(This post is the next in a series of posts containing my first blush reactions to passages I come across in the reading of Scripture. I am currently going straight through the book of Jeremiah and will be sharing with you which verses the Spirit causes to jump out at me and the unrevised, unpolished feelings which they invoke.)
“Thus says the LORD: ‘What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?’” (2.5)
So often I am called to conviction by realizing how worthless the sins that I disobey God in order to commit are. Especially lust. What purposes are there in looking on a woman in lust? Anger and anxiety belong here too. Why is it that I view these things as being more beneficial than following Gods Word at times?
“. . . and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (2.13b)
Again God declares the worthlessness of the things which we worship in substitute for him. Not just worthless, but wholly incapable of fulfilling the desires we have. Our idolatry is all the more worse since, along with forsaking God, we are also depriving ourselves of the fullness that only God can provide.
“Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me.” (2.22)
‘What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.’ Only Christ’s death can serve to expiate the guilt of our defilements. It is our nature to be cleansed after encountering impure and dirty things, so with sin there is no difference. But, it doesn’t matter how much counseling and self-esteem you obtain, the only thing powerful enough to remove your guilt was Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross.
“But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble.” (2.28a)
This calls back to v.13 and further emphasizes the insufficiency of the idols we choose to serve.
