Comparing God with the idols Judah served

This week I want to take a look at the marked difference between the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as He is portrayed in Jeremiah, with the idols that the Israelites had chosen to serve. As we read through or listen to Jeremiah write down some of the adjectives and actions that describe God.

Week 4 Judah's response to God and repentance

Jeremiah 44:16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!

It amazes me that they could be so bold as to say to Jeremiah's face, we know you are speaking the word of the Lord but we will not listen or obey. They even go on to say they will return to worshipping their idols because things used to be so much better when they did that. Not seeing any correlation at all between their sin and the punishment that had come upon the country.

Absolutely amazing!!!

But then I calm down and come back to reality and see that their answer is really no different from some of mine that I have given the Lord. They are just more blunt and real about their rebellion than I am. But isn't it true that anytime I refuse to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life I am basically saying the same thing as these Jews? "God I know what you want me to do, but I am not going to do it. After all I have taken care of myself in the past and it worked out OK , so I should be able to handle this now in my own way".

I am just beginning to see clearly that any form of rebellion is indeed idolatry. Of course I am not going to go chop down a tree and carve an idol and drag it into my home, but putting my trust in anything besides God is just as bad. You just are not going to notice it when you walk in my door. But hang around me for awhile and you will notice that there is something just not quite right in either and attitude, or a word, or a feeling, etc.

So getting back to their response....they said they were much better off worshipping the Queen of Heaven...why do you think they felt this way? (look at the rest of the chapter and check back on the history of Judah and how they had prospered under different kings, some good and some bad)

A question to ponder.....God sometimes allows something to go on for awhile that is not part of His plan for us, so we really cannot use the fact that we are being blessed as proof that we are completely in His will, so how can we know that we are in God's will and doing all that we are supposed to be doing? (Try to be practical in your answers)

Week 4 continued-- Still Time to Repent

It is interesting what goes through the minds of people in crisis. Here the Jews that have been left in the country after Babylon has destroyed Jerusalem come to Jeremiah for help. They want him to pray for them to find out what the will of God is for them. Their answer to Jeremiah is very similar to the one they gave Moses at Mt Sinai.

Jeremiah 42:5-6
5 So they said to Jeremiah, “Let the LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do according to everything which the LORD your God sends us by you. 6 Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.”

Exodus 19:8a
8 Then all the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.”

Reading on in Jeremiah 42, we see that these Jews were as good at keeping their word as their ancestors had been. They had already decided in their hearts that they were going to go to Egypt and look for sanctuary there. Even though God promises to forgive them and bless them and even make sure they were safe if they would only be obedient and stay in the Land.

Once again they choose to only obey God only as long as what He is asking them to do is what they have already decided is the course of action to take. Why do you think it was so hard for them to see beyond their own understanding and listen to what the Lord was saying? How often do we treat the Lord the same way in our own lives, prefering to wait for the answer we want, rather than doing what God is saying right now? Boiling it down to its simplest component, why is it so difficult for them to understand that God is looking for a relationship and not for them to be religious?

Week 4 God Offers a Last Chance for Repentance

Let's take a look at what it is that God is doing through Jeremiah. We have seen that the Lord is saying that the time has come for the Israelites to suffer the punishment for their sins, especially their idolatry. As we read through Jeremiah we begin to understand that the Lord's heart has been broken by the complete lack of His people to understand what they possess as His chosen people. Instead they have traded the glorious for something that fades and is worthless. But here in Jeremiah chapter 36, we see once again God giving them the chance to repent. This is close to the end, Zedekiah is king, the last king of Judah, and God urges Jeremiah to read to the people all of the prophecies he has been given by God since he began his ministry during Josiah's reign.

Jeremiah 36:2-3
“Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day. 3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Here again God reaches out in His unfailing love. The Jews have a chance to repent and return to the Lord. They are able to enter into that relationship that they were meant to have. But an interesting aspect of this repentance offered is God does not promise to stop the punishment that is going to come on Judah, He only promises that the individual will be forgiven. I think as New Testament believers, we feel that if we repent, no matter how long it has taken us to get to that point, that God will also deliver us from any repercussions that are coming because of our sin or the sins of those around us. Often we are mad at God when we do suffer after we have repented.

How many times have I had my children say they were sorry and ask for

forgiveness of their siblings and it ended up being only words, they were not actually sorry, in fact they believed they were not wrong in what they had done and were only sorry they were caught. Yet, because they said the words they felt they no longer deserved any punishment for their actions. Of course what they wanted and what actually ended up happening were not necessarily the same thing.

