Vain shouts of assurance

Jeremiah chapter seven should be one of the most haunting passages in Scripture for our world today. The description of apostate Israel has chilling similarities to Christianity in America as we know it. Let me just put the passage in here, and then I'll write some comments.

Jeremiah 7:1-15 (ESV)
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand in the gate of the Lord's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’

5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.

I know this is a relatively long passage, but please take the time to read it carefully. Essentially what is happening in Israel, is that the Israelites are going into the Temple, offering sacrifices, calling for God's deliverance (because hey, it's his Temple, he has to save them!) and then leaving to live lives completely away from God.

God despises this. He wants to make it clear that his deliverance and blessing is not something they are entitled too, simply because they go through the motions of sacrifice. He wants his people to love him, not use him like some genie in the sky.

Going even further, Israel was worshiping Baal outside the Temple!

Israel was trying to buy God's deliverance from Assyria with exterior worship, while their hearts ran after idols.

How many Christians in our society today "pray the prayer" to escape hell, and run after every other god our society offers? Or even still, how many merely go through the motions of Christianity, yet lack any zeal and passion for God?

While the Israelites of old yelled, "the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD", insisting that God now must save them, how many Christians yell, "Grace, grace, grace", and commit the same sin as Israel.

I don't say this to detract from God's grace, for we are only saved by grace through faith plus nothing. However, that is not to be taken as some lucky charm, or an excuse to live however we want. Romans 6:1-2 has something to say about this:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

By no means. God wants the people bearing his name to be sold out for him. I fear that we become too content with our lives, and allow ourselves to sit in church, sing the hymns, and follow other gods Monday through Saturday. Israel forgot how to live out the Shema, and I fear so have we.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

The Sky is Pretty Big

Have you ever just looked up into the night sky and been lost in the glory of God? David did. He wrote about it, too.

Psalm 19:1 (ESV)
"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork."

This seems to be the first passage that pops into our head, and the first response we have to this beautiful act of creation. Without taking away from this (I hope I'm adding to it's depth), I would like to bring one other piece of Scripture to mind. During my time in the Word two days ago, this verse jumped out at me.

Jeremiah 31:37 (ESV)
"Thus says the LORD: 'If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done', declares the LORD."

This is one of the most amazing statements about God's mercy. Essentially, God is saying that he will NEVER cast away his people for what they have done. His love is as broad and endless as the night sky. That doesn't negate the consequence for not glorifying him, however, because this was written not long before the Babylonian captivity. This does, though, give us a tiny glimpse of how much God really loves us.

As I was pondering this thought, I asked myself a question: did God HAVE to make the sky that big and endless? Probably not. He could have sustained life on this planet without making all those other ones. Yet, I think the fact that he DID make the universe that big, tells us something about who he is. It tells us that he wants to be glorified, and it tells us how much he loves us. Yeah, God loves his people THAT much. It's beyond our ability to comprehend, and it should be.

One of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those days where you are completely overwhelmed by your own sinfulness? Days when you realize how far you fall short of God’s perfect standard? Inevitably, those are also the days when we see just how perfect God really is. Isaiah 6 is often a chapter I go to on days like this one.

Isaiah 6:1-5 (ESV)
¹ In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
² Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
³ And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

If we had even the slightest idea of how big, powerful, and glorious our God really is, we would react just like Isaiah. Woe is me! I am lost. We don’t even begin to get close. Yet, there is hope.

Here is another passage that is dear to me, especially on days like today.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (ESV)
²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

²⁹ so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

³⁰ And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

³¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

This is such an encouraging passage. See, it’s not what we are that matters – it’s what God will make us that matters. It is all about Jesus Christ. He becomes our wisdom from God, our righteousness and sanctification, and our redemption. It’s not about me: it’s all about Him. It’s not my righteousness that will allow me into the presence of the shekinah glory, it is only the perfect righteousness of Jesus the Moshiach.

With a God that amazing, what is keeping us from displaying Him to the world?