Jeremiah 2 -- Oh, What Words!

“The people who know the teachings didn’t know Me.  The leaders turned against Me,” God said in verse 8.  These are such sad and telling words in this chapter, and they should break the heart of a Christian when they are found to be true:

“Remember how faithful you were to Me? … You loved Me … You followed Me … I brought you into a fertile land … but you came and made my land unclean.”

Water was such an essential commodity in that part of the world, and finding a spring was an incredible blessing.  Having to drink stagnant, muddy water was often a necessity to survive.  God tells His people that they have turned away from Him – “The spring of living water” – “and dug their own wells (made their own idols) which are broken wells that cannot hold water.”

“You brought this on yourselves by turning away from the Lord your God when He was leading you in the right way.”  “It did not help to … and drink from ..” other gods.  They thought it would.  In these verses, drinking water means worshipping.  “You refused to obey Me … You broke the ropes I used to hold you and said, ‘I will not serve You.’”

“’I planted you as a special vine, as a VERY GOOD SEED.  How then did you turn into a wild one that grows bad fruit?  Although you wash yourself with cleanser and use much soap, I can still see the stain of your guilt,’ says the Lord God.  ‘How can you say to Me, ‘I am not guilty?’ … Think about what you have done … But you say, ‘It’s no use!  I love those other gods and I must chase them!”  It’s like a drug addiction that they cannot shake.

God punished in order to cause repentance, but it never happened.  He said, “Why do My people say, ‘We are free to wander.  We won’t come to you anymore?’ … You really know how to chase after love … You do all those things but you say, ‘I an innocent.  God is not angry with me.’  But I will judge you guilty of lying, because you say, ‘I HAVE NOT sinned.’”

Father, I hate it when I find myself beginning to resemble what You describe here – when I begin to feel entitled to sin just a little.  When I know Your teachings but start to lose my love for You.  When I trade the pure living water You offer for the nasty spiritual water of the world.  When I refuse to obey and even cast off the yoke You’ve so gently placed on me to lead me.  It’s amazing to hear You call me a special vine – a very good seed, and yet later find myself to have produced bad fruit because of sin in my life.  To discover that I’ve let sin become like an addiction to me that I love more than even You at times!  Sinful hearts become stubborn hearts if we don’t come to You for cleansing.  But I’m so glad Jesus specializes in hopeless cases like all of us.  The words I read in my commentary are equally true:  “Any decisions that we make that are contrary to God’s plan will lead to bondage, because only the truth can set us free.”

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford