Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this Tuesday,
‘WARNING’ is an important word, isn’t it? From the time we were children we’ve been learning to distinguish a warning, detected by any of our 5 senses, and we’ve been developing our wise response. And I hope we are training our children and grandchildren to do the same. In fact, every day we watch tragic events happen around the world, in our cities and perhaps even our families, and we wrestle with one important question: Was a warning issued and how did they respond?
Yesterday we witnessed the horrific, final collapse of the grand city of Jerusalem and the nation of Israel as King Nebuchadnezzar and his ferocious Babylonian army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of God which had been constructed by King Solomon nearly 400 years before. And so, we ask the question: Was a warning issued and how did they respond in Jerusalem?
A man named Jeremiah was a well-known prophet of God during the last 40 years BEFORE Jerusalem was finally destroyed. Jeremiah lived in Jerusalem and through the reigns of the last 5 kings, Jeremiah was a frequent visitor into the king’s court bringing each of these kings terrifying warnings from the God of Israel, about Jerusalem.
After his successful conquest, when King Nebuchadnezzar and his troops were marching back to Babylon, with thousands of Jewish captives and cartloads full of the treasures of Jerusalem, including Temple treasures, Jeremiah received this message from God: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’ But you said, ‘We will not walk in that way.’ So I appointed a watchman over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But you said, ‘We will not listen.”… (Jeremiah 6:16,17)
Watchmen, then as now, are important for the safety and security of the people, especially those watchmen who stand on top of the city walls and could look far out over the horizon to spot any approaching danger and give ample warning to close the city gates and be prepared. Trumpets were vital instruments in those days, sounding the alarm, giving direction, calling the soldiers and the people to action. The most foolish thing a person or city could do was ignore the warnings of the watchman or the call of the trumpet.
In God’s ‘Grand Narrative’ which we’ve been following for many weeks, there are several men and women referred to as ‘prophets’, and they were the spiritual, moral watchmen for the people. Their role was to communicate God’s messages, especially warning messages, to God’s people BEFORE disaster struck. Disregard of those messages was a fatal mistake, and each generation was to learn that lesson well from the generation before them.
Pause. How well have we learned important warning lessons from the generations before us? Warnings of impending doom in a marriage or family or business or political leaders; in a home, city or nation? What about weather warnings or violence warnings or crime warnings or financial disaster warnings. And what about moral and spiritual danger warnings? How well have we instructed our children and grandchildren about detecting and properly responding to warnings? Would you agree the importance of sophisticated warning systems in the complicated world of our kids and grandkids is even more important TODAY than when we were kids?
In our Bible we have preserved for us many of the messages God gave these ‘watchmen’ or ‘prophets’. Those watchmen God sent to the northern kingdom Israel include Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Amos, and Hosea. Those God sent to Judah include Micah, Isaiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Obadiah. Sadly, almost always, their messages were disregarded by both the Kings and the common people!
In some cases, like Jeremiah, who was the final prophet to Jerusalem before Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction, rejection of God’s messages was sometimes persecution, imprisonment, and even torture! When people don’t want to hear God’s warning, they’ll do almost anything to prevent the warning being proclaimed, right? Have you ever done that?
God’s messages through Jeremiah, therefore, include a global warning to all nations who take note of Israel’s rejection of God’s warnings: “Therefore hear, you nations; you who are witnesses, observe what will happen to them. Hear, you earth; I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have NOT listened to My words and have rejected My laws.“ (Jeremiah 6:18,19) OH my friends, have you learned about the painful price we pay when we disregard God’s warnings or we reject God’s truth or we seek to replace God’s proper design for human function with alternatives?
But so often the alternatives to God’s truth & God’s ways are so attractive, they appear so lucrative, convenient and promise such a comfortable life. God gave Jeremiah another message about that: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their wealth; but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know God, that I am the LORD who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on the earth, for in these I delight’, declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 9:23,24)
Oh my, while that was such an important challenge for Israel in Jeremiah’s day, do you suppose in our day with such remarkable advances in technology, even AI, and medicine and wealth and so many alternatives to God’s ways, we need to pay even closer attention to this call from God?
Finally, God’s message to Israel through Jeremiah was powerful, potent and crystal clear: “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to My words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors. Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape…” (Jeremiah 11:9-11) And it happened, horrifically, totally, to both Israel and Judah.
Do we understand God has preserved these historical records so we can learn to hear God’s warning in our day and recognize the evidence that we are turning away from God and God’s disaster is approaching us? How are we responding to God’s warnings in our day, my friends? Do we ignore them, argue with God about them, reject them outright or consider them and respond wisely by repentance and correction?
Tomorrow we’ll consider that while Jeremiah was writing these messages from God in broken down Jerusalem, God’s prophet Daniel was reading them 800 miles away in Babylon. And in Daniel’s God given role as advisor to the Emperor, Daniel used Jeremiah’s writings to show the most powerful man in the world that God was going to use him to dramatically affect Israel’s future!
Some ‘Lessons Learned’ from today are in the “Grand Narrative” link below and a wonderful worship song invites us into God’s presence in the link at the bottom of this page. I’ll meet you here tomorrow, as we continue seeking to understand what is God saying to us that’s important in these days?
Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 6 & 9.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Jeremiah 9
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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