WEDNESDAY, 15 MARCH 2023
TEXT:
Jeremiah 7:16-27
16.
As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry or prayer on their
behalf, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you.
17.
Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem?
18.
The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough,
to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to
other gods, to provoke me to anger.
19.
Is it I whom they provoke? Says the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own
hurt?
20.
Therefore thus says the Lord God: My anger and my wrath shall be poured out on
this place, on human beings and animals, on the trees of the field and the
fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.
21.
Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to
your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.
22.
For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did
not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
23.
But this command I gave them, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you
shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may
be well with you.”
24.
Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but, in the stubbornness of their
evil will, they walked in their own counsels, and looked backward rather than
forward.
25.
From the day that your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day,
I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day;
26.
yet they did not listen to me, or pay attention, but they stiffened their
necks. They did worse than their ancestors did.
27.
So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you.
You shall call to them, but they will not answer you.
(New Revised Standard Version Holy
Bible)
TOPIC:
WHEN PRAYER IS NOT THE SOLUTION
This
passage opens on a very sad note when God commands Jeremiah thus: “So do not
pray for these people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead
with me, for I will not listen to you” (verse 16).
These
words are strong indications that Jerusalem had reached the point of no return
because God said “when you tell them all this, they will not listen to you;
when you call to them, they will not answer” (verse 27).
Their
rejection of God peaked when they offered burned offerings to the “Queen of
Heaven” and worshipped many other idols.
Unfortunately,
they were behaving like their forefathers did in the Promised Land following
their release from captivity in Egypt. How often have we found ourselves in the
same position as Jeremiah; crying out to God in prayers either for our
deliverance or that of others but we are told that the solution is to return to
God.
We
must be sensitive to know when action is required rather than prayer. Our
response to His Word will determine the result we get from Him. Jerusalem
turned her back on Jesus and His Word and worshipped other gods which blocked
their ability to receive grace and mercy from God.
QUESTION:
Do you know that sometimes you don’t need to pray but do something else
instead?
Remain
Blessed
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