Jeremiah 9
God has given us the capacity to weep. Some people do so regularly. Others have not been able to weep for decades. It does not necessarily mean that the former are exceptionally sympathetic, and that the latter are especially hard-hearted. God knows our hearts, and He is aware even of our potential for insincerity in tears. He is always true in all that He does, and in this chapter not only is the prophet Jeremiah truly distressed because of the condition of the people, but also God Himself appears to have true grief concerning these matters
Why is God mourning? His people have succumbed to the worst moral failures. They ought to have been holy and righteous as imitators of the Lord, but they were adulterous and treacherous. In particular the prophet very forcefully exposes their lying ways. They are deceivers and liars who keep on adding to their iniquity, moving from oppression to even more oppression, and from deceit to more deceit.
God is so different from this. In Him there is no shadow of turning. The devil is the father of lies, but the Lord is the author of truth. When Christ came He served His Father as the Word of truth incarnate. Truth is most wonderfully tested in times of suffering. The liar can flourish in an environment of ease. It is the martyr who has the most eloquent testimony to the truth that is worth dying for. Christ was largely silent before His accusers, but His willingness to die on the cross still speaks volumes of truth, more than all the books in the world could hold.
God must respond with correction when those who are called by His name have given themselves over to lies. He says “I will refine them and test them.” “What else can I do?” To ignore the deceits of His people forever would be an affront to the character of God. This simply cannot be. Action must be taken. Those who have the honor of reflecting the holy purity of God must never give themselves over to demonic ways.
The specific way of deceit exposed among the people of God is hypocrisy, particularly among the religious leaders that are called to speak about the danger of the nation in rejecting the word and warning of God. They should be regularly sounding the alarm. Instead they continually forecast fair weather, saying that God will give peace to His rebellious children. The people themselves speak words of peace to their neighbors, but then set up traps for their own gain.
God must punish this. Consider how many lies were covered through the cross of Christ. Consider the discipline of God’s providence which corrects us if we will seek the Lord’s good way in the midst of trial. The hard of heart will have nothing of this discipline. They have forsaken the law of God. They seem to hate the Lord, and do not want to be reminded of His Word. They prefer idols who have no real word of correction. They will be thrust out of the land by God, for the land belongs to those who will humble themselves before God’s Word.
This is a very sad state of affairs with disastrous consequences. The land will be desolate. This is a curse in biblical times, and not the result of efforts to preserve open space. A land given over to wild animals is not the goal of a fruitful nation. The land has been cleared of so many people because the Lord has sent them into exile. This is not a happy situation, but a very bitter food and a poisonous drink. There should be loud mourning, since so many will die. The brazen rebellion and sin of God’s people leads to the most heart-breaking loss of life. Death will touch so many families.
How have the people of God gone so far astray? When we will not listen to the Lord who redeems us, we will foolishly trust in something less than Him. We will be impressed with our own wisdom, might, and riches, such as they are. These things are very elusive. Far better than these things is to know the Lord, and to know what the Lord loves – things like steadfast love and righteousness. These are things that God delights in.
The Lord wept over sin and death. He looked over
Christ does grieve about our sin and misery, but He does more than cry. Through the cross He has defeated sin and death for us. He has taken away our guilt, and He has also changed our hearts. By His Spirit we have been marked as His, and granted an openness and willingness to hear His voice in the Word and to follow. The One who obeyed the Law so perfectly for us will not be left in tears forever. His victory will more than remove His own grief, for He will wipe away every tear from the eyes of His children who have been granted new hearts and lives by His Spirit.
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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