Today’s Tasting: Jeremiah 10–13: Through the words of the prophet Jeremiah God warns his people not to be like the gentiles, who create futile idols from wood and decorate them with silver and gold. Jeremiah calls these idols “altogether dull-hearted and foolish…worthless doctrine” (Jeremiah 10:8).
“But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King” (10:10). In Jeremiah 11:10, the Lord tells the prophet “the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant” and he declares that He will bring calamity on them. Again and again Jeremiah, who is known as the weeping prophet, laments that the people have turned away from God and pursued the idols of their neighbors, and he begs them to listen to him and turn back to God. “But if you will not hear it, My soul will weep in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive” (Jeremiah 13:17).
Today’s Nourishment: It’s tempting to read these passages and think that they tell of a prophecy that has already been fulfilled and so has no message for us. I think that would be a mistake. If you think about it, God is unchanged—the same today as He was then, and will always be. Why would He be any less displeased by our idolatry today? I read in a devotional yesterday that the things that disappoint us reveal the idols of our heart. That made me stop and reflect on whether there was anything that had caused me to feel disappointed lately and to examine whether Jesus was truly first in my life.
Take another look at the quote above from Jeremiah 13:17. It struck me that the writer uses “My” instead of “my” to signify that it is God talking: He weeps when we are prideful instead of humble before Him. Did you get that? The God of the universe cares so much about me that He weeps over my sin! And He cares about every one of us in the same way. What is the response of your heart to a God who loves you that much?
Tomorrow’s Delight: Jeremiah 14-17
Joanne Creary
@joanne_creary
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