4-18-13. Jeremiah 3:6-4:4. RETURN, FAITHLESS PEOPLE – my devotional

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Key Verse: 3:14-15
Kevin E. Jesmer

“Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, ‘for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. ¹⁵ Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.’”

     Dear Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for being my friend and my savior. This world can be a friendless place sometimes. One can even be friendless in a crowded house. But Jesus is there. His Gospel is something that we can wrap our minds and our hearts around. His gospel is something that we can find satisfaction with. The mission of making the Gospel known is a blessing to the heart and mind and soul. Without it I would only be focusing on bad news, and trivia day in and day out. Jesus’ Gospel is everything to me. Lord, help me to accept one word of God through this passage. Amen!

Part l: Unfaithful Israel. (3:6-10)

Look at 3:6-19, “During the reign of King Josiah, the Lord said to me, ‘Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. ⁷ I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. ⁸ I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. ⁹ Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. ¹⁰ In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only inpretense,” declares the Lord.”

For generations Northern Israel engaged in idolatry and wickedness. The Lord “gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce,” sending them into captivity to Assyria. Yet the Lord is faithful even to such an idolatrous people. He invites them to return, acknowledge their guilt, and he will forgive and receive them. He will heal them, provide shepherds, and cure them of backsliding. The Lord is faithful, and will forgive our sin when we return and repent.

I realize that I have been committing spiritual adultery, keeping my honor and dignity before the eyes of people. I am also very self centered. I want others to befriend me and talk to me, even my family members, but I don’t do the same for others in my grumpiness, especially to those close to me. That is very selfish and self centered on my part. This idolatry is the root of my suffering.

I need to return to the Lord, not in pretense, not cloaked in spiritual sounding words that only make me look good, but in sincere confession and repentance and in faith. I need to return to Jesus with all of my heart. Lord, I come to you. I am only encouraging others to be like sinful self…grumpy and quiet.  What kind of legacy am I leaving behind to the next generation? I must repent. Not only for my restored relationship with you Lord, but also for the sake of others coming behind me.

Look at verse 3:11-4:4, “¹¹ The Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. ¹² Go, proclaim this message toward the north: “‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord,    ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful,’ declares the Lord,    ‘I will not be angry forever. ¹³ Only acknowledge your guilt—  you have rebelled against the Lord your God you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me,’” declares the Lord. ¹⁴ “Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion.”

     The Lord told Jeremiah, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.” Although Israel had given its heart to the worship of idols, Judah had a certain pride thinking that it was more spiritual than Israel. But God considered Israel more righteous that Judah.  While the Lord had a message of mercy for Israel, his message to Judah was warning and rebuke. King Josiah brought about great reforms, the people only followed with no faith, not from their heart. They thought that they were very religious and spiritual but in fact God was saying that the idol worshipping people to the north were more righteous than them. God’s warning was clear: “circumcise your hearts or my wrath will flare and burn you up.”

This happens. There are times when non believers act more righteous than believers. They are more generous, more caring, more just, more brave, more giving than believers. Some seem to have a more generous heart towards the truth than some believers. That is because some believers become like “old wine skins.”  I pray that my faith in Jesus may reveal Christ in my life. I also pray that my faith my shine bright.

The basis of this plea is in verse 14b, “…“for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. “  God is our husband. He is our leader and provider and protector and the lover of our souls. He pleas with the people to repent and return to him. God has every right to demand repentance.  It is based on the relationship he has with the people. I have a right to demand certain qualities in my relationships with my family members. I am the father of my children. I am the husband of my wife. There needs to be certain qualities and commitments in our relationships. The same is with God. He is our Lord and Savior. He is the Creator. He is our “Husband”. It is only right that we surrender our hearts to him in sincere repentance and faith.

Judah was to go and proclaim the message of repentance to the North, to the people they had despised. We too are called to go and tell the message to others. We like to go and tell the message to people who are like us, to our own people. But we need to be cross cultural. We need to have faith to reach out to people who are not like us. This requires faith and it makes living by faith and grand adventure.   

When we have a repentant attitude God will bless us. “¹⁵ Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶ In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the Lord, “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered;  it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. ¹⁷ At that time they will call Jerusalem. The Throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. ¹⁸ In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance. ¹⁹ “I myself said, “‘How gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’ I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me.”

1. There will be shepherds, spiritual leaders to lead the people in knowledge and understanding.
2. The peoples’ numbers will increase greatly in the land.
3. 3.       The people will have a direct, personal relationship with the Lord. (i.e. No need for the ark.)
4. 4.      There will be unity and oneness.
5. 5.      There will be sincere faith.
6. 6.      We will call God Father and we will be his children.
7. 7.      We will gain a great inheritance in this life and in the next.

What a blessing it is when we repent of our sins and come to the Lord with sincere hearts!

        We can see God’s heart, that he wants the idol worshipping in Israel to stop. Look at verses 20-But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,” declares the Lord. ²¹ A cry is heard on the barren heights,    the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel, because they have perverted their ways and have forgotten the Lord their God. ²² “Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding.” “Yes, we will come to you, for you are the Lord our God. ²³ Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains is a deception; surely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. ²⁴ From our youth shameful gods have consumed the fruits of our ancestors’ labor—their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters. ²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame,    and let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the Lord our God, both we and our ancestors; from our youth till this day we have not obeyed the Lord our God.” 4 “If you, Israel, will return, then return to me,” declares the Lord. “If you put your detestable idols out of my sight  and no longer go astray, ² and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,’ then the nations will invoke blessings by him and in him they will boast.” ³ This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:”

The worshipping of idols is a big problem. People fall into many vices because they worship idols. We suffer greatly if we are not worshipping Jesus in Spirit and in truth.  Giving our hearts to idols and serving them, even inadvertently, will invite erosion and destruction on our lives. There is no time to linger. We suffer, people around us suffer and the people who come after us suffer.

The answer lies in our repentance and turning our hearts to the Lord. From the book, “Whiteman’s Gospel”, repentance literally means, exhaling a deep sigh. It is finally surrendering our hearts to the Lord. Think of is this way. You are traveling with your kids and they are crying out again and again for ice cream. You say no, but then there is a Dairy Queen on the horizon. The kids cry out again. You finally let out a big sigh and decide to turn into the Dairy Queen for…you guessed it … ice cream. That sigh is repentance. You have given up you struggle not to believe. You have to give up your will to conform to the will of God. I experienced this “sigh” in 1986 when I repented of my unbelief and decided to believe in Jesus. I need to experience this type of repentance again and again in my life.

Prayer: Father, you are so faithful to me. Thank you for welcoming me to return to you and forgiving my sin in Jesus’ blood. Help me to repent and return to you. Help me to go and tell the message of salvation.

One Word: Accept the Lord’s invitation to repent and be blessed.