“Plow up the hard ground of your heart” says the Lord through Jeremiah. His words are good advice for us today.Read Jeremiah 4-6 here
Disaster is coming! In my minds eye I see the half crazed, bearded and barefoot man carrying a sign that says “the world is going to end”. Ironically, in this case that was true. The Lord says in today’s reading that “the lion has left it’s lair”, which means that the Assyrian army is already underway. And the people of Jerusalem respond by saying “who cares, they won’t come here, and they could never get inside these walls anyway”.
Sin instills within us a false sense of security, doesn’t it? The further we get from God the more danger we are in, and yet, the less we feel we need Him. This process is called the “hardening of the heart”. When our heart is “fully hardened” we can look disaster right in the eye and still not believe that it is happening. We can see others fall because of their sinful lifestyle, and even though we have the same lifestyle we say “it will never happen to me”. It’s sad. And it’s infuriating. The disastrous effects of cocaine are known by all. Most of us know people who lost their homes, fortunes, jobs and their self respect in search of another high. We all know that cocaine can addict you from the very first high, so you would think that once people know this, and have so many examples of it’s affects around them that they would never use it.
Of course, the exact opposite is true. Chalk it up to the “hardening of the heart”, it prevents people from seeing the mess that they are really in. I think it’s kind of like a person who lives with too many animals inside the house. The smell to an outsider is overpowering…nauseating, really. But the person who lives there doesn’t even notice it. In that case we could call it “hardening of the nose”. Same thing.
4:10. Jeremiah has heard God promise peace, but he apparently didn’t understand that would be in the distant future.
4:23-24. In Genesis the same type of language was used. I wonder if when God says in Genesis “the earth was formless and void, and there was no light” He’s saying that it was a bare rock with nothing growing on it? Or did God speak the whole “giant blue marble” into existence at that time?
4:30-31. The people are so deceived that they think they can charm their way out of this danger. This is because of the condition of their hearts, as seen in Chapter 5. The Lord comments that you couldn’t even find one righteous person in the whole city. I suspect this is hyperbole, because there were righteous people who were taken into captivity….then again this is written years in advance of that. Maybe a few righteous people sprang up after this. Either way, it doesn’t matter…God has decreed punishment and said that He will not change His mind.
Their leaders are corrupt, their priests are corrupt, the prophets tell lies. And as verse 31 of Chapter 5 points out: the people prefer it that way.
It almost seems too ridiculous to believe, but take a look around today. False teachers are telling the people that hell doesn’t exist, that that homesexuality is permissible. I’m sure there are dozens of other discrepancies as well, but I mention these two as an example. Our national leaders here in the U.S. are constantly spreading half truths, and outright lies about each other, and it’s not even news anymore when they are caught in some scandal…that’s how bad the system has become. Few of the average workers still believe that you can find justice within the system. Whoever has the most money is the one who tips the scale in their favor, either with powerful lawyers or bribes. Again, I believe the U.S. is a great nation…and I share this only to remind us that we are guilty of the exact same things that are being mentioned here.
Sex slavery, drug peddling and use, corruption, abuse of aliens, children and the elderly, denial of treatment for poor..the list goes on and on. And yet many would say today “destruction will never come to our shores” And they would say “the people who are always saying that God is watching and will punish those who don’t serve him faithfully are nothing more than windbags”. (Check verse 5:13).
Here’s what I am saying: We know what happened to Judah. Judah should have known what happens to people who rebel from watching it happen to Israel north. Let’s not make the same mistake they did. Let’s pray that God gives us hearts that are fertile ground. Only God can plow up the hardened heart and make it suitable soil for Christian growth. And that process begins with a humble confession that we have sinned.
You may ask “how can a hardened heart be humble enough to ask for help?” Good question. That’s the one thing the Holy Spirit will do before we confess. Think of it like this: if you are in a room that is completely dark and have no way of finding a door, the Holy Spirit cracks the door just enough to show you that you are in the dark, and there is light on the other side. You still have to open it and walk out into the light, but He makes it possible. That’s called “prevenient grace” the benefit of God’s favor before you accept Him. That is available to everyone…so if you realize that you aren’t right with God even as you read this, then you are experiencing prevenient grace. Do something with it.
At the beginning of Chapter 6 we hear how much God loves His people, yet He is willing to destroy them if they don’t repent. Remember that the next time someone tells you a loving God couldn’t create a place like hell.
One of my favorite verses is 6:16 (except for the last line!). I learned it in the NIV “find the old way and walk in it”. I’m not a fan of leaving things the way they were just because “it’s always been that way”. But there are times when we make changes that don’t work, and we need to go back to what worked before. Not everything new is better, just like everything old isn’t.
In our case, true religion is a personal walk with God and genuine obedience must include (but not be limited to) caring for others. I don’t think we need to go back to offering blood sacrifices, God took care of that. The “old way” that we need is the humble heart, the genuine desire to grow, learn, share and teach others. It is the wise confession and true belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and that one day He will return to take His people with Him to heaven. It is the belief that all men will be judged on the “last day”, and living so that when that day comes, we will be ushered into paradise.
Faithfully,
PR