Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"My people have been lost sheep"
Text: Jeremiah 50:6
THE LORD’S PEOPLE
The LORD reviewed the state of His people (Israel and Judah). They were compared to lost and scattered sheep.
“My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place.
All who found them have devoured them;
And their adversaries said, ‘We have not offended,
Because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice,
The LORD, the hope of their fathers.'”
Jeremiah 50:6-7
1. “My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray; they have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place”
a) God still regarded the remnant as His people.
b) They were compared to “lost sheep”.
i) They had left their pasture.
ii) Some had wandered onto the mountains.
iii) Others had wandered on to hills.
c) The shepherds of His sheep included:
i) The kings
ii) The princes
iii) The judges
iv) The priests (Levites included)
v) The prophets (some had been corrupted along the way)
2. “All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said,
‘We have not offended, because they have sinned against the LORD,
the habitation of justice, the LORD, the hope of their fathers'”
a) The straggling sheep had been devoured by those who found them.
b) They reasoned that they had not sinned (“offended”).
i) Because they had sinned against the LORD.
ii) The LORD had been for them “a habitation of justice”.
iii) The LORD had been the hope of their ancestors.
c) Since the LORD was punishing them, their oppressors did not feel guilty
if they ill-treated the remnant of Israel-Judah.
d) This was wrong reasoning.
e) Babylon was one of the nations that treated Judah badly.
The nation would be judged for being cruel to the Lord’s people.