Jeremiah 12:4
“How long do we have to put up with this— the country depressed, the farms in ruin— And all because of wickedness, these wicked lives? Even animals and birds are dying off because they’ll have nothing to do with God and think God has nothing to do with them.”
“How long must this land mourn? Even the grass in the fields has withered. The wild animals and birds have disappeared because of the evil in the land. For the people have said, ‘The LORD doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!”
Jeremiah’s complaint continues. He paints a picture of ecological collapse due to the wickedness of the ruling class. Moral wickedness always leads to abuse of God’s good world. Greed and poor stewardship of Judah’s land is bearing terrible, heart-breaking fruit. But the land remains after humans are long dead and God has built amazing resilience into it. It will recover. Judah would not.
Lord, thank you for your good gift of our natural world. It’s beauty is breathtaking. May our attempts to protect it, regardless the motive, be effective. Help us learn to manage this enchanting world well, taking what is needed today yet protecting it for future generations. It reflects your glory and I want to honor you in caring for it.
Jeremiah 12:2-3
“You planted them and they put down roots. They flourished and produced fruit. They talk as if they’re old friends with you, but they couldn’t care less about you. Meanwhile, you know me inside and out. You don’t let me get by with a thing!”
“You have planted them, and they have taken root and prospered. Your name is on their lips, but you are far from their hearts. But as for me, LORD, you know my heart. You see me and test my thoughts.”
Jeremiah is complaining about the wicked rich. This comment is so very human. “This isn’t fair,” is a favorite complaint of ours. God sees things very differently. He cares little about economic growth. It is the affairs of the heart that interest him. He is in the business of fitting souls for eternity and that means discipline and training. Our difficult circumstances are our classroom. The wicked are skipping school.
Lord, help me to see upside down, like you. Your way is the true one. The world is only a collection of energy particles. I want to live truth for you. Help me to show others your upside-down way.
Jeremiah 12:1
“You are right, O GOD, and you set things right. I can’t argue with that. But I do have some questions: Why do bad people have it so good? Why do con artists make it big?”
“LORD, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. So let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy?”
Jeremiah is honest. The misery of his people at the hand of ‘bad’ people drives him to question God. From him we learn it is OK to take our doubts to God. He patiently listens and may or may not give us immediate illumination. But having given our questions to God we must we willing to wait upon his purpose and his timing for the answer, neither of which we can fully understand. He will not forget our inquiries and asks us to trust him with them. Meanwhile we give ourselves to fight injustice and corruption on his behalf.
Lord, show me how to do this given my personality and situation. How can I be your arm to envelop the suffering and strike the oppressor? I am so isolated by illness. Help me see my way around it, staying connected and caring to those around me. I trust you to work this out in me because your are the God who sets things right.
Jeremiah 11:20
“Then I said, “GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, you’re a fair judge. You examine and cross-examine human actions and motives. I want to see these people shown up and put down! I’m an open book before you. Clear my name.””
“O Lord pf Heaven’s Armies, you make righteous judgements, and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets. Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you.”
Jeremiah has just discovered the men of Anathoth as scheming to murder him. They are tired of his preaching and want an end to it. Jeremiah shows us what to do, take it to God and trust him. God is a fair judge, examining out deepest hearts. I cling to this when grieving the moral confusion of this time. He alone knows the woundings of every heart and how we choose to let them shape each moment of our lives. Standing at the intersection of the temporal and the eternal we can trust him to deal justly with each one of us. He puts everything right.
Lord, I trust you. Let me not slide into the laze of universalism. Help me reach out with truth, hope and love to all I meet, serving your eternal purpose to put everything right and make all things new.
Jeremiah 10:23-25
“I know, GOD, that mere mortals can’t run their own lives, That men and women don’t have what it takes to take charge of life. So correct us, GOD, as you see best. Don’t lose your temper. That would be the end of us. Vent your anger on the godless nations, who refuse to acknowledge you, And on the people who won’t pray to you— The very ones who’ve made a meal out of Jacob, yes, made a meal And devoured him whole, people and pastures alike.”
