Forsaken…

Read: Jeremiah 18-22
Marked: Jeremiah 22:9, “Then they will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.’ ”

God’s patience with His people is at an end. After warning them through Jeremiah and other prophets He is about to prepare destroyers against them (V7).

People struggle with this aspect of God’s character. Like the people then, they will ask, “Why has the Lord done so?” (V8)

Some see in Scripture two Gods. The wrathful vengeful God of the Old Testament, and the merciful gracious God of the New Testament. But He is the same God.

God’s wrath falls on us because we, like them, forsake the covenant of the Lord, and worship other gods and serve them; the gods of self and unrighteousness, injustice and covetousness.

Nothing is Hidden…

Read: Jeremiah 14-17
Marked: Jeremiah 16:17, “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.”

Do we mistakenly believe that God doesn’t see? Or worse, that He doesn’t care? Can we go on doing our own thing and think God is oblivious to our sins?

It’s a grave mistake to think God’s grace causes Him to stay His hand. History contained in Scripture refutes that notion. If God dealt with His people and their sin, He will surely deal with the sin of the world. They are not hidden from His face.

Dismayed at the Signs…

Read: Jeremiah 10-13
Marked: Jeremiah 10:2-3, Thus says the LORD: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples [are] futile; For [one] cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.

The futility of making an idol. An idol is the work of man’s hands and decorated. But as beautiful as man might make it, it is deaf and dumb and cannot move on it’s own. It is neither evil nor good (V5).

In a similar way man looks at creation and determines in his limited knowledge and understanding how these things came to be discounting the Word of God the Creator and making an idol of worthless doctrines changing the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man (Romans 1:23).

But the Lord is the true God, the living God who made the earth by His power and established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens at His discretion.

Lying Words…

Read: Jeremiah 7-9
Marked: Jeremiah 7:8, “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.”

The Bible claims to be the word of truth, yet few people trust in it. Numbers 23:19 says God is not a man that He should lie. It’s been observed that even Christians worship God one day a week and then live for hell the other six.

Paul was slanderously accused of saying that we can do evil that good may come (Romans 3:8). So, shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1). Of course not.

Sin is to be punished and we who are in Christ are dead to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin. We can’t continue to steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods, and then stand before God and worship Him and think His grace will cover it. (V9-10)

If we think we can we have bought into lying words and the truth is not in us.

Washed Hearts…

Read: Jeremiah 4-6
Marked: Jeremiah 4:14, O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, That you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

Like those in Jerusalem, all of us need to have our hearts washed from wickedness. You might say, “But I’m not wicked. I’m a good person.”

But how we look on the outside is no indication of what is going on within. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

It was this way from the beginning. In Genesis 6:5 we read, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

No one really knows what thoughts and intentions and wicked schemes live in the heart of man except the man (1 Corinthians 2:11).  We all need to have our hearts washed.

We all need a new heart to be cleansed from wickedness, wicked thoughts and intentions which are every bit as sinful as the sinful acts we commit. We must come to Jesus to be saved.

The Work of our Hands…

Read: Jeremiah 1-3
Marked: Jeremiah 1:16, I will utter My judgments Against them concerning all their wickedness, Because they have forsaken Me, Burned incense to other gods, And worshiped the works of their own hands.

It is said those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Israel will suffer the judgment of God because of their wickedness, their rejection of God, their idolatry, and worshiping the work of their own hands.

Have we done any less? We have turned away from God. He’s an afterthought, relegated to an ornament worn around the neck. His word and ways are considered myths or stories from the ancient past.

Can we expect less than what we deserve? Will we learn or suffer what Israel suffered for their transgressions?

Unquenchable Fire…

Read: Isaiah 64-66
Marked: Isaiah 66:24, “And they shall go forth and look Upon the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm does not die, And their fire is not quenched. They shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”

Isaiah ends with a sobering thought, the end of those who have transgressed against God and rejected His free offer of eternal life.

The images of eternity without God should strike fear into the hearts of men. Fear is good. It keeps us from danger. It keeps us from hell where “their worm does not die, and their fire is not quenched”.

If there is no hell then there is no heaven. And if no heaven, then no resurrection. But if heaven is eternal then so too are the fires of hell. These things ought to be soberly considered before they are rejected. 

The Hand of God…

Read: Isaiah 59-63
Marked: Isaiah 59:1, Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.

Some believe their sin to be such that God could not, would not, ever forgive them. But John 3:16 reminds us that God loves the world that He gave His only Son that we could have everlasting life. Jesus did not come to condemn but to save.

Apart from rejecting Jesus there is no sin so great that Christ’s blood cannot atone for it. God arm is not so short that He can’t reach you where you are, regardless of the pit you’ve dug.

Neither is His ear heavy that He can’t hear the cry of a truly penitent sinner’s cry for salvation.

Are You And Thirsty?…

Read Isaiah 54-58
Marked: Isaiah 55:1, “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price.

What a great invitation. It goes out to everyone. But not everyone is thirsty. Not everyone hungry. The wealthy of this world do not feel their need as keenly as those who have nothing.

In John 7:37 Jesus called out to the crowds and said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” Many heard, few listened.

Out of Our Hand…

Read: Isaiah 49-53
Marked: Isaiah 51:22, Thus says your Lord, The LORD and your God, [Who] pleads the cause of His people: “See, I have taken out of your hand The cup of trembling, The dregs of the cup of My fury; You shall no longer drink it.

When Jesus prayed in the garden, knowing He was about to drink from the cup of affliction, the cup of God’s wrath, He asked if there could be any other way (Luke 22:42). But there wasn’t. This was the time for which He had come.

God has taken the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, out of our hands and given it to Christ  who said, “Not My will, but Yours be done.” It’s a powerful image and testimony to the love Christ has for us.

Though we like sheep have gone astray, and have turned to our own way, God laid on Jesus the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).

The affliction that is rightfully ours was poured into the cup from which Jesus drank that He could justify many and bear their iniquities (Isaiah 53:11).