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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.
Therefore this is what the Lord
Almighty says:
“See, I will refine and test them, for
what else can I do because of the sin of my people?”
“Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for them.”
“Should I not punish them for
this?” declares the Lord. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?”
“I will weep and wail for the
mountains and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands. They are
desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds have
all fled and the animals are gone.”
“I will make Jerusalem a heap of
ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah
so no one can live there.”
“Who is wise enough to understand
this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? Why has the land
been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?”
The Lord said, “It is because they
have forsaken My law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed Me or
followed My law. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts;
they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”
Therefore this is what the Lord
Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter
food and drink poisoned water. I will scatter them among nations that neither
they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword
until I have made an end of them.”
Jeremiah 9:7-16
This ends today’s reading from God's holy
word. Thanks be to God.
What was the Lord going to do with His people, the people
of Israel?
Through the Old Testament years, a consistent pattern had
emerged, something I have always referred to as the Old Testament cycle. It
looked like this:
1. The Israelites would commit sins against God in
disobedience to His will and word.
2. God would send a message to His people through any
number of ways to warn them to stop their sinning or suffer the consequences of
their actions which would come from His imposed judgment.
3. The Israelites would choose to not listen to God’s
warning and continue in their sinful ways.
4. God would impose His judgment as promised and leave His
people in the midst of His consequences.
5. The Israelites, in the midst of God’s imposed judgment,
would repent of their sins and ask God to forgive and restore them.
6. God, in His great mercy and grace, would hear the
petitions of His people and answer their prayers, pardoning them and returning
them to His favor.
7. And then sadly, the Israelites would fall right back
into sin again and the cycle would start all over again.
The behavior of the Israelites had to disappoint and
frustrate God to no end but one thing was certain. God was not going to give
up. He would stay the course and continue to try and mold His people to be who
He desired for them to be, a people who were righteous and holy in His sight.
With all this as a backdrop, let’s now turn to our
scripture passage as we continue to look at God’s word from Jeremiah, Chapter
9:
Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says:
“See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of
the sin of my people?”
“Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for them.”
“Should I not punish them for this?” declares the Lord. Should I not
avenge myself on such a nation as this?”
“I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning
the wilderness grasslands. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of
cattle is not heard. The birds have all fled and the animals are gone.”
“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will
lay waste the towns of Judah
so no one can live there.”
“Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord
and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert
that no one can cross?”
The Lord said, “It is because they have forsaken My law, which I set
before them; they have not obeyed Me or followed My law. Instead, they have
followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as
their ancestors taught them.”
Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:
“See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. I will
scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known,
and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.” Jeremiah
9:7-16
The people of Israel had become adulterous in the words of
Jeremiah. He said so in verse 2 of this chapter. They had rejected and
abandoned God to worship false gods and idols, an unfaithful act that would
bring His biggest judgment upon them yet. The Babylonians would come and
destroy Judah and Jerusalem before hauling off the Israelites into seventy
years of exile and oppression through which no amount of crying out to God
would reduce the penalty. God was fed up but He wasn’t giving up. He would
continue to refine and test His people because in His own words:
“What else can I
do because of the sin of My people?”
Indeed, what else could God do with a people who so
brazenly committed wickedness in plain sight of Him, completely disrespecting
and disregarding Him in the process?
God had every right to avenge Himself and punish the
Israelites, the nation of people God had chosen as His own and had blessed so
richly. Too bad, they decided to show their appreciation by blatantly violating
everything He commanded them to do. He blessed them and then they in return
shunned Him. And so He laid to waste their land and left everything in ruins,
including the lives of His people who would now try to fend for themselves
without God’s help and favor in a foreign land amidst foreign people. There
they would find that the gods they had stubbornly chosen to worship over God
would continue to be useless because they were always lifeless. They would come
to know once and for all that there truly was only one God and it was the One
they chose to ignore and dishonor. It was all a part of God’s testing and
refining process.
After all, what else could He do because of the sin of His
people?
So where does this leave us today?
In my opinion, we’re no better than the people of Israel
more than 2,000 years ago. Perhaps, we’re even worse than they were. We still
continue to sin against God, seemingly without fear or contrition, almost
daring Him to do something about it.
That’s not a smart move to make.
For the Lord who never ceased to test and refine His people
in Old testament times, bringing His judgment on them as needed, is the same Lord
who will test and refine us today.
And what else can He do with us?
We are what we are, sinners before Him who seem bent on
rebelling and pursuing our own will and desires, never turning an ear or eye to
what He wants. We’re bent on giving more of our attention to the world and its
evil ways than we are the ways of the Lord and the righteousness He longs to
bring us to. We continue to follow the same pattern and cycle of the Old
Testament Israelites and in turn, God will do what He has always done.
For He is going to refine us keep testing and refining us until
we become the people He wants us to be. Rest assured of that. He’ll never cease
disciplining us and no one should ever challenge His resolve because it is far
greater and more powerful than ours.
In the end translation, the Lord is never going to let up
on us and trust me when I say that He will get His way.
After all, what else can He do with us short of destroying
us and the fact that hasn’t happened is just a testimony of His deep mercy and
amazing grace.
Today, we had better give thanks to the Lord for His
patience and compassion, and then recommit ourselves fully to all that He
desires for our lives. It’s time to show Him that His testing and refining are
paying spiritual dividends.
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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