Jeremiah 5 Devotional
by Pastor Mark Hudson
It might seem reasonable that if a person leaves God and no longer follows His ways, that person would make a clean break with anything to do with God. This is rarely what happens. What generally happens is syncretism or a blending of two different things together. Now if you are musician, an artist, or a chief, this can produce positive and creative songs, paintings, or food. But you cannot combine the holy ways of God with the world. As v. 2 says about God’s people in times of decline, “Though they say, “As the LORD lives,” yet they swear falsely.” No clean break here but a mixture. This is why we have to be constantly vigilant over our hearts. They are prone to leave God but keep the outward pretenses of living a godly life. This is also why vetting for membership and church officers is necessary.
In the book of Jeremiah you will get weary of God’s warnings. This book is full of warnings. But the warnings were to no avail. You will be amazed at how God’s people respond to these warnings. It will be baffling to you. Both the poor and the well-to-do were unrighteous v. 3-5. They are “well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for his neighbor’s wife.” V. 8. Doesn’t that sound like our movies, tv shows, and popular music? Maybe that sounds like your own heart.
Yet God promises judgment, “Shall I not punish them for these things?” v. 9. Jeremiah even quotes the people’s words, “They have spoken falsely of the Lord and have said, `He will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine’.” v. 12.
Have you ever heard someone ask if they should fear God? I have always found that a curious question. I suppose people can ask multiple questions in that one question. But look at v 22, “Do you not fear me? declares the LORD. Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail; though they roar, they cannot pass over it.” Then in v. 24, “They do not say in their hearts, “Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.”
Of course we should fear God! Jesus said, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.
5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! (Luke 12:4-5 ESV). We need to foster fear of God. We also should recognize that as soon as we no longer fear God, sin enters in. Fear of God promotes humility and refuse to view sin as small and insignificant. Fear of God is good and healthy. One should fear swimming in the ocean, driving on the expressway, running a chainsaw, or cooking on a hot stove. While we should not be trembling in fear unable to move, we must have a respect for the danger inherent in activities and act accordingly. That is just wisdom. Oh, how much more with God! We ought never to be casual with God and take God for granted.
Look at the description of the people of God, “27 . . . their houses are full of deceit; therefore they have become great and rich; 28 they have grown fat and sleek. They know no bounds in deeds of evil; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. 29 Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?”
This is how God looks at His people. Let these words sink in – houses full of deceit, they know no bounds in deeds of evil, they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless and do not defend the rights of the needy. Can you not see this in our culture? How sad that God’s people can be this way. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened in our country if white people would have welcomed people from other countries. Some of you understand the names, the taunts, the comments about your country of origin. How sad we have not defended the poor.
If you look at v. 29, you see how personal God takes sin. He seem to be asking, How can I not judge these people after all they have done to me and against Me? If I do not judge them I will do injustice to Myself. Their sin demands my wrathful response. I must judge because their rebellion demands My wrath.
Once again, we circle back to the cross. Jesus Christ took my deserved wrath. He took the full brunt of God’s wrath. God held nothing back. That wrath was deserved . . . on my head. Yet Christ took it all for me.