Image: "Relics in Time", 2020, Severn River, Annapolis, Md
Jeremiah 7:5–7 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
Jeremiah 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead, Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery For the health of the daughter of my people?
Jeremiah 9:23–24 Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; 24 But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD.
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Jeremiah is an uncomfortable read. That's not a new insight, ... virtually everyone who studies the book in anything other than a superficial manner, gets a bit antsy. It's just so vivid in its descriptions and it is just so easily recognized as reflecting our own time.
Take, for example, Jeremiah 7:28: “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.
"Truth has perished!" Do we not recognize the prevalence of that judgment all about us?
What does this mean? Basically, when truth departs from a society the people do not recognize or embrace any proposition or judgment that is higher than mere "opinion." The idea of convincing others of a position or statement based on some considered perspective such that it becomes morally imperative for them to believe it... because it is the truth... is rejected. In its place is colorful, emotional, passionate rhetoric that is almost entirely subjective. Some person declares: "This is right!" and "That is wrong!" on no other basis than their own authority and desires and demands agreement by rousing up similar passions in their audience.
Counter arguments are shouted down because no opposing passions or positions are to be considered. "Truth", understood as ultimately able to withstand all counterarguments because it is, in fact, true, is rejected. It is no longer about seeking truth but rather manipulating an audience.
The Scriptures teach us that we reap what we sow and this is happening now. Decades of corrupting rhetoric passing for "education" in our colleges and universities have indoctrinated almost an entire generation with self-referential ideas and policies. The most discouraging aspect of this is that it almost eliminates the possibility of dialog even as "dialog" appears at the top of the list of every demand.
The Church of Jesus Christ is supposed to be the "pillar and ground of the truth" in every society (1 Tim. 3:14-15). Our current circumstance in this country, just as it was in Jeremiah's day and society, is a blazing indictment against the Church. God did not point Jeremiah's finger at those nasty pagans in other countries and declare that they were what brought on this sordid situation. Rather (9:3) God clearly pointed at His own people and those over them and declared: "They are not valiant for the truth on the earth." He goes on to say "they do not know ME." This is the severest indictment that can ever be registered against God's people. To not "know" the living God is to be cut off from the whole idea of "truth" itself.
There is no "truth" unless that "truth" is absolute, eternally valid, and ultimately victorious. Of course, we may have to resort to "provisional" truths on occasion in areas where no certain authority can be established. But even then, we, by that very method, assume that acting in accordance with "provisional truth" will lead us to see it more clearly and establish its truth content more certainly or reject it entirely.
The bottom line is this. When God's people think of "faith" as more akin to "opinion" than embracing "truth", then we no longer are salt and light, a city set on a hill, or prophets of the living God. We must be convicted of truth, convinced of truth, enthralled with truth, and inspired by truth. The living presence of a separate people manifesting this character will make a difference in the world around us. Such a people can be hated, despised, and ridiculed but they cannot be ignored.
Jeremiah spoke to his people of his day but in doing so he spoke to every generation of professing God followers that followed him. And through him, God is speaking to us today.
Jeremiah 10-12: Sometimes We Have To Just Get Out of Ourselves....
Image: "Common Magnificence", 2020, Severna Park, Md
Jeremiah 10:23 O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
Jeremiah 11:20 But, O LORD of hosts, You who judge righteously, Testing the mind and the heart, Let me see Your vengeance on them, For to You I have revealed my cause.
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A person, or an entire community, can only stare at bad news for so long. It is one thing to see the world realistically, that is, to not put on rose-colored glasses or, on the other hand, to bury our head in the sand and deliberately ignore what's happening. It's another thing to let the whelming flood of disasters heaped on tragedies immobilize us in despair. These chapters in Jeremiah show us God giving Jeremiah a bit of relief. True enough he is still pronouncing "woes" on Israel and Judah and the pagan nations around them, but he is also having his eyes directed beyond those "woes" to the Almighty Hand and Person of God. In the midst of judgment, there are promises of grace. Above the horror of pending desolation, there are visions of incomprehensible beauty and glory.
Jeremiah 10:7 Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations, And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You.
There are many parallel passages to this exuberant cry. Jeremiah sees through the apostasy of his own people and the apparently unstoppable hordes of enemies who will sweep down in judgment on them, and sees God, High and Lifted up, bathed in glory and ruling all things with incredible wisdom.
He is "King of the nations." Every creature on this earth is part of His household. Every human on this earth, given the high privilege of rational thought and warm affections, was created to serve Him in representative holiness and derivative wisdom. All things, every creature great and small, are designed to beautifully bear witness to Him as not only their Creator but as their constant Guide and Friend. This is our God... He is our King... and conscious acknowledgment, praise and submission to Him as such is only our "reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1), our most elementary duty.
He is Lord! He is King of all kings! He is not absent but rather all things, however depressing and fearful they may be, are not random events nor devoid of meaning. He is not arbitrary in His dealings with His beloved creation. Even those barbarians who seek to tear down and destroy anything that is beautiful and conducive to man's spiritual well being, are not outside of His sovereign plan.
Jeremiah 12:16 And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people.
In these words, God is directing His commands to those very people intent upon desecrating all that is holy. He calls on them to learn from the "ways of My people", the remnant of faithful believers who are ever preserved through catastrophes so that God will have His witness in the world. All the world is to learn from those Christians who have perhaps suffered under God's chastising and have benefitted from it. In repentance and hope, they stream back to their "home", as the wayward young fool who, awakened to his true senses, returned to his father. They have been received with rejoicing and now, as a redeemed, sanctified and Spirit-filled body, they stand in God's place, welcoming even the foulest former idolaters to the table of the Lord.
When things appear pretty dismal, it is right and good for us to "get out of ourselves" and see things from God's perspective. Indeed, we need to see God Himself in all His glory and power. Like Revelation 4 & 5, placed strategically in John's Apocalypse to show us the foundation on which all the subsequent visions will be built, Jeremiah himself, and we with him, are called back to the basics. Despair, like fear, is essentially rooted in a "me" universe. We fall into the trap of seeing things in terms of ourselves or our families. We focus on what's in front of our eyes and we aren't seeing what's behind it all.
To know that God is King is to be allowed to take a deep breath, relax our bodies, put away the "fight or flee" adrenalin rush, and regain our peace, if only for a while.
I think it worked for Jeremiah... It will work for us also.
Posted by Gadfly on June 30, 2020 at 11:03 AM in Christian Apologetics, Church, Commentary, Culture, Movies, etc., Current Affairs, Devotional Meditation, Discipleship, Ethics | Permalink | Comments (0)
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