“I know, LORD, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course. So correct me, LORD, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die. Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you—on the peoples that do not call upon your name. For they have devoured your people Israel; they have devoured and consumed them, making the land a desolate wilderness.”
True love demands justice for crimes of sin upon the innocent. Our God perfectly balances love and justice in himself. In our time’s spirit of inclusiveness, we must remember love is not a warm fuzzy that encourages everyone to do as they see fit. It is strong and courageous in standing for justice. This is tough love that cuts across culture and demographics. Until our Perfect Judge arrives at the end of time we must make do with the imperfect, doing our best to keep our systems of justice sound and free of corruption.
Lord, what does this mean for me? What can I do each day to share your true love and ensure justice is served? I have no clue. Please show me.
Jeremiah 10:21
“It’s because our leaders are stupid. They never asked GOD for counsel, And so nothing worked right. The people are scattered all over.”
“The shepherds of my people have lost their senses. They no longer seek wisdom from the LORD. Therefore, they fail completely, and their flocks are scattered.”
The problems of the modern world seem impossible to solve but they aren’t. The solution is, ask God, so simple yet so hard. Our infinitely complex God provides a clear solution for us, his children. When we make the choice to turn to him, we are filled in mysterious fashion, with food complex enough to satisfy for eternity.
Lord, you a full of wonder and endlessly satisfying. You taste good and I am so thankful for it. Always feed me unto fullness. Forgive my waywardness and keep me nourished, connected to you forever.
Jeremiah 10:12-15
“But it is God whose power made the earth, whose wisdom gave shape to the world, who crafted the cosmos. He thunders, and rain pours down. He sends the clouds soaring. He embellishes the storm with lightnings, launches wind from his warehouse. Stick-god worshipers looking mighty foolish, god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods! Their gods are frauds—dead sticks, deadwood gods, tasteless jokes. When the fires of judgment come, they’ll be ashes.”
“But God made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. With his own understanding he stretched out the heavens. When he speaks in the thunder, the heavens roar with rain. He causes the clouds to rise over the earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses. The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power. Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will all be destroyed.”
The creation shouts God’s glory. For the past 150 years science has been trying to tell us the creation is self-existent, needing no creator. The past decade has discovered so many fine-tuned requirements for the existence of the Universe a creator is the only reasonable option. So, we are back at the beginning again, turning to Jeremiah and other biblical writers, free to marvel at God’s power and creativity so powerfully represented by the natural world. The universe was created by something outside of itself and therefore that agent must be outside our imaginations as well. Our sticks and stones look pretty silly next to the Almighty.
Lord, you are mighty. There is no one like you. Thank you for the clues of yourself you hide in the natural world. It shouts your glory. Give us wisdom to appreciate and use it with good stewardship. May we tend it well, by your grace and for you glory.
Jeremiah 10:6-7
“All this is nothing compared to you, O GOD. You’re wondrously great, famously great. Who can fail to be impressed by you, King of the nations? It’s your very nature to be worshiped! Look far and wide among the elite of the nations. The best they can come up with is nothing compared to you.”
“LORD, there is no one like you! For you are great, and your name is full of power. Who would not fear you, O King of nations? That title belongs to you alone! Among all the wise people of the earth and in all the kingdoms of the world, there is no one like you.”
Know what you worship. In the initial verses in this chapter God warns not to be impressed by the glitz and glamour of the world. Its idols are only wood dressed up with tinsel. The more we know of the one true infinite and eternal God, the more there is to discover. Knowing God is both the goal and the practice of our faith.
Lord, you are bread and drink to satisfy for eternity. May I always feed on you, grow in you. Keep me pointing in your direction, like a dog on a scent. Let everything else decrease as you fill my vision with your glory, making me more real and more useful to you and your work in the world.
Jeremiah 9:25-26
“Stay alert! It won’t be long now”—GOD’s Decree!—“when I will personally deal with everyone whose life is all outside but no inside: Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab. All these nations are big on performance religion—including Israel, who is no better.”
“‘A time is coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will punish all those who are circumcised in body but not I spirit – the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, Moabites, the people who live in the desert in remote places, and yes, even the people of Judah. And like all these pagan nations, the people of Israel also have uncircumcised hearts.’”
