroy, and plunder Judah and Jerusalem while sending nearly all His people into a seventy year exile.

I say almost all the Israelites because there was a remnant who was left behind, a remnant that God blessed with the opportunity to remain in the land and live. They would not have to live in a foreign land under foreign oppression but rather we allowed to work the land and produce wine, summer fruit, and olive oil. They could have given thanks to God for His provision and blessing, honoring Him with their faithful obedience but they didn’t.

We know because it is this remnant that we see speaking to the Lord in such disrespectful fashion in today’s scripture passage, a remnant that consisted of nothing more than a band of defiant sinners.

This is obvious, right?

The Jewish people speaking to God in our verses for today have no interest in changing their ways. None.

They admitted burning incense to other gods and were not sorry for doing so. In fact, if you read carefully, you can hear the people telling God that they actually felt they were better off sinning, feeling that they were better off when they worshiped false gods than they were living in obedience to God. They claimed they had plenty of food and were well off and protected without Him and boldly proclaimed that they would not listen to the message spoken to them in the His name.

Note here that the people who were supposed to be of God never considered for a moment that God was protecting and providing for them even when they weren’t being faithful to Him. They saw their blessings as coming from elsewhere.

I wonder how many people today are living just like these Jews of Mizpah. They deny God and think their protecting and provision is coming from any other source but him. Maybe they see themselves or some other entity as the Great Provider, giving credit accordingly. They choose to not listen to any message that might come from the Lord, seeing it as non-consequential to themselves. And they don’t see God as being a part of the picture when He is ALWAYS a part of it, whether we like it or not.

Well, the remnant of Mizpah was not going to have a second chance to turn things around. God had already given them that opportunity and they scoffed at it. Now God’s judgment was coming and His people were going to perish in Egypt by sword or plague or famine, never returning to their homeland ever again.

If you are like them, a defiant sinner who has opposed God instead of partnering with Him, I urge you today to change your ways and not down the road of the Jewish remnant of Mizpah. For the God of the Old Testament days is the same God alive and well today here in the 21st century.

And He will send His wrath and judgment on anyone who disregards, disrespects, and dishonors Him by the way they live.

Do yourself a favor and don’t do anything that forces His hand. If the Jewish remnant could come back to life today, they would tell you to not repeat the mistakes of their past.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
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