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Will You Be the One?

Will You Be the One?

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Today’s Passage – Jeremiah 4 – 6 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)

(Second Milers also read – Acts 1 – 3; Psalms 71 – 75; Proverbs 15)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 121

Read the “0815 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read previous posts from this passage – “Catching Men”, “Fallow Ground,“ and “Old Paths.

“Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.” (Jer 5:1)

Here is a brief summary of Jeremiah 4-6

Chapter 4 Urgent call to repentance mixed with vivid warnings of invasion. The people are told to circumcise their hearts, put away abominations, and return to the Lord. Otherwise a destroyer from the north (described as a lion, a scorching wind, and an army) will lay the land desolate. Jeremiah expresses deep personal anguish over the coming catastrophe. The chapter ends with the land in mourning and the people still refusing to turn.

Chapter 5 The thorough corruption of the people. God challenges Jeremiah to find even one just and truth-seeking man in Jerusalem so that He might pardon the city—none is found. The people have broken the yoke, refused correction, and sworn falsely. Both rich and poor, prophets and priests, are corrupt. They commit adultery (literal and spiritual), oppress the needy, and love the false messages of peace. Because they have eyes but do not see and ears but do not hear, judgment is certain.

Chapter 6 Final warnings and the diagnosis of reprobate silver. The people are told to flee for safety; the enemy is already advancing. From the least to the greatest they are given to covetousness; prophets and priests deal falsely and cry “Peace, peace” when there is no peace. God has set watchmen and called them to the old paths, but they refuse. They are like reprobate silver that cannot be refined—therefore the Lord rejects them.

Specific sins that revealed their spiritual condition

These chapters repeatedly expose the heart of the problem:

  • Forsaking the Lord for idols — abandoning “the fountain of living waters” for broken cisterns; going after Baal and other gods (2:13, 20–25, 27–28).
  • Spiritual (and often literal) adultery / harlotry — treating their covenant with God as lightly as a wife who seeks many lovers and pollutes the land (2:20; 3:1–9; 5:7–8).
  • Stubborn refusal to repent or return — stiff necks, hard hearts, eyes that will not see, ears that will not hear (2:30; 3:10; 4:4; 5:3, 21–23; 6:16–17).
  • Self-deception and false security — claiming “I am not polluted… I have not gone after Baalim,” or trusting in the temple and empty ritual while living in sin; crying “Peace, peace” when judgment is near (2:23, 35; 6:14; 7 will develop the temple theme further).
  • Corrupt leadership — priests who do not ask “Where is the Lord?”, shepherds who transgress, prophets who prophesy by Baal or falsely promise peace, and people who love to have it so (2:8; 5:30–31; 6:13–14).
  • Social injustice and moral breakdown — oppression of the poor, fatherless, and needy; greed for gain from the least to the greatest; widespread lying, swearing falsely, and adultery (5:26–28; 6:13).
  • Rejection of God’s word and the “old paths” — refusing to walk in the good way God had shown them (6:16–19).

In short, the early chapters of Jeremiah paint a nation that still had the outward forms of religion but had abandoned the living God, refused genuine repentance, and preferred comfortable lies over the hard truth. The coming judgment from the north is presented as the just and certain consequence of that spiritual condition—yet the repeated call to “return” shows that God’s heart was still open if they would truly turn.

Now, let me give you my devotional thought for the day.

In these chapters God continues His urgent call for Judah to repent. Invasion from the north is coming. The land will be laid waste. Yet even in the midst of the warning, the Lord makes an astonishing offer: if Jeremiah can find just one man in Jerusalem who practices justice and truly seeks the truth, God will pardon the entire city.

The search failed. No such man was found. The people had forsaken the Lord for idols, treated their covenant with God as lightly as an unfaithful spouse, refused to repent, and preferred the comfortable lie of “Peace, peace” over the hard truth. From the least to the greatest they were given to covetousness. Prophets and priests dealt falsely, and the people loved to have it so. Outward religion remained, but the living God had been abandoned.

