FOLLOW YOUR HEART?

Read Jeremiah 17.

We have heard the instruction, “Follow your heart!” We dare not! Rather, heed the will of God found in the Word of God. The heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked. Sin has been engraved on it with a diamond-tipped, iron pen, so that what we think is good is bad and that which we brand bad is good.

The people of Judah were doomed to judgment for following their hearts’ diabolical desires. They worshipped the creation rather than the Creator. They trusted in what they could see instead of the immortal, invisible God who saw them.

The beautiful, bountiful blessings of a land flowing with milk and honey would be stripped and plundered by a marauding army. It would be as though they were sitting in the gasoline of God’s wrath, and their sins were the match they would continually be striking, until one day the explosive flame of HIs fury ignited.

We can know the blessing of trusting in God or the cursing of trusting in ourselves. To look to the Lord as our hope is to find the stability of being rooted by the river of His grace, the beauty of evergreen foliage where we reflect His glory, and the productivity of fruitfulness as His Spirit works in and through us.

Jeremiah testifies to his faithfulness in a populace that had forsaken the Lord. He cries out for God to spare him even as he visits judgment on his generation. He confesses his hope in the Lord.

It is never easy to stand alone. But, really the child of God never does—the Lord is near all who trust in Him. We can speak against the evil of our day. They may not be persuaded to repent. This generation may choose to stop their ears to the truth—that is the deceitfulness of the heart. What I have control over is my own path—to choose God’s way, as I look to His wisdom and lean on His strength. In the words of the old hymn:

“Stand up, stand up for Jesus!
Stand in His strength alone,
The arm of flesh will fail you, ye dare not trust your own.”

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

Read Jeremiah 16. 

When you wake up and your house is on fire, you don’t have time to shower and make breakfast—you run out as fast as you can.  Typical activities are set aside and we shift into crisis mode.  That is essentially what God alerts Jeremiah to in this chapter.  Jerusalem is about to be engulfed in the flames of God’s wrath.  The usual activities—good in their place—are no longer a priority.

Gruesome deaths will soon be witnessed in Jerusalem—whether by starvation, as the Babylonian army besieges the city or by sword, as the pagan power breaks through the defenses.  The carnage will be overwhelming—carcasses littering the ground—and not enough people to bury them.  The survivors will be carried into captivity, while the corpses will rot as human refuse, picked over by buzzards and beasts.  They had first forsaken God, and so God will now forsake them.

Because of this, Jeremiah is forbidden to marry, mourn, or engage in mirth.  He will have no marriage, for having a wife and seeing her suffer would only compound his sorrow exponentially.  He cannot mourn by attending a funeral.  There will be no funerals—too much death and not enough people to bury them.  There will be no mirth, as the prophet will attend no wedding celebrations. The young will die—the voices of the bridegroom and bride vanishing from the land, replaced by their dying gasps.

The spiritually senseless people question Jeremiah.  They can’t imagine God would do such a thing to them.  So, once more, the prophet reads heaven’s indictment against them.   Persistent sin that might prick the conscience at first, has a way of callusing our soul.

Three figures of God’s fury are presented.  God will cast them out as a warrior would hurl a spear.  Those who are cast out will be caught by the Babylonian invaders, like fish caught in a net.  Should some escape, the fishermen will become hunters to track them down.  There will be no place to hide, because God always sees and knows.  Ultimately, it is not the hand of the Babylonians that will seek them, but the hand of the Lord that will seize them in His sovereign decree of judgment.  It is the long arm of the law which they have violated.  Like a banker coming to collect a debt—the Lord will hold them accountable for their sin debt and charge them interest, as well.  What a painful day of reckoning!  

Jeremiah, however, knows where refuge can be found—as Luther wrote, “A mighty fortress is our God; a bulwark never failing.”  A ray of grace breaks through the storm clouds of judgment descending.  The Jews carried into captivity will someday be released to return.  As God brought their forefathers out of Egyptian slavery and into the Promised Land, so in an even greater way, He will bring the Jews out of captivity and back to Jerusalem.

An even more amazing display of grace will transpire—the very Gentiles whose paganism had been embraced by the Jews, leading to their chastisement, will be converted from idolatry through the Jews restored to the land.  Out of the remnant that returns, a Jew will arise, Christ Jesus, Savior not only of Israel, but Savior of the world!

Now, dear reader, understand the crisis we are in—the urgency of your setting aside all things for the main thing—getting your heart right with God.  It may be the world will soon go up in flames.  Will you escape?  We will either pay the price for our sins in the fires of eternity, or run to Christ as our Refuge, by faith receiving the forgiveness of our sin debt, in the price He paid on the cross.  You cannot run from Him, but you can run to Him!