6:19 Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it.
God is very clear in His Word what His expectations are. The entrance fee to heaven is perfection. No one, but Jesus, can pay this entry fee. Jesus is willing to pay it for us, but we need to accept His payment on our behalf. If we reject Him, the consequences are clear.
7:5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
I love the addition of the word "truly" in these verses. You can't just have the appearance of change and remorse, you can't just flippantly confess your sin and commit to changing your life - it needs to be genuine. Empty promises won't cut it. And God can see through phony actions straight to the heart and mind.
8:9 The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom is in them?
This verse reminds me of the "wisdom" of our day. Those who are enlightened cheer on the homosexual and transgendered movements and celebrate a woman's right to choose, and anyone who disagrees is intolerant and ignorant. But their wisdom is no wisdom at all. Anything that goes contrary to the very Word of God is foolishness, not wisdom. God determines right and wrong, not man.
Over and over in the OT passage it speaks about God warning the people of the consequences of their sin, but they refuse to listen. As we see from our NT passage, not only did they refuse to listen, they killed the messengers of hope, and later, even the very Son of God, their only hope of salvation.
As we heard in our sermon today, Christianity differs from every other religion because of who we say Jesus is. Jesus is God, He is the Son of God and the second member of the trinity. He is fully God and fully man. He is the Messiah, He is the Christ, He is our salvation, He is our hope. Who do you say He is? What will you do with this Jesus?
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Jeremiah 9-11; Matthew 22:1-22
3 comments:
I like the point you made about how God determines what's right and what's wrong, not man. Man changes his opinion of what's right and wrong every generation and then calls it progress, and thinks he's more enlightened. How foolish.
In our New Testament reading we read how twice the Pharisees were influenced by the crowd:
26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
Let's not be influenced by the crowd (society), but rather be influenced by God and His son Jesus. This will last for all time.
Jeremiah's message to sinful Judah was of judgment and doom. A nation would come from the north to completely destroy the land and its people. This would result in famine, death, and destruction.
God will not leave sin unpunished. A day is coming in which we too will have to give an account to the Lord of what we have done.
How true...we see the influence of society determine what is "wise" and "heroic" and it is all foolishness that will ultimately be judged in His time. We have heard the warnings. Again...there is nothing new under the sun.
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