You gotta feel sorry for poor Jeremiah. He’s only doing what God told him to do. People reject him, ridicule him, try to kill him, etc, etc, etc. And yet he intercedes for the people. He mourns that he was even born. God reassures him. He complains. God chastises him. God tells him not to marry, not to mourn, not to feast. So what does Jeremiah do? Give up??? Hardly!!!

Jer 17:16-18
I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you. Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster. Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction.

Jeremiah doesn’t run away from His calling, even though it is not something he desired to do. His attitude at this point is for God to bring on the people what they deserve.

How is it with us? Do we run away from God’s call because it isn’t to our liking? Do we continue honoring our idols and Asherah poles? Or do we, in the words of my Dad (Patti's), “straighten up and fly right”?

Enough said!

Jeremiah surely lays it out very specifically!

Jer 13:25-27
This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you," declares the LORD, "because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods. I will pull up your skirts over your face that your shame may be seen-- your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution! I have seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you be unclean?"

God is telling the people that He will expose what they are doing. He refers to all the idol worship, Asherah poles and sexual perversion. What does that have to do with us today? Do we participate in idol worship? Do we have Asherah poles? Too often we want to distance ourselves from the God of the Old Testament and dismiss His warnings to be only for the people then. We miss a depth of understanding when we don’t make the application for ourselves today from the Old Testament. Paul gives some definitive words concerning this.

2 Tim 3:16-17
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

It says ALL Scripture. That includes Old Testament as well as New Testament. So back to the question, what does that have to do with us today? We do participate in idol worship. We do this any time we elevate any thing above our worship of God (material possessions, our jobs, our hobbies, sports). We do have Asherah poles. Any time we rationalize any kind of sexual perversion (pornography, adultery, sex before marriage, homosexuality, watching certain movies, reading certain books), we lift up Asherah poles. There are consequences for our actions. We need only look at the results of these activities in the past to see what happens to us now and in the future.

Okay, I guess we’re done for today!

Today’s reading begins with an intriguing image.

Jer 10:3-4
For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
What particular image does that conjure up for you?

An extra-biblical writing The Book of Enoch (father of Methuselah) mentions a similar description to this one in Jeremiah.
Jer 10:13
When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Evidence that God is in control of the weather.

Jer 10:21
The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the LORD; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.

And what might happen to the flock without a shepherd? We (Phil and Patti, mostly Patti) are reading a book entitled They Smell Like Sheep. This book spells out the qualifications for good pastoral leadership. In order for a pastor to be a good shepherd, he must spend some time with the sheep. Here is a quote from the book They Smell Like Sheep, “A shepherd knows each sheep by name; he nurtures the young, bandages the wounded, cares for the weak, and protects them all. A shepherd smells like sheep.” That would be a good shepherd as contrasted with a hired hand.

John 10:12-13
The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

Then contrast this with Jesus, who is the good shepherd.

John 10:14
"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me--
He knows us…do we know Him?

In Jeremiah 12 is a description of shepherds who ruin the vineyard. The leaders were causing a spiritual drought. It was a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord. The seeds of truth were not planted and therefore a crop could not grow. Not much has changed now. We are in many ways experiencing a spiritual drought. But, praise God, there are spiritual leaders out there who are scattering seeds of the knowledge of the Word of God and are nourishing and challenging those who come to hear.

Jeremiah condemns religiosity. People were coming into the temple and saying they were worshiping the Lord but they were doing detestable things in God’s house. Do we misuse the church today? Would a modern day Jeremiah condemn our churches for religiosity or for practicing "churchianity" instead of Christianity?

Jer 7:22-23
For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.

God did not give the people these rituals and symbolic practices of burnt offerings and sacrifices in the beginning of the exodus from Egypt. All they had to do was to obey Him and walk in His commands. They had the Angel of His Presence (the pre-incarnate Jesus). It wasn’t until later that God added all the ritualistic regulations.

Exod 33:14
The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

He was with them for heaven’s sake! All they had to do was to listen and obey Him.
Oops...He is with us too isn’t He? If we are believers, we have His Presence with us always in the form of the Holy Spirit. So, what’s our problem???

Jeremiah again rebukes the spiritual leaders.

Jer 8:11
They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. "Peace, peace," they say, when there is no peace.
The “falling away” from godly teaching started early. It was treated as a “scratch” when it was a “dagger” to the heart.

Jer 9:23-24
This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.

2 Cor 1:12
Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace.

What a boast…to conduct ourselves in holiness and sincerity because we understand and know the Lord!

Jer 5:30-31
"A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way. But what will you do in the end?
Why is it that the people love being told lies?

Oh, guess the answer is found in the following verse.
Jer 6:10
To whom can I speak and give warning? Who will listen to me? Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.

In case we didn’t get it with Jeremiah, Paul adds a few touches.
II Th 2:9-12
The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

Jer 6:13-15
"From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them," says the LORD.

The prophets and priests who lie and rule by their own authority are not ashamed of their conduct. They are so far from God’s Monument of Truth that they don’t even know enough to be ashamed.

So how do we as people of God become familiar with His Monument of Truth? Jeremiah makes it so very clear.

Jer 6:16
This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'

We stand at the crossroads daily. We make choices daily. Back to our first verse for today, "But what will you do in the end?"

Will we take the “road less traveled” and go to the ancient paths, the Monument of Truth?

Jer 3:11
The LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.

2 Tim 2:13
if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
We have an amazingly gracious God. He remains faithful to us - even when we are not faithful to Him!

God reminds us through Jeremiah as He did with Isaiah that our relationship with Him is as a spiritual marriage.

Jer 4:3
This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: "Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.

Unplowed ground is like a hardened heart…not open to hearing and applying the Word of God. We are told to break up this unplowed ground. How can we do that?

He also tells us not to sow among thorns. Later in this same chapter we find this verse.

Jer 4:22b
They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good."

If we sow among thorns, we reap destruction.

Gal 6:8a
The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction;

Skill in doing evil comes from practicing that which is evil. It is called "usage familiarity".

Best advice: Break up our “unplowed ground” and allow God’s Word to take root and grow.

Jer 1:5
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
Proof that God knew us even before we were conceived. Since He is omniscient, He can do that!

Jer 1:9
Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth.

What an image that is! The Lord reaches out to “touch” us. He did that through Jesus!

Jeremiah reminds us of the spiritual marriage relationship.

Jer 2:2
"Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: "'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.

Jer 2:13
"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

How often do we try to do things on our own – at great cost and effort? Our way is substandard at best. God gives freely and His way is so much better.

Jer 2:19b
Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me," declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

God is Holy. We should not worship Him casually!

Ps 29:2
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of his holiness.

Heb 12:28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,

How should it look to worship Him in splendor and with reverence and awe?