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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
We’ve just come through the season of the year when we focus more on family than any other time: Thanksgiving & Christmas. I wonder what this family season has shown you about your extended family and the family culture in your part of the world as 2025 begins.
In the Jewish culture, family has always been very important, God designed it that way, and the spiritual emphasis of family is seen every Friday evening as Shabbat begins with family dinner. Also of course is the Bar-Mitzvah and Bat-Mitzvah, and all the Jewish festivals.
The “Shema” began God’s call to His people to prioritize the spiritual family focus: “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength… Impress these commandments on your children…” (Deut. 6:4-9) Generationally, parents and grandparents were responsible to be sure the next generations in their family knew the great stories of God’s involvement in Israel’s history all the way back to Abraham and Isaac. (Ps. 78:1-8)
2600 years ago, God was speaking to the people of Jerusalem through His prophet Jeremiah and God’s messages were strong warnings about judgment which was forthcoming because His people Israel had failed so badly, especially in the spiritual emphasis God had prioritized for Jewish families. Today, let’s take one more look at God’s message in Jeremiah 7 and we’ll see God points His finger specifically at family failure.
God said to Jeremiah: “Do you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the father’s light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the ‘Queen of Heaven’. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse My anger…Are they not harming themselves to their own shame?” (Jer. 7:17-19)
These few verses are one of the few places in the Bible where the “Queen of Heaven” is mentioned. This was a ‘love & fertility god’, “Ishtar” worshipped by many of the nations around Israel and sadly, multiple historical evidences exist that around 600bc the Jews in Jerusalem had also embraced “Ishtar” worship! Did you notice God’s accusation that this was a family problem?
God’s people, the Israelites, had totally defiled God’s spiritual focus for the Jewish family and were turning away from Almighty God to embrace idol worship as families! Parents were training their children in idol worship and God raised up Jeremiah the prophet in Jerusalem to be God’s spokesman of truth and warning of impending judgment for Jerusalem and spiritually rebellious Israel!
Now pause for a few seconds and look carefully at the ‘family culture’ of your city, your nation. What are parents and grandparents teaching their kids and grandkids about values, ethics, morality, truth, marriage, gender identity, sanctity of life, self-destructive addictions and of course spirituality? What is the spiritual health and vitality of the families in your city? Who is God and how is God honored or ignored by the family culture of your city and mine? Listen to God’s warning through Jeremiah to the “Ishtar” worshiping Jewish families of Jerusalem: “Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place – on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land – and it will burn and not be quenched.” (Jeremiah 7:20)
Do you see God was going to strike EVERY living thing?! Why? Because in their worship of the “Queen of Heaven” idol, the Jews were declaring that “Ishtar” was the source of all life, NOT Almighty God! Now as you and I consider the spiritual family culture of the cities where we live, what would be God’s response TODAY if He raised up a Jeremiah in your city and mine, to speak God’s perspective on what God sees in families today?
Of course, we can assume the people in Jeremiah’s day claimed it wasn’t that big of a deal, they were simply accommodating the different cultures of the people who lived near them and with whom they did business. Does that sound familiar in our day? But God’s response was clear and straightforward: “When I brought your ancestors out of Egyptian slavery I gave them this command: ‘Obey Me and I will be your God, and you will be My people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you. But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward…” (Jer. 7:22-24)
Now look closely at the past several generations in your family, your city and your nation. Is family morality and spirituality regressing into moral chaos rather than growing into spiritual vitality and God honoring living? If so, why?
God declared that His people had refused to listen to the prophets of the past and probably would not listen to Jeremiah either! (Jer. 7:25-27) God finally made this powerful accusation of His people: “This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips…and the LORD has rejected this generation that is under His wrath.“ (Jer.7:28,29) Oh my! God had made His case. His people had rejected Him, His truth, His ways, His guidance and had embraced the idolatry and wickedness of other nations.
Holy God was left with only one option… strong discipline of His people and tomorrow we’ll look at what God did to fulfill this strong warning through Jeremiah. Let’s pause here and give serious consideration to the fact that even though Jeremiah wrote His messages from God 2600 years ago they are very relevant to both Israel and much of our world today that claims to be Christian! So, in closing, I urge us to consider the family cultures of our cities. What is God saying to you and me about how He views our family culture and that of our cities and what might God do about that in 2025? And here’s a worship song to help us reflect on all this…
Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 7:17-28.
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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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