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Monday 21 July 2014

Jeremiah 44 : How hard the heart of man is

The chapter begins with God reminding Jeremiah of why He has done the things He has done. The people had persistently disobeyed the Lord and worshipped other gods. Again we need to remind ourselves that "worshipping other gods" was not some quaint custom, but involved things like child sacrifice and sexual abuses, and led to all sorts of injustice and exploitation of the poor. God did not just warn them once, but repeatedly sent prophets to warn them. But they would not listen so judgement came.
Why does He remind Jeremiah here? Jeremiah is more than a mouthpiece. God wants him to understand deeply, to know the heart of God.
Now they had disobeyed God by fleeing to Egypt, and as if that wasn't enough they were worshipping idols there. This is a picture of the depths of sin in man. So all the people of Judah in Egypt would die. There is no escape from the wrath of God, only by repenting.
Instead of repenting the people's hearts were hardened and they became even more obstinate in their idol worship. So judgement would come. Even so they would be given a sign that this would happen, with Jeremiah prophesying the defeat of Egypt at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

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