The Same Choice To Make

September 26

Jeremiah had the burdensome task of being God’s spokesman to a people who were not eager to hear from God. Jeremiah confronted the people and their leaders with the unfortunate news that there was going to be a high price extracted from them if they continued in their wanton disobedience of the One who had saved them from slavery.

It is almost beyond conceptualization that a people who had spent 400 years in bondage and then were miraculously set free from their harsh task masters by their God would not be forever grateful to Him. But this was not the case. Like all humankind, the people of the Eternal Living God were ensnared by “…the pleasures of sin for a season” Hebrews 11:25.

Unlike Moses who had resisted this temptation, they fell headlong into it. The repeated warnings Jeremiah brought to them of the punishment that awaited them at the hands of the Babylonians went unheeded. Perhaps even more unfortunate was their disdain for the promise of healing for their sin that the Lord gave them through Jeremiah.

In Jeremiah 17:14 and in Jeremiah 30:17, the weeping prophet assured them that healing and salvation would be theirs if they would but turn from the worldly ways that had so ensnared them and return to the God who’d saved them. We have that same choice to make—the same healing and salvation to gain and the same bondage to shun. What will we do with Jeremiah’s warnings? (See Book of Jeremiah)