Heart Disease

Read Jeremiah 17:1-10

Notice the times in which the word "heart" is mentioned. When the Bible speaks of the heart, it doesn't usually mean the muscular organ that pumps blood around our bodies, it refers to the center of our personality, what has been called "the parliament of our lives."

The heart records sin (v.1). Others may never know what sins we have committed, but they leave permanent scars like bullet marks on a wall, on our inner lives. Sin leaves wounds which hurt.

The heart commits sin (v.5), because it governs our behavior. As we incline our heart, so we live and so we behave (Proverbs 23:7).

The heart produces sin (v.9), because basically it is tainted and corrupt, and no good thing can flow from it. Read Mark 7:21.

But God (ah, what a phrase), like some great heart specialist, understands the heart as no one else can (v.10). He alone can test it, diagnose it, and cure its complaint.

Verses 7 and 8 provide a refreshing contrast to this theme. Here, in a poetic form, the one who fears and loves God is described: a person with faith rooted deeply in the person of God; having rich supplies of nourishment from the water of His Word; possessing a calm, evergreen witness, providing shade and shelter for the passer by; producing abundant fruit in the form of Christian virtue and service.

Could your Christian witness be described as evergreen?

Help me daily, Lord, to draw from Your fullness all that my emptiness requires. By grace alone; in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Image: Jeremiah at the gate.

God's Personal Possession

Read Jeremiah 13:1-11

The "linen belt" that Jeremiah was told to go and purchase (v.1) was the garment most closely associated with a man, and it also possessed a certainly priestly significance. It was meant to represent, therefore, a people who had been bought by God for His own personal possession, and who were living close to Him day by day.

In the ordinary course of events, the linen belt, after having been worn for a time would become soiled and need to be washed. The water normally used for this purpose is intended to represent the repentance and cleansing by which Israel might be forgiven and restored; but since she had persistently refused this provision made by God, the prophet was told specifically not to dip it in the water (v.1), but to go and conceal it in a cleft of a rock by the river.

Here it seems to have been left for quite a considerable time (v.6), until in the end the prophet was told to go and recover it. When he did so, he found it very much the worse for wear and, in fact, "ruined and completely useless" (v.7).

And so, because His people had refused the normal process of restoration, God would have to send them into exile. This would not last forever, but when, "many days later," God came to their rescue, they would be but a tattered remnant of their former greatness and glory.

Lord, help me to listen the first time You speak to me in rebuke or warning, and never refuse to hear Your words. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Image: Jeremiah hiding his linen belt

The Point of No Return

Read Jeremiah 8:4-13

The apostasy of the people at this time was far worse than during the periods of backsliding that they had gone through in the past. These had generally ended in national repentance and renewal; but this time it was different. The power to turn seemed to have gone. Their 'homing instinct,' the spiritual equivalent of that which enables migrant birds to return home, had broken down. "They refuse to return."

In our generation we can see another consequence of rejecting God. True wisdom is lost. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom", but in places where He is rejected, it isn't long before history is doctored, art is perverted, and knowledge is willfully misused.

In our last study we saw the shamelessness of the people; in this passage we see more evidence of spiritual decline. The people have become complacent (v.11). They refuse to look facts in the face. The threat to their national security is glossed over and ignored. Could they have said, with some of today's pundits, "The international situation has nothing to do with religion, that's a private affair. We don't expect any major incidents to occur"? In Jeremiah's day, as in ours, commentators must have been quick to come up with all sorts of plausible explanations for their problems. They probably had a bucketful of remedies, too. What they did not have, and what is sadly lacking today, was the courage to call sin by its name. In their diligence not to offend, they offended the Law of God. But their posturing could never work. Prognosis requires accurate diagnosis. You can't supply a remedy for a disease you refuse to acknowledge.

Grant, O Lord, that however badly I may fail, I will never reach the point of no return, and that I will never call my sin by any other name. In the name of Christ my Lord. Amen.

Image: Judgment

Belief Governs Behavior

Read Jeremiah 6:9-21

You sometimes hear people say, "I don't think it matters too much what people believe, as long as they behave decently." But this is nonsense. It is beyond dispute that behavior springs from belief. You cannot divorce life from your fundamental beliefs. Creed and conduct must go hand-in-hand.

In our last study we saw that the people's religion had collapsed and they had given way to idolatry. In other words, their worship was all wrong. It was misdirected! So, it's not surprising to discover that their walk (v.16) had gone wrong, too. They refused to listen to God's voice (v.10), and even when He spoke in a voice of thunder (v.17) they still paid no attention. They were determined to go their own way and to have done with God's Law. As a result, we find them consumed by greed and jealousy (v.13). Corrupt conduct will always follow corrupt faith.

It would not have been so bad if they had been at all concerned about their behavior (v.15). But they had reached the stage where their consciences seemed dead. In Paul's frightening words, "they have become callous and have given themselves up to... practice every kind of uncleanness" (Ephesians 4:19).

O Lord, I ask that, to the very end of my life, whenever that may be, that You will preserve in me a sense of shame at sin. For Your love's sake. Amen.

Image: The Shame of Adam and Eve.

Forsaking God

Read Jeremiah 2:1-13

Two very serious charges are leveled against the people of Israel. You will find them in verse 13.

1. They had forsaken their God. They are reminded of the wonderful 'honeymoon' (v.2) they enjoyed with the Lord in the old days. But their love for Him had quickly cooled. The old, eager question, "Where is the Lord?" as they constantly sought His presence is no longer heard. Now that He had rescued them from Egypt and established them in the Promised Land, God was quietly left out of their national life.

Does God mean all to you that once He did?


2. They had changed their God. If a nation abandons God it must fill its life with something else instead. For many years, materialism, nationalism, and humanism have been the preferred substitutes for the Christian God: things to live for, which make the minimum of moral demands and call for no faith in anything greater than the human intellect. In more recent years the spiritual vacuum has been filled, increasingly, by Islam. And so, the second charge which God brought against His people through the words of the prophet Jeremiah was that they had "changed their God" (v.11). For the one, true, living God whom they had been taught to serve and worship, they had substituted the false gods and idols of the nations all around them; instead of spiritual worship they practiced idolatry.

Have we abandoned our spiritual heritage? Does God rule your life, or do you live by another standard?

Rekindle in my heart, O Lord, the love I had for you at the first; may I lose no chance of seeking You in prayer and in Your Word. For the sake of Christ my Lord. Amen.

Image: Manasseh's idolatry