So why are surprised when we tell God we are sorry and we still have to work through whatever the consequences of our sin happen to be. The whole 'reaping' and 'sowing' aspect of the way the world is set up by God. Sometimes God intervenes, but usually we must suffer the fallout from our actions.

Taking this a step farther and looking at the world we live in....and knowing that we do indeed live under grace....what can we expect the Lord to do with the nations of the world??? If someone like Jeremiah were to come on the scene today and list the many sins of the world around us, pointing out idolatry and warning us of the judgment to come what is our reaction to be.

I have been seriously thinking about this as I have been studying the Old Testament prophets. Looking around at the news and hearing the stories of things going on around the world, I cannot help but think that we are no better than ancient Israel. We are full of idolatry and injustice, but we think that since we are Christians we should not have to suffer. We can say we are sorry and everything will be OK.

The question becomes, how do we show the love of Christ and balance that with the reality of the coming wrath of God? Many feel that we are living in the end times, that the time is short, if this is true we need to have a complete picture of who God is to present to a lost and dying world. We cannot just show the happy and easy parts of Christianity, we need to know that there may come a time when we have to take a stand as Jeremiah and the other prophets did. So....How do we do this without sounding like doom and gloom or pie in the sky????

Week 3 Why we study the Word

Psalm 78:1-4 The Message Bible
Listen, dear friends, to God's truth, bend your ears to what I tell you.
I'm chewing on the morsel of a proverb;
I'll let you in on the sweet old truths,
Stories we heard from our fathers,
counsel we learned at our mother's knee.
We're not keeping this to ourselves,
we're passing it along to the next generation—
God's fame and fortune,
the marvelous things he has done.

Week 3 The sin of Judah

Jeremiah 22:8 And many nations will pass by this city; and everyone will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD done so to this great city?’ 9 Then they will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.’”

What was it that Judah had done that caused the Lord to take them into exile? Their sins are without number, we could go on and on all day about the things that they had done to anger the Lord, but I think it all boiled down to one thing....their heart was far from God. They had no desire to have that personal relationship with Him. They were content to let someone else go to the Lord for them....but in many cases they would not listen to those that did honestly go to the Lord. Instead they preferred those that pretended to go before the Lord and came back with words that were easy and full of promises for a bright and happy future. They were unwilling to face the truth because that meant they would have to take personal responsibility for their own thoughts, words and deeds.

Remember, God's dealings with His people is always about covenant and it is always about each of us individually. God does not fellowship or have relationship with a people, He has relationship with a person. A nation may be blessed for a time because of its people, but at the same time, a nation can go through times of judgment, even though there are some righteous people living in it. Take a look at what is going on in Jeremiah's day....we know from other parts of the Bible that there are other righteous people besides Jeremiah, but you would think he was the only one reading his book. Daniel and his friends were there plus at least 3 other prophets, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah. So these righteous men had to suffer through the punishment of the nation. And there were people in authority that stuck out their necks to keep the king or the people from killing Jeremiah on several occasions. As you read the book take note of some of these other people that are standing against the tide of public opinion.

I am seeing more and more the similarities between the people in Jeremiah's time and the ones that are living now. I am listening to the radio right now and they are talking about the funeral tomorrow for Michael Jackson....he is almost being deified...it takes me back to when Princess Di died. The world was in mourning for her yet on the same day Mother Teresa had died and it caused only a minor ripple. Take a moment to think about the sins of Judah and compare and contrast them to what we see in the news each and every day.

Week 2 concluding thought

Talking about blunt, in Jeremiah 20, the prophet bluntly lays out his wrestling with the word of God. Here is just a small section, when you have time read the whole chapter. It will give you some insights into the personality of Jeremiah.
9 Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.

Jeremiah was in a very difficult place, the Lord had called him to speak His words to a people that would not listen. In fact, they were physically, as well as mentally and emotionally abusive to Jeremiah. So Jeremiah must have thought to himself, I just won't talk to them anymore. That will serve them right. In fact, Jeremiah goes so far as to laments the day he was born because this has become so hard for him to bear. I am sure we have all been in that place to one degree or another. The "why me(s)" were plaguing this prophet just as they do everyone.

But what is interesting is Jeremiah could not keep quiet, no matter how much he wanted to. The word of God burned inside of him and he could not hold it back. It was powerful and seemed to have a life of itself....it must be spoken!! He must release the power of the words to those it was sent to. Of course this does not stop our prophet from wishing the people would all die miserable deaths.

Looking at this chapter, what is the picture you get of Jeremiah's life? What is his relationship like with God? Do you think he really hated the people? Do you get a clearer picture of why God chose this man to speak for Him?