Jeremiah 8:1-13
These
first three verses seem strange to us because God is declaring that the graves
of the kings and her officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the
prophets and even the residents of Jerusalem will be open and their bones laid out,
exposed to the sun the stars, and the moon. When they were alive those
were the things they worshiped and now they are dead and have no one to protect
them, for the little gods have no power to do so.
In
verses 4-13, it begins with God talking to Jeremiah, and these are God’s Words,
“You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise
again? If one turns away, does he not return? Why then has
this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to
deceit; they refuse to return.” It is a natural thing for
a person who falls to the ground to get up, or at least to try to stand, but
not these people, and the answer is found in deceit.
Did
you notice the words perpetual backsliding?
It means uninterrupted or lasting indefinitely, and the answer is found
in deceit. Someone or something is doing things that mislead these
people, and they have become a nation full of dishonesty and pretense.
Does this not sound like the culture you live in, a culture of deception and
corruption?
Now
listen and give thought to what God is saying to us: I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken
rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone
turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules of the Lord."How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us’? But behold, the
lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie. 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? Therefore I will give their wives to others and
their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the
greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; 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 the fallen; when I punish them, they shall
be overthrown, says the Lord.
When I would gather them, declares the Lord, there
are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are
withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.”
As
you give thought to God speaking in verses 6-8, do you give thought to God
listening to not only your words but your mind? We are instructed in
Colossians 3:2, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on
earth.” I find that so hard to do, what about you, and could the
answer be that as earth critters we forget this is not home, we are just
passing through? Be careful whom you listen to as your Spiritual leader,
for God’s written Word is the only lamp that will guide our feet in this
world. O how careful we should be that we do not reject the Word of the
Lord as they did and that is recorded in verse 9.
Look
at the lesson of what this cost them in verses 10-13, and it was a desire for
unjust gain, dealing falsely, proclaiming peace when there was no peace and
committing abominations in the sight of God. They were so far from God,
they never expected Him to be looking, or that a day of exposer would take
place. Where are you in the story?
From
the Back Porch,
Bob
Rice
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