Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"Because you have sinned against the LORD"
Text: Jeremiah 44:23
A STRONG REBUTTAL
Jeremiah the prophet was not cowed by the foolishness and arrogance of the people who had gone to dwell in Egypt. He gave a strong rebuttal of their erroneous view about the worship of the queen of heaven!
“Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people—
the men, the women, and all the people who had given him that answer—saying:
‘The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem,
you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land,
did not the LORD remember them, and did it not come into His mind?
So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings
and because of the abominations which you committed.
Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment,
a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day.
Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the LORD,
and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in His law,
in His statutes or in His testimonies,
therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day.'”
Jeremiah 44:20-23
1. “Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people—the men, the women,
and all the people who had given him that answer—saying”
a) Jeremiah spoke as candidly.
b) He responded to all the people who voiced their views about idolatry.
2. “The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem,
you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land,
did not the LORD remember them, and did it not come into His mind?”
a) The burning of incense in Judah and Jerusalem.
b) This long practice was known to the LORD.
c) He remembered all their idolatrous practices.
3. “So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings
and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation,
an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day”
a) He had tolerated this erroneous practice.
b) He had sent many of His servants, the prophets to address this problem.
c) But there came a time when the LORD “could no longer bear it”.
d) There were many wrong things associated with idolatry.
i) There was evil and abomination found.
ii) One practice was the offering of children as human sacrifice.
e) The LORD’s judgment was then imposed upon Judah and Jerusalem.
f) The land had become proverbially desolate.
4. “Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the LORD,
and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in His law, in His statutes
or in His testimonies, therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day”
a) Their sins were listed once again here.
i) Disobedience
ii) Abandonment of God’s laws/ statutes/ testimonies
b) Hence, the calamity experienced.
i) The problem lay with the sinfulness of the people.
ii) The problem did not lie with the LORD.