The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Jeremiah 7:21,
"This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!"
This frightening message from the Lord was directed toward his own people who had substituted their own religious observances and idol worship, displacing what God asked of them when he made his covenant with them at Mt. Sinai. The Israelites did this in order to pursue what they thought best as opposed to what God told them.
Israel's utter disregard for what the Lord asked of them, their disregard for the covenant they had entered into with God placed them in the horrifying position of being "given over" by him. God gave them over, told them to "Go ahead" and pursue their religious exercises (which, by the way, included the sacrificing of their own children in fire to these imagined idols.)
Being "given over" by God communicates an horrific certainty of God's judgement. We read of God "giving over" those who will suffer due to their rejection of him:
"Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another." Romans 1:22-24.
"They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error." Romans 1:25-27.
"Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy." Romans 1:28-31.
As we are told by the writer of Hebrews, I am reminded that, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
"This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves!"
This frightening message from the Lord was directed toward his own people who had substituted their own religious observances and idol worship, displacing what God asked of them when he made his covenant with them at Mt. Sinai. The Israelites did this in order to pursue what they thought best as opposed to what God told them.
Israel's utter disregard for what the Lord asked of them, their disregard for the covenant they had entered into with God placed them in the horrifying position of being "given over" by him. God gave them over, told them to "Go ahead" and pursue their religious exercises (which, by the way, included the sacrificing of their own children in fire to these imagined idols.)
Being "given over" by God communicates an horrific certainty of God's judgement. We read of God "giving over" those who will suffer due to their rejection of him:
"Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another." Romans 1:22-24.
"They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error." Romans 1:25-27.
"Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy." Romans 1:28-31.
As we are told by the writer of Hebrews, I am reminded that, "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Hebrews 10:31.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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