Jeremiah 7-9
*Click here to read this passage:
These are some pretty tough chapters on
sin and God’s punishment.
Sometimes when I read the Bible I hear something from God or learn
something right away. Then
there are times I have to kind of sit on a scripture for a bit … let it sink
in, think on it throughout the day, pray for God’s revelation for what He wants
me to gain from it. What does it
mean? What does it say about who
God is? What does God want to show
me about my life?
As I was doing this for these chapters
over the weekend I was once again thinking about the state of sin the
Israelites were in and about the balance of God being both a God of justice and
a God of mercy. I read from The
Message translation, and I admit, had a hard time at first with these words
from chapter 8: “There’s no hope for them. They’ve hit bottom and there’s no getting up. As far as I’m concerned, they’re
finished.” I struggled with that
because I know people who have lived a life full of sin, hit rock bottom,
turned to God, and He set them free!
There is always hope in turning to God.
The problem was God knew they were not
going to turn to Him. He was
giving them chance after chance.
He continued to send His prophets to warn them knowing they weren’t
going to listen. He said, “They
cling to deceit; they refuse to return … Each pursues his own course like a
horse charging into battle” (8:5,6).
It also says that God listened carefully and looked to try to find even
one person “who deals honestly and seeks the truth” (5:1). But found nothing.
As I was thinking about all this I came
across something on Twitter that kind of summed up everything I think God was
trying to show me from these chapters.
Ray Hollenbach, an author/teacher/preacher I have great respect for,
quoted Psalm 66:18: “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not
have listened…” Then he went on to
say this: “There’s a huge difference between stumbling and embracing. The Lord rescues the captive—including
we who are captive to sin. But
should we expect him to rescue us when we have chosen to embrace sin?”
I also appreciated this image that Ray
gave as well - that God hates sin the way a parent hates cancer.
*By
the way, Ray Hollenbach is the author of The Impossible Mentor as well
as the blog StudentsofJesus.com , both of which I highly recommend!*
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