Jeremiah 16-17 -- A Problem Of The Heart

God told Jeremiah not to get married, not to mourn for the dead, and not to attend feasts.  "Whenever anybody asked Jeremiah why he wasn't married, he had opportunity to show God's message of the coming judgment ... God had removed His peace and comfort from the nation ...The judgment that was coming would be so terrible that the people would be unable to express their grief ... all joy and gladness would flee the land."

"The people were led astray by the false prophets and comfortable in their sins, and their consciences were dead ... They had not learned from the past judgment that God had sent.  This made them even more guilty than their fathers!"

"Jeremiah did give the people a message of hope:  the exiles would one day return to their land."

Finally, Jeremiah named six sins the people were embracing:  Idolatry, unbelief, greed, forsaking the Lord, rejecting God's servant, and profaning the Sabbath.  "He poured out his grief over the sins of the nation, and yet the people only hardened their hearts and stubbornly resisted God's truth."

Father, You tell us over and over that we don't know our own hearts.  Only You do.  Please show me what You know about mine, and cause me to agree with You!  Let the Spirit teach me.

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Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford