February 5, Jeremiah 4
”Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter, it has reached your very heart." - Jeremiah 4:18
We're all sad when something precious to us is lost or ruined. That sadness is intensified when we find out that the loss could have been avoided if we had taken appropriate corrective action before it was too late. You may know someone who lost their health because they waited too late to seek help or make changes in their habits. A homeowner who neglects needed repairs and maintenance may destroy his own house when he fails to do needed maintenance. And people have destroyed their marriages and lost their families when they stubbornly refused to make needed changes in their behavior.
In Jeremiah's time, the last vestige of Israel was headed toward needless loss and ruin. Time was running out, but there was still time. God told them a way they could avoid the coming destruction. God was still willing to spare them. But the people had to conform to three "if" statements to be saved from the rapidly approaching Babylonians.
If his people would return to him, if they removed the detestable things (idols) from God's presence and not go back to them, and if they would faithfully swear by the LORD alone, they could be saved from ruin. Nations around them would see God's glory in them if they would do these things.
The hearts of the Israelites had become like fallow ground that had not been cultivated for several years. Their hearts needed to be broken so the seed of God's word could penetrate their hard hearts and change their lives. The Jews still identified themselves as Abraham's descendants by the circumcision of all males. But that physical circumcision was not the issue at all. They needed a circumcision of the heart. They needed to cut away the idols, the indulgences of their flesh and their unfaithfulness to God.
God reminded Israel that the approaching doom was from him and administered by the Babylonians. But their own evil hearts, thoughts and practices were the real cause of what was coming to them. He told them, "Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart."
The devastation and desolation would be so complete that it would be as if God had not yet brought form, order and light to the Creation. But even from that awful state of ruin, God promised that he would not make a full end of the chosen people. He still had promises to keep, and he would save a remnant through which he would do what he promised.
These awful circumstances were locally and immediately about the remaining portion of Israel on the verge of being overrun and captured by the Babylonians. Their great city of Jerusalem would be destroyed. But the pictures of Jerusalem's judgment and fall also prefigure the final judgment that is coming for all people. We can and should apply the ideas of why these people were doomed, and what they could have done to avoid it to our own lives.
God has communicated his will to you and me in his word. He has shown us the sad condition sin has caused in our hearts and lives. He has shown us the way to return to him through Christ, and invited each one of us to come. He has taught us how to live our best lives, godly lives that honor him and bless others. He is kind to us because he loves us and wants to bless us. But we, like the Israelites of old, must be willing to receive his word into our hearts and surrender our lives and wills to the Lord.
The most tragic ruin, the greatest loss of all, would be for us to destroy ourselves by refusing his offer of salvation in Christ. That foolish choice will bring a devastation that reaches beyond the consequences and circumstances of this life, out into eternity. This greatest tragedy is entirely preventable, if we will return to God and do as he says.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—February 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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