Good morning everyone. We are now in Jeremiah.
Jeremiah certainly had to live one day at a time. There were no planning vacations, getting married, building a new home, building friendships, or doing any of the things we strive for today. God’s plan for Jeremiah was to use him as a communication tool to warn Israel and Judah of his wrath if they did not turn from their evil ways.
When God spoke to Jeremiah, you can clearly see how frustrated he is by his chosen people bowing down to man-made gods, offering sacrifices to their gods using the protocol set up to sacrifice to the one and only true God, and in addition to asking their gods for help in their daily lives. Doesn’t it make you wonder where the logic is in serving a god that can’t do anything for you as compared to serving a God who can do everything for us?
Jeremiah remains on task and continues to relay God’s messages to the officials even though he gets beaten, jailed and thrown into a cistern to die (a well used to store water) all because the officials did not want to hear what Jeremiah had to say. God warned them that if they didn’t leave the city, the Babylonians would overtake and kill them. But because they had “wooden hearts”, they refused to listen. Instead, of leading their people to safety, the officials advised the king that Jeremiah should be put to death because his news was too discouraging for the soldiers and people to hear. Can you imagine having a leader who cares more about your feelings than your life?
Sure enough, no one listened to God’s warning, and the Babylonians overtook Jerusalem; and all the things that God said would happen, happened.
I don’t know about you, but one clear message that can be taken from this is that we need to continually pray for our country’s leadership to make the right decisions on behalf of the people and not based on things that really don’t matter. And like Jeremiah, we need to trust God that he will take care of us regardless, simply because he said that he would.
In Christ Alone,
Jill
Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit the ground Satan says "o crud"