There seems to be two things at work in Jeremiah here. On the one hand he is distraught at the suffering that is going to come upon them. At the same time he wants to be far away from them because of their unfaithfulness.
The whole of society was built on lies and deceit. This is what happen when a people abandon God. No one can be trusted. And a guaranteed outcome of all this is that no one acknowledges God.
God has to deal with the sin of His people, it is not possible for Him to do nothing. Jerusalem would be made a heap of ruins.
When a people abandon the ways of God they become foolish. So they would be scattered among the nations. The women are urged to teach their daughters how to wail, for there would be much opportunity for mourning to come.
A society that has abandoned God values all of the wrong sorts of things. They boast in their own wisdom. See how our society thinks it is so clever and knows so much better than God. But it is only in the Lord that we should boast.
Verses 25 and 26 are an indictment of those who rely on circumcision. See how this is totally consistent with what Paul taught in Galatians, and elsewhere. See also how Judah is lumped with Edom, Ammon, Moab and Egypt. This would be galling for them, yet it was utterly deserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment