How to Be Faithful Regardless of Opposition
January 5, 2022
Commentary
Jeremiah was faithful regardless of the opposition. He reports for duty and the first order of the day was to preach sermons to the people: and cry in the ears of Jerusalem (vv. 1-3). This first message (2:1-3:5) confronted Jerusalem with her waywardness. The Lord brought them into a plentiful land, but they defiled it with idolatry and the sacrifices of their own children (vv. 4-7). Not only had they turned against Him but the three primary classes of leaders established by God turned against Him.
The priests (v. 8) were to expound the law (Mal. 2:6-7) yet they were silent.The rulers (v. 8) were not the religious but the civic leaders. Their duty was to lead the people in the way of the Lord, yet they themselves transgressed His way.The prophets (v. 8) were to reclaim the people from apostasy, yet they encouraged it by pretending to have oracles from Baal, the Phoenician god.Jeremiah used the example of a courtroom scene to focus on the seriousness of Israel’s sin (vv. 9-12). The idolatrous nations were more faithful to their false gods than Israel was to the true and living God (v. 11). Israel had committed two sins. The first was that of omission; she had forsaken her God. Her second sin was one of commission; she had replaced her true God with false idols (v. 13). Israel had lost her freedom and had become a slave, to Assyria and then to Egypt (vv. 14-19).
Application
In different periods of my life I have been tempted to seek security through possessions, people or my own abilities? There is no lasting security apart from God and following His plan for my life.
Jeremiah 2:1– 19 (NET)
1 The Lord’s message came to me, 2 “Go and declare in the hearing of the people of Jerusalem: ‘This is what the Lord says: “I have fond memories of you, how devoted you were to me in your early years. I remember how you loved me like a new bride; you followed me through the wilderness, through a land that had never been planted. 3 Israel was set apart to the Lord; they were like the firstfruits of a harvest to him. All who tried to devour them were punished; disaster came upon them,” says the Lord.’”
4 Now listen to the Lord’s message, you descendants of Jacob, all you family groups from the nation of Israel.
5 This is what the Lord says: “What fault could your ancestors have possibly found in me that they strayed so far from me? They paid allegiance to worthless idols, and so became worthless to me.
6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord who delivered us out of Egypt, who brought us through the wilderness, through a land of valleys and gorges, through a land of desert and deep darkness, through a land in which no one travels, and where no one lives?’
7 I brought you into a fertile land so you could enjoy its fruits and its rich bounty. But when you entered my land, you defiled it; you made the land I call my own loathsome to me.
8 Your priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those responsible for teaching my law did not really know me. Your rulers rebelled against me. Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. They all worshiped idols that could not help them.
9 “So, once more I will state my case against you,” says the Lord. “I will also state it against your children and grandchildren.
10 Go west across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus and see. Send someone east to Kedar and have them look carefully. See if such a thing as this has ever happened:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods (even though they are not really gods at all)? But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, for a god that cannot help them at all!
12 Be amazed at this, O heavens. Be shocked and utterly dumbfounded,” says the Lord.
13 “Do so because my people have committed a double wrong: They have rejected me, the fountain of life-giving water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot even hold water.
14 “Israel is not a slave, is he? He was not born into slavery, was he? If not, why then is he being carried off?
15 Like lions his enemies roar victoriously over him; they raise their voices in triumph. They have laid his land waste; his cities have been burned down and deserted.
16 Even the soldiers from Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skulls, people of Israel.
17 You have brought all this on yourself, Israel, by deserting the Lord your God when he was leading you along the right path.
18 What good will it do you then to go down to Egypt to seek help from the Egyptians? What good will it do you to go over to Assyria to seek help from the Assyrians?
19 Your own wickedness will bring about your punishment. Your unfaithful acts will bring down discipline on you. Know, then, and realize how utterly harmful it was for you to reject me, the Lord your God, to show no respect for me,” says the Sovereign Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
Illustration: Norm Geisler Saved Through a Church Bus Ministry
Norman Geisler, as a child, went to a DVBS because he was invited by some neighbor children. He went back to the same church for Sunday School classes for 400 Sundays. Each week he was faithfully picked up by a bus driver. Week after week he attended church, but never made a commitment to Christ. Finally, during his senior year in High School, after being picked up for church over 400 times, he did commit his life to Christ. What if that bus driver had given up on Geisler at 395? What if the bus driver had said, “This kid is going nowhere spiritually, why waste any more time on him?” (God Came Near, Max Lucado, Multnomah Press, 1987, p. 133).