Scripture
Whether we like it or not, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey Him, everything will turn out well for us.
~Jeremiah 42:6, NLT
Quote
Nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity.
~Cicero
I admire Jeremiah, he may be my favorite prophet. One thing is for sure, I would never want to trade places with him. Baptist may be difficult to lead at times but he was dealing with pig-headed Jews. The Babylonians had invaded, destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple and had left a tiny remnant of people in the land to take care of the vineyards and such. Jeremiah could have lived a luxurious life in Babylon but he chose to stay in the land with the Jews. Shortly after the Babylonians returned to their own land, a group of trouble makers assassinated the Babylonian appointed governor. This lead to fear and panic on the part of the remaining Jews. They went to Jeremiah and said, “Pray to the LORD and find out what He wants us to do and we will do it. May a curse be on us if we disobey.” Jeremiah prayed and in ten days the LORD gave him a clear answer: “Stay put, do not go to Egypt.” When Jeremiah told them what the LORD said, they said, “You are lying, the LORD did not say not to go to Egypt.” Jeremiah said, “Oh yes He did and He also said, you would be killed by famine and the sword if you go.” Jeremiah went on to say, “You will not obey. I knew you wouldn’t because you never have.”
Long story short: Jeremiah was right, they didn’t obey and they died in Egypt by famine, disease and the sword. The Jews like to play the victim and they are constantly blaming God for their problems but it was their rebellion against Him that caused all the problems. Jeremiah told them, “God is going to make you hated, despised, cursed and reviled and you will never enter this land again.” Jeremiah told them in 44:7, “You are destroying yourselves.” They needed to stop blaming God and others and look at themselves which of course they refused to do. Think about, God gave them the law and they broke it. He gave them the prophets and they persecuted them. He gave them the Messiah and they crucified Him. Yet they refuse to change. They blame God and the world for their problems.
It would be a huge mistake for us to gloat over their self-imposed judgment. These things are recorded in scripture so that we might learn from their mistakes. How are we Gentiles doing on the “Repentance” issue? Are we any better than the Jews? We are not victims, we are rebels. Most of our sorrow, we bring on ourselves. Not all, but much of it could be averted if we would repent and obey.
First, thank you prayer partners: yesterday was a long day for a 17 year old; we drove over 200 miles and much of it in pouring rain and delivered two messages. All went well and we thank you for the prayers. We got home about 8:00 last night and both of us were exhausted. I hope today will be a little easier.
We drove an old stretch of highway yesterday that we have not driven in over 40 years. The church we pastored in Cherokee is only a couple of miles from the Natchez Trace and the Tennessee River. We drove up the Trace and too the Waterloo highway into Florence. The leaves are probably as colorful as they are going to get with the frost coming Sunday night but we didn’t get to see much because of the rain and we are not going to have any time between now and Sunday. I have a sermon to prepare and a Trunk-A-Treat Saturday night.
If the dems don’t win the election it will not be from a lack of money, they are spending millions on political ads.