Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"If you thoroughly amend your ways"
Text: Jeremiah 7:5
IF AND THEN
This message to Judah had to be spelt out very clearly and carefully. God’s promise of deliverance was essentially conditional and rightly so!
“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings,
if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour,
if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,
and do not shed innocent blood in this place,
or walk after other gods to your hurt,
then I will cause you to dwell in this place,
in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”
Jeremiah 7:5-7
1. IF Clauses
a) “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings”
i) “Thoroughly amend”
This was necessary.
ii) “Ways and your doings”
This phrase represents “the way of life”.
b) “If you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour”
i) Justice must be upheld.
ii) Impartiality was of significance.
c) “If you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow”
i) No oppression whatsoever.
ii) Not against the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. These were particularly vulnerable.
d) “And do not shed innocent blood in this place”
i) Zero tolerance of murder.
ii) This should be obvious.
e) “Or walk after other gods to your hurt”
i) No idolatry of any kind.
ii) Idolatrous practices have brought only hurt and sorrow.
2. THEN Clause
a) “Then I will cause you to dwell in this place”
i) God would let them dwell in the land.
ii) Without God, they would not be able to remain in the land.
iii) This land was promised by God to their forefathers and He would keep His word but the people must fulfil God’s conditions.
b) Dwelling in the land
i) Much depended on the Lord’s grace and mercy.
ii) If the people sinned against God wantonly, they could end up being disinherited.
iii) This was a word that needed to be proclaimed clearly to the people.
They must not take their existence in the land of Israel for granted.