The same search continues in our day. God is still looking for men and women who will execute judgment and seek the truth—people marked by integrity, who refuse the comfortable lie, and who are wholly committed to Him.

In the 1870s, British evangelist Henry Varley spoke words that lodged deep in the heart of a young D. L. Moody: “The world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to Him.” Moody never forgot them. He later told Varley that as he crossed the Atlantic the boards of the ship’s deck seemed engraved with those words, and when he reached Chicago the very paving stones appeared marked with the same sentence. Moody’s quiet resolve was simple and life-altering: “By God’s help, I aim to be that man.”

The question Jeremiah’s challenge and Moody’s resolve press upon us is the same:

Will you be the one?

Will you be the man or woman in your home, your church, your workplace, or your community who truly seeks the truth and lives it? Will you be the one fully consecrated to the Lord—available for Him to use in whatever way He chooses?

God is still searching the streets and broad places. He is still looking for that one.

Will you be the one?

 

Turn Around

Turn Around

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Today’s Passage – Jeremiah 1 – 3 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – click here to view the text from the Blue Letter Bible website)

(Second Milers also read – John 21; Psalms 66 – 70; Proverbs 14)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song – Psalm 119:105

Read the “0814 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Brief chapter summaries

Chapter 1 Jeremiah’s call and commission. God chooses him before birth, appoints him a prophet to the nations, and overcomes his sense of youth and inadequacy. Two visions confirm the message: the almond branch (God is watching over His word to perform it) and the boiling pot facing north (judgment is coming from the north). Jeremiah is set as a fortified city against kings, priests, and people; they will fight him but not prevail because God is with him.

Chapter 2 God’s indictment of Judah’s apostasy. He recalls their early devotion (as a young bride following Him in the wilderness) and contrasts it with their present forsaking of Him, “the fountain of living waters,” for broken cisterns that can hold no water. They have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit, gone after Baal, and polluted the land. Leaders (priests, shepherds/pastors, prophets) have failed. The people claim innocence while practicing idolatry and trusting in foreign alliances and false gods.

Chapter 3 Spiritual adultery and the call to return. Judah is portrayed as an unfaithful wife who has played the harlot with many lovers. Northern Israel had already been put away for her adultery, yet Judah saw it and became even more treacherous. God still invites them: “Return, ye backsliding children… for I am married unto you.” He promises restoration, shepherds after His own heart, and a future in which Judah and Israel will be reunited under one leadership—if they truly return.

Before I share the my main thought from the Scripture this morning, I just wanted to point out from the passage that the writer, Jeremiah, was a hand made child of God that was uniquely designed by Him to be a prophet to Israel and Judah. (see Jeremiah 1:4 – 6) God has also made you and and I, and wants to use us in a special way to fellowship with Him, glorify Him, and fulfill His plan for the ages. We are not here by accident. We were specially created the way we are on purpose, and for a purpose.

Now for today’s main thought:

“They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 3:1)

Throughout the history of Israel, the people of God have gone through periods where they would fall away from God. Here in this passage the word “backsliding” is used seven times. Here in this passage Jeremiah is pleading with the backsliding people of Israel to come back to the Lord. Our God is awesome! Who else but God would love these people and keep taking them back, even though they would turn against Him over and over. He never gives up on His children. I must confess that I have a tough time forgiving people in the same way that God has forgiven me. I want to write people off; but God is not like me. He continues to reach out to those who have forsaken Him. Notice what God required of the people in order for them to come back into a right relationship with Him:

“Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.” (Jeremiah 3:13)

“Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:” (Jeremiah 3:14)

God says that if the people would acknowledge their sin, and then turn, He would take them back. Turning means that they would put away all of the things that they were doing that God was displeased with. This is a pretty good definition of repentance, which involves more than just acknowledging.

The people of God today could follow this same simple formula in order to come back to their God. We must acknowledge where we have gone wrong. It may not be some deep sin or rebellion. It may be just apathy, coldness, or laziness. Then we have to confess it to God and turn away from it. God loves us deeply and wants more than anything for us to be in love with Him. If you have “slidden” away from God, return again to the Lord.