Be Bery Careful
October 5 Jeremiah 4:19-6:15
Object Lessons That Demand Obedience
Be Very Careful
Today’s passage is filled with object lessons based on familiar objects such as a vine, wild animals, silver, and 'Rock & Roll".
God’s choice vine, Judah, had become a wild vine…
“That’s the way, aha, aha, I like it, aha, aha. That’s the way, aha, aha, I like it, aha, aha.”
( Can you hear the song there or is it just me? Aha, aha… KC & The Sunshine Band)
Did the nation of Judah ask to be captured? Really?
Inadvertently, YES! (Or Aha, Aha… if you’re still feelin’ the vibe.)
Have you ever heard children say, “That’s not fair! I want to be like everybody else!”?
The nation of Judah had chosen to worship the idols of their pagan neighbors. Although they were God’s chosen people! They wanted to be like everyone else…
Today’s passage tells us why this nation faced judgment. Jeremiah 5:1-3 tells us that “every person was guilty”. Every person!
Remember when Abraham was looking for a righteous person in Sodom?
Well, Jeremiah could not find EVEN ONE!
Not only that, but they ALL refused correction and to repent. Their hearts were harder than “ROCK & ROLL”... They were a bunch of ROCKS who were ROLLING right into a disaster!
Three images of wild animals were used to describe their enemies who were coming to attack Judah and take them captive. They were “the lion”, “the wolf”, and “the leopard”.
God asked Judah two rhetorical questions. “Why should I pardon you”, and “Shall I not punish these people”? (v. 7)
He then uses the imagery of a “Lusty horse”.
It was like a ZOO! The animals were running WILD!
They behaved like wild animals and sadly the wild animal of a nation that they were trying to emulate was coming to answer their unspoken request.
"Do you want to be like us?", the enemy asks. Then, we will take you over and you will SERVE us!
Would you worship our gods? Then our gods will own you!
Truly, be careful what you WISH for!
They copied the nations around them and look what happened… Jeremiah warned against the foe coming from the north who would be cruel and show no mercy. (Hab. 1: 5-11)
Another analogy is used to describe Judah, ‘Rejected Silver”. They were found to be corrupt, and the refining efforts were useless. The wicked were not separated out. The smelting process is supposed to separate silver from lead. But, they didn’t “get the lead out”. They were rejected silver, and so the Lord rejected them. (6: 27-30)
Here is my question today for us. What things have we latched onto in the name of “Freedom and individuality” that are just making us “copies” of someone else’s bondage?
What actions are we choosing as “ freedom” that are really going to deliver us to a cruel master?
Perhaps you remember our inalienable rights such as, “Freedom OF Religion”. Today it seems that right has been rephrased in the minds of men as “Freedom FROM Religion.”.
Christmas has been rephrased as Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings. Happy Easter has turned into spring break and gone to the “Bunny”. The freedom for “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” has gone to restate life as something entirely different than what the Bible calls life in Ps. 139 where God says, “I knit you together in your mother’s womb”.
Now the pursuit of happiness is being able to live out one’s sexual freedom for the “sake of happiness” and then exercising my “liberty” to take care of any “problems that have arisen” to stifle that freedom.
Tonight’s newscast showed people once again luting stores and going unpunished which puts businesses out of order and lives at risk. There is no application of justice because people are not even instructed that God’s law says, “Thou shalt not steal”.
The greatest judgment God can send to a disobedient nation is to let them have their own way and reap the disgusting, painful, sad consequences of their sins!
Be Careful What You Ask For! Be Very Careful!!
Because…“That’s NOT the way, aha, aha, You’re gonna like it, aha, aha. No, That’s NOT the way, aha, aha, I like it, aha, aha.”
