As I read Jeremiah 7-8, it sounds as if the Lord is speaking to us today. His Word is our guidebook for life, it our instruction book, the Words are here so we would have understanding and set our feet would be set on the right path to eternal life. His Words go out and speak to us today.
God so merciful but He is also not mocked.
His message through Jeremiah to Judah – and to us
1-Change your ways! Consider your ways!
2- Stop oppressing the fatherless, the widow and the stranger. This takes some thought because we may think we don’t oppress others, but are we helping them? The single moms abandoned, the homeless? the orphans. When I think about this verse, I often think of the crime in the inner cities. Shows like 48 hours on TV show kids going down one wrong path and thrown in prison for the rest of their lives. What have we done for these inner city kids? I just wonder if its the plan to keep locking them up at $40K plus a year for the rest of their life. If someone would just invest in them while young, maybe we wouldn’t continually and daily see bloodshed and murder on our streets. Every day there are drive by shootings and killing of the innocent on our streets. I believe the shed of innocent blood curses the land.
3-Don’t walk after other gods to your hurt.
4-Don’t trust in lying words that cannot profit you
5- Don’t worship idols. The women in Jeremiah’s day made cakes for queen of heaven,( Jer 7 and 44 ). They did this while also worshiping in the temple. They were warned repeatedly to stop but the wives refused, saying all went well when they worshiped her. Do you know why? They were worshiping demons through their idol, see 1 Cor 10:19-11
“We will not listen to your messages from the Lord! We will do whatever we want. We will burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven just as much as we like—just as we, and our ancestors, and our kings and officials have always done in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For in those days we had plenty to eat, and we were well off and had no troubles! But ever since we quit burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped worshiping her with liquid offerings, we have been in great trouble and have been dying from war and famine.”
Do you think God doesn’t notice when you walk in His house, by His name and stand before Him, when your life is full of murders, adulteries, idolatry, lying and stealing?
Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. Galations 6:7-10
God repeatedly warns us and tells us to come back. He wants us to obey His voice. He wants to be our God , He wants us to be His people
” They have set their abominations in the house which is called by MY Name to pollute it, even the priest and the prophet is given to covetousness” – even the priests and religious leaders at that time were given to greed and covetousness.
Our churches and our religious groups may not be up to God’s perfection, but you can begin your journey to seek God and His righteousness today. Be careful not to be deceived by the world and worldliness in our churches. God wants you to be Holy, He wants to be your God, your Father, the One who comforts you. Don’t disrespect the innocent blood of Jesus shed on the cross for you by intentionally sinning and thinking you are covered.
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? Hebrews 10:26
Will you be counted worthy?
Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21:26
JESUS said :Matthew 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Read https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jeremiah+7-8&version=NKJV
Ancient Paths 