Several Israeli men came to Jeremiah and said, “Please pray to the LORD YOUR GOD for us. Pray that the LORD YOUR GOD will show us WHAT TO DO and WHERE TO GO…they said, “May the LORD YOUR GOD be a faithful witness against us if we refuse to obey whatever He tells us to do! Whether WE LIKE IT OR NOT, WE WILL OBEY the LORD OUR GOD to whom we are sending you with our plea. For if we obey Him, everything WILL TURN OUT WELL FOR US.” (Jer. 42:2-3, 5-6)
When they came to Jeremiah they said the Lord YOUR God, they requested for God to show them what to do and where to go and said weather we like it or not WE WILL OBEY and they said the Lord OUR God What a wonderful attitude! That is the attitude WE ALL NEED TO HAVE with respect to being obedient to God. BUT, did they really mean it? Just a little while latter they said, “We WILL NOT listen to your messages from the LORD! We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven just as much as we like…” (Jer. 44:16-17)
Listen to the consequences of disobedience, “Do you think the LORD did not know that you were burning incense to idols? It was because the LORD could no longer bear all the DISGUSTING THINGS you were doing that He made your land an OBJECT OF CURSING—a DESOLATE RUIN without inhabitants—as it is today.” (Jer. 44:21-22) Israel has been many things throughout time, but as Mark Twain wrote of it in 1867, “Of all the lands there are for miserable scenery, I think Palestine [Israel] must be the prince…” Israel was a bleak, barren, undeveloped land – for over 2000 years. God describes how the land would appear just before the Jewish People would return forever in May of 1948. Today Jewish people from all over the world continue to return to Israel, where cities that were once destroyed by their enemies have been REBUILT and where the soil is BURSTING WITH FRUIT, TREES AND FLOWERS, just as the prophet Ezekiel had foretold.
I’m sharing this to let us know that GOD IS FAITHFUL to REDEEM US and TAKE CARE OF US, no matter what we may have done or what we may be doing. “God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (Rom. 5:8)
-Bill Stockham