Day 78: Having It Their Own Way

Jeremiah 16:8-13

“You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.” For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. It will happen, when you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity? or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me. Therefore I will cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

Here we read that Jeremiah was not only to avoid funerals, he wasn’t allowed to attend parties and weddings. Once again, God was using the physical behavior of His prophet to illustrate the reality of His words. Jeremiah was to tell them that this is because this generation of people would witness the end of parties and weddings in their culture.

God anticipated that the people would ask: “Why?” God tells them that it’s not only because their fathers worshiped gods, but that they have made it worse by walking after the stubbornness of their own evil hearts and refusing to listen. This shows us something about mankind. These people were stubbornly doing whatever they wanted to do against God while calling God: “Yahweh our God.” They thought that if they just called themselves people of God, then that is what they were. Isn’t that what we have today as well. People call themselves “Christians” even though they stubbornly refuse to obey what the Bible says about Christians. Instead they walk after their own evil hearts without listening.

When mankind is stubborn and refuses to listen to God’s way, He gives them over to their own. This is a very clear pattern in the Bible and it is emphasized in the New Testament. In this case, God was going to send Israel into captivity in Babylon and they were going to have their full of gods there, but the one true God was going to leave them. I want to make it clear that this is a general statement. We know from the book of Daniel that it wasn’t an exhaustive statement. There were at least four Israelis that refused to follow the Babylonian ways while in captivity and were protected by God.

This same thing is happening to cultures today. It appears to be happening to the United States even now. Here’s what it says in Romans one:

Romans 1:21-26

Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, four-footed animals, and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.

Day 63: Justice and Mercy to the Nations Around Israel

Jeremiah 12:14-17

Yahweh says, “Concerning all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. It will happen that after I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them. I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. It will happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As Yahweh lives;’ even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the middle of my people. But if they will not hear, then I will pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it,” says Yahweh.

Do you remember how many times we read that God would bless Israel, then they would go away from God and then He would punish them, then they would cry out to God and He would have mercy on them and save them? In this passage, God appears to be saying that this is how He works in the nations around Israel. If they “swear by” His name instead of by some other, then He would build them up. If not, He would tear them down too. That is very exciting to me because it shows us that God cares about Gentiles. It also tells us that He gave nations other than Israel their own place. We know that this is true because we read about that in the books of Moses. God even told Israel to not try to take the land of certain other nations because He had given it to them.

I believe that this passage may apply to nations other than those that are right around Israel. In a way, the United States is a neighbor to Israel today. I believe that God has already blessed our nation for acknowledging Israel’s God. Our money even declares our motto. Our nation intended to trust in the God of Israel and nothing else. We have been greatly blessed as a result. Notice, however, that if a nation “will not hear,” God will “pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it.” So we see that God does not want nations that boarder Israel to not believe in Him.

We know that, someday, the whole world will acknowledge that Jesus is the King of the earth. Even if these things don’t directly apply to nations that aren’t bordering Israel, we know that God works with Gentile nations too. God has a place for all of us and He is the God of the whole world, not just Israel.