THE PRIMARY CONFLICT

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In Christ, Mark

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

“You who are my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: ‘Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?’”

“Why have they aroused My anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

“The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”

Jeremiah 8:18-20

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

There is always one primary conflict existent in the world. It’s been that way since the Garden of Eden when the first man and woman chose to be disobedient to God and it’s been existent ever since. Sadly, it’s always going to be existent until that day when Jesus returns to judge creation.

You probably have guessed what that primary conflict is by now. People have labeled it the war between good and evil but we really need to drill down deeper and identify exactly what’s going on. Because at its innermost essence, the main conflict is simply man’s decision to sin against a God who hates sin.

It’s the battle of the acts an evil man commits against a perfectly good God. Plain and simple.

We see this primary conflict in action within our scripture passage today from Jeremiah 8, a passage where we find three voices speaking: the voice of the prophet Jeremiah, the voice of the Lord God Almighty, and the voice of the Israelites. Let’s look again at the exchange here:

“You who are my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: ‘Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?’”

“Why have they aroused My anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

“The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”  Jeremiah 8:18-20

The Israelites had initiated the conflict with God through their worshipping of what the Lord referred to as “images” and “worthless foreign idols”, this in direct violation of one of God’s main commands. You may recall His words from Exodus, Chapter 20 as provided to Moses to deliver to His people:

“You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them.” Exodus 20:3-5a

There were no exception clauses provided by God here. When He said, “you shall not” He meant “don’t do it”! Don’t make any images for yourself or bow down to worship any other gods or idols. And yet, the people of God didn’t obey. They willingly opted to commit sin in God’s sight and arouse His anger.

It was a bad move, a very bad one because as we see in our scripture passage, when the people of God chose to turn away from Him and give their devotion to false gods, God in turn turned away from them.

Look at Jeremiah’s lament. His heart was faint because he saw his people crying out to the Lord but not receiving any answer. It was if God had disappeared but we all know that didn’t happen. He is always present but that doesn’t mean He is available. The Israelites were knocking on God’s door only to get no answer. They were calling Him but He wasn’t picking up. The situation exasperated the people of God who in the final verse of this passage show their resignation to God’s judgment.

For there was no harvest for them. God does not bless those who sin against Him.

They saw their summer as ending. As the summer sun gives way to the more overcast fall and winter, there was no light for them anymore; they had chosen the darkness of sin instead and as a result, the Lord had withdrawn Himself and His light from them.

Finally, they were not going to be rescued and saved. Not this time. God had done that before and His people expressed their gratitude by disrespecting and disregarding Him, abandoning Him in favor of other gods. And so God chose to forsake them in return.

Friends, can you see where nothing good comes out of any man or woman starting this primary conflict with God?

Can we all see that willingly sinning and committing evil against a perfectly good God is a losing proposition? And trust me when I say we will lose every single time.

Let’s all take a moment today to pause and reset ourselves. Let’s all recommit ourselves to absolute obedience to God and rejection of any and all sin.

If we do, we will never need to worry about being a part of this primary spiritual conflict ever again and can turn our focus and attention toward always seeking to honor and glorify God with all we do, until that day when He calls us into His presence and magnificent splendor forever.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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