THURSDAY, 16 MARCH 2023
TEXT:
Jeremiah 8:19-9:16
19:
Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: “Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they aroused my anger with their
images, with their worthless foreign idols?”
20:
“The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”
21:
Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me.
22:
Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no
healing for the wound of my people?
1:
Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I
would weep day and night for the slain of my people.
2:
Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might
leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of
unfaithful people.
3:
“They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth
that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not
acknowledge me,” declares the Lord.
4:
“Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of
them is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer.
5:
Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their
tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.
6:
You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge
me,” declares the Lord.
7:
Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says: “See, I will refine and test
them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?
8:
Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they all
speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for
them.
9:
Should I not punish them for this?” declares the Lord. “Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?”
10:
I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the
wilderness grasslands. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of
cattle is not heard. The birds have all fled and the animals are gone.
11:
“I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay
waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”
12:
Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and
can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that
no one can cross?
13:
The Lord said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before
them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law.
14:
Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have
followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”
15:
Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will
make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.
16:
I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have
known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.”
(New International Version Holy
Bbible)
TOPIC:
EVERY CHOICE WE MAKE HAS A CONSEQUENCE
Jeremiah
was heartbroken because of the rebellion of his people. They knew that their
evil ways would separate them from God, yet they dared to demand: "is the
Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?" (verse 19). It is so easy
to point accusing fingers at God, claiming He is the One who abandoned us. But,
in truth, by rejecting the ways of righteousness, we invariably push Him
farther away from us.
The
people refused to listen to Jeremiah and preferred the lies they were being
fed. So, God declared His judgement upon them. This prophetic pronouncement was
later fulfilled when Babylon swept over Judah with destruction and its
inhabitants taken into slavery. Judah would return some years later in
fulfilment of the refining power of God's judgement. God uses our trials to
shape us into what He wills.
QUESTION:
Do you realise that every choice you make in life has a consequence?
PRAYER:
Please, Lord Jesus, help me to stand strong in You, holding firmly to the truth
of Your Word, irrespective of what I may be going through. Amen.
Remain
Blessed
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