In The Word
Read: Jeremiah 8:4-9:22
4 “You shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says:
“Do people fall and not get up?
Does one turn away and not repent?
5 Why has this people, Jerusalem,
Turned away in continual apostasy?
They hold on to deceit,
They refuse to return.
6 I have listened and heard,
They have spoken what is not right;
No one repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his own course,
Like a horse charging into the battle.
7 Even the stork in the sky
Knows her seasons;
And the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane
Keep to the time of their migration;
But My people do not know
The judgment of the Lord.
8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
And the Law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
Has made it into a lie.
9 The wise men are put to shame,
They are dismayed and caught;
Behold, they have rejected the word of theLord,
So what kind of wisdom do they have?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others,
Their fields to new owners;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is greedy for gain;
From the prophet even to the priest,
Everyone practices deceit.
11 They have healed the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done?
They were not ashamed at all,
And they did not know how to be ashamed;
Therefore they will fall among those who fall;
At the time of their punishment they will collapse,”
Says the Lord.
13 “I will certainly snatch them away,” declares theLord.
“There will be no grapes on the vine
And no figs on the fig tree,
And the leaf will wither;
And what I have given them will pass away.”’”
14 Why are we sitting still?
Assemble yourselves, and let’s go into the fortified cities
And perish there,
For the Lord our God has doomed us
And given us poisoned water to drink,
Because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We waited for peace, but no good came;
For a time of healing, but behold, terror!
16 From Dan there is heard the snorting of his horses;
At the sound of the neighing of his stallions
The whole land quakes;
For they come and devour the land and its fullness,
The city and its inhabitants.
17 “For behold, I am sending serpents among you,
Vipers for which there is no charm;
And they will bite you,” declares the Lord.
18 My sorrow is beyond healing,
My heart is faint within me!
19 Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”
“Why have they provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign idols?”
20 “Harvest is past, summer is over,
And we are not saved.”
21 I am broken over the brokenness of the daughter of my people.
I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?
Grief over Zion
9 Oh, that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For those slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh that I had in the desert
A travelers’ lodging place;
So that I might leave my people
And go away from them!
For all of them are adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous people.
3 “They bend their tongues like their bows;
Lies and not truth prevail in the land;
For they proceed from evil to evil,
And they do not know Me,” declares the Lord.
4 “Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
Because every brother utterly betrays,
And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
5 Everyone deceives his neighbor
And does not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves committing wrongdoing.
6 Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the Lord.
7 Therefore this is what the Lord of armies says:
“Behold, I will refine them and put them to the test;
For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
It speaks deceit;
With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor,
But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord.
“Shall I not avenge Myself
On a nation such as this?
10 “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And for the pastures of the wilderness a song of mourning,
Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
And the sound of the livestock is not heard;
Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.
11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
A haunt of jackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”
12 Who is the wise person who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed, laid waste like the desert, so that no one passes through? 13 The Lord said, “Because they have abandoned My Law which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, 14 but have followed the stubbornness of their heart and the Baals, as their fathers taught them,” 15 therefore this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them poisoned water to drink. 16 I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have put an end to them.”
17 This is what the Lord of armies says:
“Consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come;
And send for the skillful women, that they may come!
18 Have them hurry and take up a wailing for us,
So that our eyes may shed tears,
And our eyelids flow with water.
19 For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:
‘How devastated we are!
We are put to great shame,
For we have abandoned the land
Because they have torn down our homes.’”
20 Now hear the word of the Lord, you women,
And let your ears receive the word of His mouth;
Teach your daughters wailing,
And have every woman teach her neighbor a song of mourning.
21 For death has come up through our windows;
It has entered our palaces
To eliminate the children from the streets,
The young men from the public squares.
22 Speak, “This is what the Lord says:
‘The corpses of people will fall like dung on the open field,
And like the sheaf after the reaper,
But no one will gather them.’”
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
Many times, Jeremiah had to bring a hard truth to Yahweh’s people. The account we read today is one of those examples that have been written for us to learn from. Yahweh declared that even the animals obey the instinct and wisdom that lives inside of them to migrate. Even men, when they fall, they get back up; when they discover they are on the wrong path, they turn around to get back onto the right path.
Yahweh’s people had rejected His Word; therefore they didn’t have His wisdom to rule their lives. They had forgotten how to blush, showing they were not ashamed of their sin, but had gotten accustomed to it. Yahweh was grieved to see His people walking outside of His will. He declared that the harvest time was over and His people were not saved.
Have you forgotten how to blush? Does the Holy Spirit still convict you if you happen to fall into sin? Sin in our lives should vex our souls, because we have the wisdom that not living in God’s will grieves the Holy Spirit. If we love God the way He requires, then our desire should be to accept His lordship over our lives and submit to all that He says. If you have fallen or gotten on the wrong path, repent to the Lord and start your migration back toward the Author and Perfector of your faith. When the harvest is over on this earth, the day of salvation will have passed. Don’t wait for tomorrow to walk in His will, start right now!