And like Them

Jeremiah 6:1-16

As a citizen of the U.S.A., I have not yet experienced in my lifetime an army landing on our shores, but it has happened, and it will happen again.  The people of Jerusalem believed they were ready, and they had a walled city, and yet Jeremiah was sent by God to proclaim what was about to happen.  These folks had eyes to see, but they did not see, they had ears to hear, but they did not hear.  One wonders, are you and I more like them than we realize, are we blind to what is happening, have the shepherds and their flocks been pitching their tents all around us, but we don’t have eyes to see or ears to hear?

These shepherds and their flocks were the enemy troops and while Jerusalem was sleeping and secure the Assyrians and the Babylonians were busy carrying dirt in baskets, pouring it against the city walls.  They also were building towers from the trees they had cut down so they could build towers to hurl massive stones and firebrands against the walls.  The most frightening thing is they, like us had no fear of God, they like us were evil, violent and had no regard for the life of the young or the old, their society did not believe they were evil any more than ours.

Jeremiah was instructed by God to make sure that everyone heard the message and had a chance to repent.  Never have we had more men standing and proclaiming God’s message and like Jerusalem, we also have the false teachers telling us God loves us too much to harm us.  And like them, “the word of the Lord has become contemptible to them – they find no pleasure in it.”  Verses 11-15, “Therefore I am full of the wrath of the Lord; I am weary of holding it in.  “Pour it out upon the children in the street, and upon the gatherings of young men, also; both husband and wife shall be taken, the elderly and the very aged.
Their houses shall be turned over to others, their fields and wives together,
for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the Lord. 

“For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.  Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush.  Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the Lord.”

I leave this note for those who have ears to hear and eyes that can see. “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice