Day 176: Do you take God seriously? - Jeremiah 6 vs 1 -15
1 Run for your lives, you people of Benjamin! Get out of Jerusalem! Sound the alarm in Tekoa. Send up a signal at Beth-hakkerem! A powerful army is coming from the north, coming with disaster and destruction.
2-3 O Jerusalem, you are my beautiful and delicate daughter - but I will destroy you! Enemies will surround you, like shepherds camped around the city. Each chooses a place for his troops to devour. 4 They shout, “Prepare for battle! Attack at noon!” No, it’s too late; the day is fading, and the evening shadows are falling.” Well then, let’s attack at night and destroy her palaces!” 6-7 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “Cut down the trees for battering rams. Build siege ramps against the walls of Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished, for she is wicked through and through. She spouts evil like a fountain. Her streets echo with the sounds of violence and destruction. I always see her sickness and sores.” 8 Listen to this warning, Jerusalem, or I will turn from you in disgust. Listen, or I will turn you into a heap of ruins, a land where no one lives. 9 This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: “Even the few who remain in Israel will be picked over again, as when a harvester checks each vine a second time to pick the grapes that were missed.”
10 To whom can I give warning? Who will listen when I speak? Their ears are closed, and they cannot hear. They scorn the word of the Lord. They don’t want to listen at all. 11-12 So now I am filled with the Lord’s fury. Yes, I am tired of holding it in! “I will pour out my fury on children playing in the streets and on gatherings of young men, on husbands and wives and on those who are old and gray. Their homes will be turned over to their enemies, as will their fields and their wives. For I will raise my powerful fist against the people of this land,” says the Lord. 13 “From the least to the greatest, their lives are ruled by greed. From prophets to priests, they are all frauds. 14 They offer superficial treatments for my people’s mortal wound. They give assurances of peace when there is no peace. 15 Are they ashamed of their disgusting actions? Not at all - they don’t even know how to blush! Therefore, they will lie among the slaughtered. They will be brought down when I punish them,” says the Lord. Jeremiah 6:1-15 New Living Translation (English Standard Version link)
What would you say is the common link in verses 1, 8 & 10?
They were clearly words of urgent warning! Jeremiah was faithfully passing on the message God had given him. It was a message of an army that was going to sweep through the land, besiege cities, destroy houses and take wives and children into captivity. And it was going to affect both young and old. God said: “I will pour out my fury on children playing in the streets and on gatherings of young men, on husbands and wives and on those who are old and gray. Their homes will be turned over to their enemies, as will their fields and their wives.” But what does vs 10 tell us about how the people responded to Jeremiah's warning?
They scorned God’s warning and didn't want to listen at all. It was not a welcome and popular message. They were completely unashamed of the sins they loved. Worse still, their prophets and priests were frauds who minimized the danger the nation was in.(vs 13-14) They promised God's peace when God was planning judgement.
I would say we see a picture that is still true of the world today, and it is true of the message called the gospel. Many people love the well known verse of John 3:16 which promises eternal life to all who believe on Jesus Christ and who trust in the sacrifice He made to blot out their sins. But many forget (and don't like) the fact that the Chapter ends by saying: “The Father loves his Son and has put everything into his hands. Anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.” Do we take God seriously when we read the warnings He has given? It is a matter of eternal life or death.