Performance religion is tempting to all of us. It is natural to honor God with the best we can give. But it turns toxic when our hearts turn from our beloved to the ritual and adornments we create to set him apart. Then we begin to worship ourselves instead. My Lord points this out to me when I falter. I can trust him to keep watch over my insides and outsides. This is good because I cannot trust myself.
Lord, thank you for being involved with your creatures. You are not remote but close, seeing all, healing and guiding all, protecting my relationship with you from all the Enemy’s attempts to tear us asunder. You are my faithful watchman Lord and I love you.
Jeremiah 8:6
“I listened carefully but heard not so much as a whisper. No one expressed one word of regret. Not a single “I’m sorry” did I hear. They just kept at it, blindly and stupidly banging their heads against a brick wall.”
“I listen to their conversations and don’t hear a word of truth. Is anyone sorry for doing wrong? Does anyone say, “What a terrible thing I have done”? No! All are running down the path of sin as swiftly as a horse galloping into battle!”
We are in grave danger when certain of our path. It’s much better to know our weaknesses and trust God to fill in the blanks. We change from self-driven to God-guided, becoming, like the Velveteen Rabit, more real in the process. As ever, God’s way is upside down, inside out and backwards to our natural bent. He gives us freedom with enough rope to hang ourselves. Instead, He hopes to hear, “I’m sorry,” as we use our length of rope to tether ourselves to him instead.
Lord, I choose you, for your own sake. You are the answer to all my yearnings for goodness and truth. You alone can heal and put things right. Put me right Lord, so I can do my tiny part in making humanity more humane, according to your perfect will.
Jeremiah 8:5
“So why does this people go backward, and just keep on going—backward! They stubbornly hold on to their illusions, refuse to change direction.”
“Then why do these people stay on their self-destructive path? Why do the people of Jerusalem refuse to turn back? They cling tightly to their lies and will not turn around.”
It’s a good question. Why are we so bent upon our own will that we cannot see the obvious? It is a universaly human condition. It is our sin distorted core, draping itself in various costumes to fool us about who we really are. Since the truth isn’t pleasant, we are happy to accept the illusion. But we are not lost. God’s faithful Spirit gently hovers over us, revealing and then healing that deep flaw, that we may learn to live, really live.
Lord, I want to live. I want freedom from my heart of sin. Thank you Lord Jesus, for paying the penalty of that sin. Now Spirit, please work in me according to your perfect will. Make me entirely yours.
Jeremiah 8:1-2
“‘And when the time comes’—GOD’s Decree!—’I’ll see to it that they dig up the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the princes and priests and prophets, and yes, even the bones of the common people. They’ll dig them up and spread them out like a congregation at worship before sun, moon, and stars, all those sky gods they’ve been so infatuated with all these years, following their ‘lucky stars’ in doglike devotion. The bones will be left scattered and exposed, to reenter the soil as fertilizer, like manure.’”
“‘In that day,’ says the LORD, ‘the enemy will break open the graves of the kings and officials of Judah, and the graves of the priests, prophets, and common people of Jerusalem. They will spread out their bones on the ground before the sun, moon, and stars—the gods my people have loved, served, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up again or buried but will be scattered on the ground like manure.’”
When Babylon comes its armies will not be content with consuming everything above ground. They will also desecrate graves in search of treasure, even the graves of the common people. Death was the abode of rest to the ancient Hebrews. Coming destruction is such that even this will be denied them and their remains will be exposed to those stars they so lovingly worshipped. They will move from rest to fertilizer.
We who were born and bred in peace time cannot identify with this kind of terror. We are soft, with no experience of war’s brutalities, easily judging and moralizing from a distance. War may be the only thing that can shake us from our self-indulgence. May God have mercy on our land.
Lord, a thousand times I beg you, have mercy on us, even if mercy means judgement. Heal us from the ulcers of our self-indulgent lives. Expose to us our frivolities. Open our eyes with conviction and repentance. Let the character of American’s peoples return to the self-discipline that made her great. Please begin with me.