Jeremiah 8:9
Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD;
So what wisdom do they have?
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla...
This is such a sad verse...the Word of the Lord is truth. It is our guide in this world filled with so much toil, trouble, heartache and deceit. It is a gift from our Creator to us. Who knows more about us than He who made us. God's people had rejected His instruction. That girls is not a logical thing to do...it does not make any sense practically. He made us...it is always good to consult the Manufacturer's Manual and it is never a good thing to discard it. Jeremiah 8:3-5 says if a man falls does he not get back up...if a man takes a wrong turn does he not go back and correct it? Doing that only makes sense. But God's people did not return to Him and His word with their heart. Instead, they went backward. That is what happens when we reject God's word...we go backward. Jeremiah 7:28-31 says this:
“So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. 29 Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ 30 For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
What was the result of rejecting the voice of their Maker? Outside of Jerusalem they burned their sons and their daughters in sacrifice to Molech...a god of their own imagination....they rejected God's word and did what was right in their own eyes. We have also rejected God's word here in 21st century America. Babies are sacrificed to the gods of power, money, status, privilege, prestige and personal reputation; all sub-deities of the ultimate god of self...we are no better and perhaps worse.
Verses 12 and 13 tell us that all that had been done for them would be consumed because they chose to continually turn away from Him...later on we read that He stopped striving with them and that they were now in a position for which there was no remedy. The summer was past and the harvest was gone. Judah had missed their opportunity to turn...judgment was coming...there would not be a second chance.
Jeremiah delivered this message with tears to his people. As I read the book I can feel Jeremiah's pain for the people of Judah. The people he loved. He speaks and they do not hear...He pleads and they ignore Him or worse persecute him. He knows the truth...He knows what is going to occur..but he cannot make them see. You can hear the heart of a mom or a dad here pleading with a prodigal. You can hear the heart of God breaking for His people who refuse to turn.
Rebellion and sin have tragic repercussions. Even in a saved person the consequences are tragic. Your sin will harden your heart and blind you to the truth. The consequences of your backsliding and turning will hurt those around you especially those whom you love. Girls, we are saved for one purpose...to glorify God. When our lives do not reflect Him and shine His light so others can see it and perhaps turn themselves and be saved, we grieve the Spirit of God. Your own sin will cause you to miss out on so many of His blessings both temporally and eternally.
Your bible does not do you any good if it just sit there unopened, unread and worst of all unheeded. I pray that each of us always will set our heart on not only hearing the truth but obeying it from the heart. The repercussions like the blessings are not just temporal but eternal. 1 Corinthians 3:9-15 says this:
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. 11 For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
Love
Mom
