Jeremiah continually warned the wayward people of God that they needed to mend their ways, repent and turn to God in order to continue the blessings that would perpetuate their nation. After all of the warnings from Jeremiah and the other prophets, the people were eventually overcome by their adversaries as God had warned and promised. Looking at the scriptures from the comfort of a different world we might ask ourselves why these people chose to ignore the warnings, especially after they had seen things coming to pass. Jeremiah sheds some light on this and these statements are valid today for us as well. In the book of Jeremiah there are warnings and descriptions of a way of thinking that we need to watch out for.
One of the reasons why the people did not change is that they had hardened themselves against God. They were no longer grateful for his blessings. Jeremiah indicates that they had reached a place in their thinking where they no longer saw God as blessing them. Their love for God had grown cold and their indifference was extreme. Jeremiah states, "O LORD, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than a rock; they have refused to return." (Jer 5.3). In their own eyes they had not done anything wrong and questioned the negative consequences that God had sent upon them as being unjustified. God told Jeremiah that the people would ask, "Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity?" (Jer 16.10). There is a fear in the world of being told that we are doing something wrong. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden, they hid themselves to attempt to hide their guilt and shame (Gen 3.xx). Today there is another approach. We can just turn away and not listen to the word of God. We can pursue alternative religions and alternative philosophies in an effort to explain life. In this pursuit we will probably find something that makes us feel very good about who and what we are, regardless of what God has to say about anything.
The apostle Paul warned about this very attitude in his writing to Timothy. "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." (2 Tim 4.3-4). The word of God will not condone every thing that humans want to do. There are things that are in opposition to God that may appear to be healthy and wholesome from a worldly perspective, but that is exactly what it is. A worldly perspective. Paul states, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
"For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Cor 6.19-20). In relation to this we are reminded of what Christ stated to his disciples. "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." (Matt 10.38). It is possible that we may be confronted with choices in life of having to do without some things, or, enduring other things, in order to be pleasing to God. Christ endured all things for us in order to make salvation possible and it is no less the responsibility of mankind to live in accordance with that example.
Another reason for their refusal to listen to the prophets and repent is that they did not appreciate the lessons in the negative consequences. Hundreds of years earlier, Moses told the people that if they would be faithful to God they would be blessed by him and have need of nothing. Their sins would unfortunately require God to impose these negative sanctions, or punishments on them, for disobedience. When these things happened they did not take notice of what they were doing spiritually. Instead they blamed God and hated the prophets for their plight. The writer of Hebrews states of God's word, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." (Heb 4.12). The word that the prophets spoke was hard to listen to because it instilled a sense of guilt in the Hebrews. Rather than accept this fact and mend their ways they continued in their digression away from God. God told them, even at this late date in their history, "For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever." (Jer 7.5-7). They of course did not listen to this and their nation was taken as a result. Today the message is similar. There will come a judgment and those who are unprepared will be condemned eternally. A question to ask is this: is it better to suffer the momentary shame of the admission of guilt now and correct it, or will we continue to create the illusion that there is nothing wrong for the sake of feeling better, only to be condemned eternally. We can see the result of the decision that the Israelites made. What will we do? Will we change?
TLC