Sunday Guest Post By Alicia

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Jeremiah 42-44, Ezekiel 33:21-33
" My people come to you, as they usually do, and sit before you to listen to your words, but they do not put them into practice. With their mouths they express devotion, but their hearts are greedy for unjust gain. 32 Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice."
33 "When all this comes true—and it surely will—then they will know that a prophet has been among them." Ezekiel 33: 31-33


I thought that last verse in today's reading summed up the attitude of the people so well. Or as John Calvin states:
The sum of what is said then is, that the Jews who dwelt in Egypt were unworthy of any pardon, because they had, as it were, designedly rejected the favor of God, and their obstinacy had become altogether hopeless.
He now begins with reproof, because they were so stupid as not to remember the vengeance which God had executed on themselves and on the whole nation. They had been left alive for this end, that they might acknowledge God’s judgment, and thus return to a right mind. Here, then, the Prophet upbraids them with their insensibility, that they had profited nothing under the scourges of God. They commonly say that fools, when they are beaten, become wise. As then the Jews had not repented, after having been so grievously chastised, it was a proof of extreme perverseness; for if the remnant had a grain of a sound mind, they would have been humbled at least by the final destruction of their nation, and when the city and the temple were demolished. Since then they followed the same wicked courses, for which God had inflicted so grievous a punishment, it was evident that they were wholly irreclaimable and destitute of reason and judgment.
(Taken from here)
I'm not sure why but while reading this story a verse kept coming to my mind:
Proverbs 26:11 "As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly." or 2 Peter 2:22: "Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."

This is how I felt about this remnant returning to Egypt. EGYPT! Of all places...really? REALLY? So, I ask myself how this can happen and I think it's because these people were indeed so far gone as John Calvin above stated. Their heart motives are clear here:
"May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God."

That was really the only part of that statement the people really said sincerely. All of their motives at this point are in the area of self interest, safety and prosperity. They are a little nervous that God has done something to them and they should probably seek Him as to what to do, but only if the plan sounds as good as the one in their heads. I think they half expected confirmation of their plan rather than opposition. Perhaps just something similar would have gone over better for them. Egypt looked powerful and safe, Babylon looked powerful too but deadly against them. They were willing to listen as long as they liked God's plan.
When it's not what they like they are ready to reject the man God has sent. I think there is great danger of this in our culture today. Men of the word are rejected for ministers who promise all the good things from God. They don't mention sin or judgement but seek to build up the self esteem of others with the love of God and the prosperity he provides (wrongly judged as being temporal when God promises treasures eternally).
So, when the shoe does not fit, they throw it off and turn back to the Queen of Heaven (otherwise known as the goddess Astarte congruent with Aphrodite and Venus, the goddess of fertility, sexuality and war). Why? Well, we read the reason here:
"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 fathers, 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."

Their world view was so far off and ours is too when we let our selves be drawn to that which makes us think we are secure, prosperous and happy here. This view lead them open to the deception of another nation being their savior so to speak and if there was anything they believed, it was this. They believed it so well, they were willing to reject the messenger of God when they did not like his words. When the plan did not sound as soft and secure as theirs. When it seemed to put them in earthly harm and under the thumb of powerful man. They were forgetting that God turns the heart of the king, that nations rise and fall at his command, and that all the gold and silver are his.

There are people today, Christians today who reject God when he is no longer benefiting them. I've witnessed this personally. It shocked and surprised me but these views of God that are wrong are hard to see until trail brings them out.
The passage today also made me think of this clip by John Piper on the prosperity gospel. I found this a year after my dad died and I cried and cried through it. Not because it made me sad but because the truth that he spoke had become a part of my reality and I KNEW IT TO BE TRUE like never before. Let's not bow the the idol of "what God can do for me" because when God doesn't do what we want, we will be looking for another god.



Tomorrow's passage: Ezekiel 34-36:38