01/01/2021
Before the fall of Judah (Israel) to the Babylonians, God sent Jeremiah to the people to warn them but they would not listen. What were the charges that God brought against the people?
1) They had forsaken Him and turned away from His laws.
2) They had replaced Him with gods made of stone and wood.
When He accused them, the people responded by denying that they had sinned at all! It seems impossible to imagine arguing with the one, true, living God who knows all and sees all about the state of your own innocence and yet that is exactly what they did. Read Jeremiah chapter 2.
But as I pondered this today, I realized that it really isn't unbelievable at all. We are at the same place in our nation now. More people have fallen away from God, if they ever knew Him to begin with, than those that truly seek Him. Even those that call themselves by His name no longer seek His guidance on daily matters. Many think of Him as some grandfather in the sky that has no wrath, but only grace. Or worse, that He doesn't care at all. And all of these would claim to be "good" people.
We have a shortage of people in this country that are intimately familiar with their own depravity to such a degree that it breaks their own heart. People that are filled with fear of the Lord to such a degree that they run after Him and cling to Him, desperate to be saved. Instead, we do a good job of making the infinite God fit into the boxes of our own understanding so that we can fit Him in here and there around the lives that we have built. If we include Him at all.
Woe to us and to our nation if we cannot see fit to repent and throw ourselves on His mercy! And especially His church, His bride. Make no mistake, we are guilty of those same two transgressions in our nation at this time. We have forsaken our God and we have set up other gods in His place. Some are indeed made of stone and wood, others of paper and metal (money), others are more intangible like success, power, greed, pleasure, even other people. We care more about what others think or say than what God thinks or says. In fact, we don't even bother to open His book to know what He says. Out of sight, out of mind.
This is a harsh word. It was a harsh word to Judah all those years ago and they refused to listen. And Jersusalem was destroyed because of it. I hope that some will hear today and God will have mercy.
