The world’s people have seen much unrest and war over the centuries. Prophets of old have warned and pleaded with people to trust Him, demonstrating that trust by their obedience. Unfortunately, all people do not follow the God of the Bible. They choose their own way, leading to much unrest and conflict. The peace is taken away. What to do in times of trouble?
“The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying….
And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.” Jeremiah 16:1 and 10-13.
Hearing God’s judgment from the prophet Jeremiah in these verses must have been rather frightening. I am reminded that judgment always comes as a surprise. God lets us go our own ways for a time, and then He acts. The verses above reveal the surprise the people felt when they discovered that while the LORD is righteous and longsuffering, He does act upon evil. He is longsuffering, tolerating sin for a time. He calls us to repentance over our disobedience, but then He must deal with our sin when we reject Him. A righteous God cannot tolerate sin in His people.
What was their grievous sin?
Jeremiah 16:11-13 explains:
“Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour. “
Judgment has come. Was it fair? God had rescued the Hebrew nation, His chosen people, from enslavement by the Egyptians. He established them in their own land and blessed them. They should have been satisfied. This pronouncement from God via Jeremiah was the last straw. God’s patience had worn thin. They had been warned…
Jeremiah writes in chapter 11:8, “Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.”
Like most of us, the Hebrew people soon forgot their previous circumstance, in their case, of life in captivity. Once they were delivered, they went back to their old ways, unfazed by God’s deliverance. How does this happen? How could they so soon forget what God had done?
It’s a choice. The people of Judah rejected God by rejecting His Words, choosing to serve other Gods (Jeremiah 11:10). They worshipped false gods, meaning they practiced wickedness in their worship as did the heathen. They made a conscious decision to disobey, not really believing God would act upon it. They didn’t believe God. They thought His love would cause Him to overlook their sin.
It should be no surprise to us in our time. We do the same thing. When we have struggles we cry out to our Lord for help, praying earnestly for a change in our circumstance. Praying continuously, until we receive some sign that He has heard and is acting in our behalf. We are not too much different from the Hebrews in Jeremiah’s time. When the pain stops, we go back to our old ways, often forgetting where they landed us.
People love a good cause, something to fight for. We love to stand up and be counted when there’s a conflict. It’s in our nature, but is our cause a just cause? We must ask ourselves what does God think about it? Does His Word support our view? If it doesn’t, then we can’t support it.
Difficult times have happened in the past. We can check the history books to determine how the people of those times handled unrest. It starts with a small thing, then grows and grows into an uncontrollable situation. Jeremiah uses the term “brutish” (Jer.10:14). Brutish means irrational and unreasonable according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. What should the Hebrews have done when people began to disobey God?
Jeremiah had a revealing thought he shares with the LORD in Jeremiah 10:23-24:
“O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. “
Jeremiah was a wise man. He sought the Lord, begging for correction. He realized that people tend to go along like sheep. Oftentimes, it’s easier to go with the crowd, rather than stand out and do what goes against the crowd because it’s the right way.
When the world is going crazy, sometimes it’s easy to think it’s us. Maybe we’re the ones who aren’t getting it. With so many supporting this or that, maybe we should be supportive too. It isn’t. We are not to be like the ungodly. We are not to dishonor or deny our Lord.
Jeremiah goes on to say in 10:25:
“Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.”
This is an astonishing prayer! We are so conditioned to seek a peaceful solution to our problems and to seek peace at just about any cost. Here Jeremiah is calling for God to mete out drastic measures. Jeremiah realized that only God could stop the wickedness. Here’s how God responded to Jeremiah in chapter 11:1-6:
“The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jersusalem; And say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God: That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O LORD. Then the LORD said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.”
So what’s the key? OBEY GOD. God’s Word tells us exactly how we are to behave and what we are to support. We can TRUST GOD because He knows what is righteous and true. That is because He is righteous. Since He is righteous, it stands to reason His judgments are righteous. The Bible confirms this over and over. John tells us in 1 John 2:1-6:
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”
STRENGTH FOR TODAY – Author Unknown
Strength for to-day is all that we need,
As there never will be a to-morrow;
For tomorrow will prove but another today,
With its measure of joy and sorrow.
Then why forecast the trials of life
With much sad and grave persistence,
And wait and watch for a crowd of ills
That as yet have no existence?
Strength for to-day, what a precious boon
For earnest souls who labor!
For the willing hands that minister
To the needy friend or neighbor!
Strength for to-day, that the weary hearts
In the battle of right may quail not,
And the eyes be dimmed by bitter tears,
In their search for light may fail not.
Strength for to-day on the down-hill track
For the travelers near the valley,
That up, far up, on the upper side,
Ere long they may safely rally.
Strength for to-day, that our precious youth
May happily shun temptation,
And build from the rise to the set of the sun
On a strong and sure foundation.
Strength for to-day, in house and home,
To practice forbearance sweetly;
To scatter kind words and loving deeds,
Still trusting in God completely.
Strength for to-day is all that we need,
As there never will be a to-morrow;
For tomorrow will prove but another to-day,
With its measure of joy and sorrow.
