TEXTS AND APPLICATION: Sometimes the best thing you can do is just hear the Word of God — and today is one of those days. Read Jeremiah’s descriptions of the people of Judah, a people who were still entering “through these gates” of the Temple “to worship the Lord” (Jer. 7:2). They were still going through the motions of religion, but listen to these stinging — and alarmingly contemporary — words:
Jer. 7:9-10 “Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known? Then do you come and stand before Me in this house called by My name and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts’?”
Jer. 7:13b “I have spoken to you time and time again but you wouldn’t listen, and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer . . .”
Jer. 7:23-26 “Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward. . . . they wouldn’t listen to Me or pay attention but became obstinate.”
Jer. 8:6 “No one regrets his evil, asking, ‘What have I done?’”
Jer. 8:12a “Were they ashamed when they acted so abhorrently? They weren’t at all ashamed. They can no longer feel humiliation.”
Jer. 9:5b “ . . . they wear themselves out doing wrong.”
What more can be said here? The pictures are far too relevant not to cause us alarm. In contrast, hear the Lord’s description of what His people ought to be:
Jer. 9:23-24 “The wise man must not boast in his wisdom; the strong man must not boast in his strength; the wealthy man must not boast in his wealth. But the one who boasts should boast in this, that he understands and knows Me—that I am Yahweh, showing faithful love, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things.”
PRAYER: “God, make me listen to You . . . and regret my sin . . . and grow weary of my wrong . . . and boast only in knowing You . . . and bring You delight. Especially on this Lord’s day, let me find no confidence in my religious activity alone.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Jeremiah 10-13
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