Chasing the Wind

Jeremiah 3:1-5

I bet you have read God’s ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts, for His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, and I mean like your ladder goes only 48’ and God’s goes into eternity.  So when we look at our culture, both in and out of the church, it seems like our ways and our thoughts, and that is a big problem.  It seems we do not like to address divorce in our churches for the numbers is off the charts of people who have experienced divorce. 

My friend Johnny carried guilt for his divorce for years and one day while confessing to the Lord for what seemed like a recurring prayer, he realized that twenty minutes of pleasure lead to a child, marriage, and ten years of hell in his life.  He carries scars, but he also has the full assurance that the Lord Jesus forgave him.  One wonders how many sit in the pews not grasping that if they confess sin, God is faithful to forgive, and forget.  The one who does not forget is the evil one, Satan and his demons, and they enjoy watching a follower of Christ going back asking for something that God covered by the blood of Jesus.

So from heaven’s view, shall we look at Deuteronomy 24:1-4, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man's wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the Lord. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.”  Now that does not fit our culture, does it?  And God is asking in Jeremiah 3:1, this question based on the verses above, can Judah return to me after defiling the land by your infidelities and false gods?  God is looking at Judah as his bride, and if you are in Christ, He also looks at you as the bride of Christ.  So when Judah or you and I are looking to the world and its little gods for our desires, God calls that infidelity.  Shall we ponder verse 1, “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her?  Would not that land be greatly polluted?  You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? Declares the Lord.”

Could it be time for the Church to take serious the ways of God, how much more judgment do we want to bring on our families and nation?  Verse two goes on with this comparing Judah to a nomad who is waiting in ambush to rob travelers, and God is clear this act will defile the land.

As you explore verse three, it is helpful to understand that Baal who Judah worshiped was thought to be the god of rain, thunder, and fertility.  So God withheld the rain, thunder, and babies, and it did not take long for Judah to understand for a short time they had been chasing the wind.

So what does Judah do when she gets caught being the whore, about the same as the church, do you recall 9-11?   That next Sunday the building that houses the church was full.  And how appropriate are the words we find in Jeremiah 3:4-5, “Have you not just now called to me, ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—will he be angry forever, will he be indignant to the end?’  Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could.”  Often our repentance is an outward act to fool men, but God is not fooled, for He sees the attitude of the heart.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice