10.23.2014 Old Testament: Jer 9.12–16

To read the Bible in a year, read Jeremiah 9–10 on October 23, In the year of our Lord 2014

By Don Ruhl

The Lord pronounced doom for Jerusalem, but the prophet asked,

Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through? 

Jeremiah asked who had the wisdom to know why the land perished and burned up? What had happened in that place, that the Lord would so pour out His wrath? The Lord revealed plainly what went wrong,

And the Lord said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it, but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,” therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them” (Jeremiah 9.12–16). 

Forsaking the Creator brings serious consequences. Following your own heart brings serious consequences. Following idols brings serious consequences.

We like to believe that we can do as we please, but we have to accept the consequences of such decisions, otherwise, we should remain loyal to Him who created us.