The Bible Recap - Day 220 (Jeremiah 4-6) - Year 5

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible recap. Today we open with Jeremiah continuing the plea for Judah to repent. Throughout this section, we see God repeating the theme that he doesn't just want them to change their actions or offer up empty sacrifices like vain apologies. They faked repentance before and he didn't buy it then either. He's after their hearts. We see it in verse four where he's comparing this change of heart to the way he marked them with circumcision. He says, remove the foreskin of your hearts. And in verse 14, he says, OhO Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?"

And in verse 19, "...Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you. This is your doom, and it is bitter. It has reached your very heart." Their sin yielded this consequence, and God's problem with their sin goes far beyond their actions. It goes to their very heart, so his consequence is due to.

Then, in verse 10, Jeremiah seems to be accusing God of lying. It's a confusing time to be alive because up until this point, all the so-called profits of the land have been telling all the people of Judah, they don't sweat it, things are going to be fine. They keep proclaiming peace and safety when things are actually speeding toward a cliff at 100 miles an hour. And this is the first time Jeremiah is actually hearing the truth, and it's coming directly from God himself. He seems to feel kind of disoriented by it all, but he eventually comes to realize that those prophets weren't speaking the words of God. They were just saying what they

thought the people wanted to hear. I've had many a well-meaning prophecy spoken to me, and almost all of them have been wrong. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that God hadn't lied to me. Those people had good desires for me, but they were speaking out of their own hopes and hearts, not his. That's just a fraction of what Jeremiah was probably going through here. As Jeremiah is giving these warnings to the people, he's also getting pretty intense visions of the destruction Jerusalem will encounter.

Or at least, it seems to be Jeremiah in verses 19 through 21. And he's disturbed by it all. He can hardly sleep at night because it's so disheartening. And this hit home for me too. I love Jerusalem, it's one of my favorite cities. If I had to put myself in Jeremiah's shoes and imagine it being destroyed like that, I'd need some Nike will too, and I don't even live there.

Next, God has some pretty harsh words for his people. He says they are fools, and that they use the little wisdom they have to be crafty in sinning. Then Jeremiah has a vision in verses 23-28 that describe an undoing of creation, reversing all God's work in the Genesis 1 account. That has to be pretty terrifying, but God promises not to annihilate the earth. It will still be there just emptied. And Jerusalem, who is portrayed as a desperate woman, tries in vain to save herself. But God says it won't be possible. In chapter 5, the struggle continues. The people of Jerusalem are pros at offering up religious

phrases and actions, taking oath in God's name and whatnot, but they don't keep any of their promises. Religious language can come from a corrupt heart. Jeremiah thinks, hey, maybe this is because they're poor and they can't afford to keep their oaths, or maybe they just weren't educated enough to know better. But then he finds that the same problem exists with the rich people. They're all rebelling. God says nothing they have will be safe from his destruction,

not their income, food, drink, family, or sense of security. Nothing is untouchable. Everything can be shaken or taken. But again, this is all the consequence of their sin. In verse 25, he says, your sins have kept good from you. The first time I read that I thought it said, your sins have kept you from good.

And that's true too, but it's far more potent the way it's really written, which basically says sin is a thief. It steals good things from you. Wow, sin is a thief. And not only does their sin keep good things from them, but it keeps good things from the poor too. That's because the rich have gotten rich off their selfishness, and it turns into a total lack of concern for the poor. They lead and govern with injustice, but God will punish this too, because a righteous judge has to punish sin. In chapter 6 we see some of the prior themes repeated. Jerusalem will be destroyed, the prophets will offer false comfort, the people will refuse to repent, and will have a complete

lack of understanding that what they're doing is totally wrong. God pleads with them to remember the ancient paths of their forefathers, to turn back to the ways he has already marked out for them, but they refuse to listen. My God shot today came from just thinking about how this book came together. God picked this man, Jeremiah, to beg his people to repent, knowing full well that they wouldn't. Jeremiah endured sleepless nights and anguish and deep mourning to communicate this message to God's people, and he wasn't the only one. We've already read a few other prophets so far who were sent to the same people with the same message. What does it reveal about God's heart

that he keeps sending this message, decade after decade, begging them to repent? I see his patience in this. I see his persistence in this, and not to get too illiterative here, but I also see his planning in this. He knew they wouldn't repent. He knew the day was coming when he'd exiled him,

and he also knew the day was coming when Jesus would claim victory over all the sins of his people, past, present, and future. God the Father and God the Son both endured a lot to bring us into a peaceful relationship with God himself. He's where the joy is. The fall is coming up quick, which we are very excited about here in Texas because it has been hot.

Anyway, if your church is still trying to figure out what curriculum to use this fall or even next year, I would love to suggest the Bible Recap discussion guide. It covers our entire year of reading. So if they start this fall, they can flip over to the New Testament, which we begin on October 1st, and if they start in the New Year, they can jump in at Genesis 1 on January 1st. TBR's Discussion Guide has seven to ten weekly questions for a group to discuss, and how great would it be to not be doing this alone to have somebody you can talk to about this every week. If you want to find out more, check out the discussion guide in the store link on our website

at thebibelrecap.com or click the link in the show notes. Not long ago, I got to join Rochelle and Carter on their podcast called Anything But Quiet Time, and we talked about what we're doing in our quiet time, which, as you may know, I call my priority time. If you want to watch that video episode, text TLC to 893-893, or click the link in the show notes.