- You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. Jeremiah 8:4-5 – The concept the Lord is speaking of is easy to understand. If you were to fall down, the obvious response would be to seek to get back up. Or if you discovered you were going the wrong way, you’d make the change necessary to begin going the right way. Very basic ideas that we’d agree with. The image though we get from scripture of Judah is someone falling but choosing to remain on the ground forever. Instead of recognizing that whatever they were doing caused them to fall, they choose to remain in the dirt so they could keep on with the thing that hurt them to begin with. God’s point is this is ridiculous and unnatural, that even animals and birds know better than this, but His people apparently didn’t. When it comes to sin in your life, can we say we’re handling it better than the people of our passage? When the Lord reveals to us that the sin is hurting us and it’s what’s causing us to fall to the ground, do we get up and begin a different path away from the sin…or do we stay on the ground like we see in our verses? Remember everything the Lord was doing to His people was to steer them away from the sin that was destroying them. God is steering us today to, how though are we going to respond to His steering? I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3237
- Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? Jeremiah 8:22 – Understand the health being spoken of is their spiritual health and the so physician is meaning like a prophet or a priest. Jeremiah asks why hasn’t his people found healing since there has been “physicians” amongst them? Yet if many of the physicians aren’t giving out the correct diagnosis and the patients are refusing to take the medicine from the good doctors, no healing will come. That’s what’s happening here. Too many wrong prophets were teaching wrong things and no one listened to the good prophets. Today, for us, make sure you’re listening to those who teach God’s Word correctly and be willing to take in and apply those teachings you hear. That’s when healing within our lives can begin. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 927
- My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. Jeremiah 8:18 – This is Jeremiah himself speaking of what he is seeing and how he is feeling after such words are given by the Lord. His people are tasting the bitter wrath of the Lord. Not because this was God’s desire or Jeremiah’s desire but because over and over when the people were given words from the Lord to change, they rejected it. Now Jeremiah’s joy is gone from him and his heart is sick within him seeing his people undergo such tragedy. When we see people experiencing the consequences of their sin, how is our heart towards them? When a lost person dies and they are doomed to Hell for eternity that should break our hearts. How about when the person who hurt you gets the consequences for their wrong? Is the response still a breaking of the heart or is happiness your response? I know this seems so counter what is normal to grieve when the one who hurts you “gets what’s coming to them.” Just know the reality of those who hurt Jesus experiencing the punishment for their wrongs is what led Jesus to die on the cross for those who wronged Him. He is our example to follow on how to respond to others finding their justice. Our aim should be to only long for the redemption and forgiveness of others just like we received for all our wrongs. For the heart of Jesus the one we are following only longs for redemption and forgiveness. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2140
Daily DEVO 