Monday 3rd August
Read Jeremiah 2:1-8
“The word of the Lord came to me: 2 ‘Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
‘This is what the Lord says:
‘“I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to the Lord,
the firstfruits of his harvest;
all who devoured her were held guilty,
and disaster overtook them,”’
declares the Lord.
4 Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.
5 This is what the Lord says:
‘What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6 They did not ask, “Where is the Lord,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
a land where no one travels and no one lives?”
7 I brought you into a fertile land
to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable.
8 The priests did not ask,
“Where is the Lord?”
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
following worthless idols.” (NIVUK)
Jeremiah has been called as a prophet to the nations. As Peter reminded the faithful in his first letter, judgment begins with God’s household (1 Peter 4:17a), even calling those nations as witness (v10-11). As we will discover, it is a brutal judgment. Unthinkable. For Yahweh outlines the case for divorce against His own people.
Jeremiah begins with a description of the honeymoon period. The people, betrothed and loved, follow Yahweh into the wilderness, away from the security of tilled fields in Egypt. They followed Him because they loved Him – a love fully reciprocated. It is a picture of a marriage filled with joy – each partner consumed by the other (v1-3).
But at some point, Israel drifted away. They sleep-walked into apostasy. Neither the people (v6) nor their spiritual leaders (v8) noticed that they had walked off. They were distracted and followed ultimately worthless things (v5b), and in what is something of a biblical law, they became what they worshipped.
There but for the grace of God… These early words from Jeremiah should prompt us to wake up each day and remember why we first followed Jesus. Losing the habit of praising Him and loving Him and seeking Him is a slippery road that ends in disaster. As the old Christian cliché runs – if you feel far from God, who moved?
