February 10, Jeremiah 9
”But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD." - Jeremiah 9:23-24
I'm sure you've probably heard people say, "It's not what you know, but who you know." You've heard it when the boss hired a friend who was not really qualified for the position. The new employee got the job because he or she knew the boss, not because of their skill, knowledge or experience. Maybe you've heard it about some contest or award winner who won the competition not on their merit or through a fair selection process, but because they knew the judges.
Jeremiah's heart was broken. He wished that he had more tears to cry for the destruction and captivity that was coming soon to his people. Their fertile land would be laid waste. Their cities would be reduced to heaps of rubble. The people would be slaughtered, even children and young men in such numbers that their unburied corpses would lie on the ground like animal waste. The Chaldeans would take the rest of the people away into captivity. God would scatter among the nations these people he had called to be his holy nation, just as he warned them he would do if they broke his covenant with them.
Why was this terrible fate coming upon them? God explained it: "Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it." Judah had become a nation of hardened, unrepentant sinners, indistinguishable from their pagan neighbors. They had become a society of adulterers, oppressors and deceivers. Their words were weapons. Their actions were cruel. They poured all their energy into doing wrong, heaping up sins upon sins.
How did this happen? Why were these once chosen people living like they did? God answered, "They do not know me. They refuse to know me." They had become just like the nations around them. They were just as guilty, but even more accountable, because they had the Law of God. They had enjoyed God's special favor. The prophets had warned them repeatedly. God had been merciful and patient. But their time ran out. God was about to punish them severely for their sin.
Israel and what was left of it in Judah lost their blessings and God's favor because they rejected the knowledge of God. They chose to value and boast in the same things the world around them valued-- their "wisdom," their "might" and their "riches." The LORD told them the only thing worth boasting about was understanding and knowing him. They forsook the priceless treasure of their favored relationship with him to follow the Canaanites' fertility gods. In doing so, they destroyed themselves.
The males of Israel were circumcised as an outward mark in their flesh of their covenant with God. But God told them that they were just as uncircumcised as the pagans around them, because their hearts weren't circumcised. They were outwardly marked and racially Abraham's descendants. But their hearts were no different from the ungodly nations around them, and God was going to let them go. He would save a remnant out of them to keep his covenant promises to Abraham. But the nation lost its favored status by sinning over and over again against the God who had been so good to them.
Jeremiah asked, "Who is the man so wise that he can understand this?" I pray that you and I will be wise enough to learn from Israel's tragic example the importance of knowing and obeying God.
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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