WEEK ONE - DAY FOUR - DEFINING SUCCESS

"I follow God = everything should go well for me."

Even if we aren't adherents of a prosperity gospel theology, doesn't that idea subtly infiltrate our thoughts and affect how we think things should be going for us?  Well, our friend Jeremiah counters that erroneous idea throughout his trouble-filled life.  Jeremiah lived a life which, by the world's standards, could be considered the epitome of failure.  He had no family, no friends and preached to a non-responding audience.  The altar call produced no throngs repenting of their sins.  Rather, they ridiculed him and plotted to kill him.  How would we view a modern-day evangelist that prompted such a response?  We would certainly think that God's favor was not upon him, and we would probably join those who ignored his message.  Does this scenario invoke a sense of warning to us...could it be that we're paying attention to the wrong people.  Have we become like those in 2 Timothy 4;3, "For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God’s truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold," Amplified Bible.  We cannot judge the validity of the message with the size of the crowd (large or small) ...we can only judge it by it's adherence to God's Word. 

And just as we evaluate our spiritual teachers, we must also look at how we're evaluating people in general.  Do we have an eternal perspective when it comes to those that we are holding up in high regard?  Are we elevating people based on their levels of education, wealth, standing in the community, or any other standard based on earthly status?  If so, we're not listening to Jesus' words in Matthew 5 as to who will be highly regarded in eternity.  This chapter is the perfect example of the upside-down theology of Jesus...everything gets reversed.  All of our futile, earthly regard flies out the window when we enter into eternity and those that were overlooked here are rewarded greatly there.  And I can see a smiling Jeremiah leading that parade!  The weeping prophet no more!

Good time to review our weekly Bible verse!  "When I discovered Your words, I devoured them!  They are my joy and my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God of Heaven's Armies!  Jeremiah 15:16"

Good time to review, because reading through Jeremiah 4, today's passage is tough!  Tough reading, tough understanding....just tough!  I guess this is one of those passages that when we devour it, we have to spend a lot of time chewing on it!  Like a piece of tough meat---30 chews per bite before we can swallow it.  This is a chapter that I had to dig into and look at commentaries to start developing my thoughts.  Remember, commentaries and "my thoughts" are not Scripture...but they can make us start thinking in deeper ways and allowing God to open our minds as we then go back to Scripture and ask God to truly see His meaning.

My problem with Jeremiah 4 was that it seemed that God started out by saying, "If you will return...", as though He was allowing Judah another chance to repent and turn, but then by verse 3, judgment is pronounced and in verse 28 He announces, "I have decided and will not turn back."  Jeremiah even says in verse 10,  "Alas, Sovereign LORD!  How completely you have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, 'You will have peace,' when the sword is at our throats!"  So, did God renege on His offer of repentance?  Did He switch midstream and throw Judah under the Babylonian bus?  That is not the God that I have come to know through the rest of the Bible...there has to be more to this.

By reading Matthew Henry's commentary (fyi Matthew Henry died in 1714...his words have been around a while, but I still find his insight helpful to me when a passage is hard for me to get through), he instantly helps me by pointing out that verse 1 is addressed to Israel, while verse 3 is addressed to Judah - two different people groups.  Henry believes that verses 1 and 2 would be more appropriately included at the end of Chapter 3 than the beginning of Chapter 4.  We have to remember that chapter breaks were not in original Scripture writings and have been inserted over the years of Bible translation.  So, sometimes, we need to look at the end of the preceding chapter to get the true flow of the entire passage.  This seems to be the case here.  

So if we attribute verses 1 and 2 to Israel and their state of affairs, then starting in verse 3 we can move forward with Jeremiah's words to his homeland of Judah, who unlike Israel to the north, is still experiencing prosperity and good times.  Jeremiah tells them that God has told them to plow up their unplowed grounds and don't sow among the thorns...these words probably mean something to a farmer, but for those of us who don't come from that background, what do they mean?  My paraphrasing comes to: Tear it all up!  Break through your hardened hearts that haven't been touched by previous warnings and get out of all the thorny entrapments in which you have allowed your lives to be swallowed up.    Or as Matthew Henry puts it, "We must pluck up by the roots those corruptions which, as thorns, choke both our endeavours and our expectations."  I think Jeremiah is telling them, don't expect any change if you don't change the ground in which you're planted.  And God says if they don't do this, there are "hot" times coming!  His wrath will be poured out like an unquenchable fire, because of the evil they have done.  God does not take pleasure in the discipline of His people; but He also cannot allow His people to abide in deliberate evil and let it go without His notice and His response.

But what about that troubling verse 10?  Hear what Matthew Henry has to say about it: "Now, was it God that deceived them? No, he had often given them warning of judgments in general and of this in particular; but their own prophets deceive them, and cry peace to those to whom the God of heaven does not speak peace. It is a pitiable thing, and that which every good man greatly laments, to see people flattered into their own ruin, and promising themselves peace when war is at the door."  Prophets, who unlike Jeremiah were more concerned with their own popularity than with God's truths, had told the people all was well, and the people had believed.  (See Jeremiah 23:16-19)  

But what had God told them from the very beginning, " 

Deuteronomy 28:1-6  "And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out."

15-18  "But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out."

The Judeans cannot claim God had not been clear with them; they cannot claim that He had not repeatedly warned them.  In Jeremiah 4:18, it is declared to them that their own conduct and actions have brought everything they will experience on them.  But in verse 27 is our ray of hope when God also declares that while the land will be ruined, He will not destroy it completely.  

God is a god of return, of hope and of eternal promise.  While Jeremiah has harsh words and words of judgment, he doesn't leave out the words of hope.  How do we think God is looking upon our world today if He was so angered with Judah for turning their back on Him?  How can we expect any lesser judgment than He pronounced upon them?  We don't know God's plans for us, but we know God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7) and our world is getting pretty brazen in its mockery of all things holy.  Will we see earthly judgment prior to Christ's return?  We certainly could.  Could our lives be turned upside down as the Judeans lives were?  They certainly could.  And how would we react?  Would we blame God for abandoning us, or would we realize just the opposite was the cause?  And would we see that ray of hope that God would still be showing us, a return to Him through obedience and faithfulness.  

Or would it be possible for us to hear His words of warning to Judah and apply them NOW, as He begged them to do so He does not have to bear down on us with his rod of discipline?  Would we be willing NOW to plow up our hearts and not put any more effort into the thorny soil---maybe even the thorns of our worldly standards of success---and replant into good, fertile, faithful, godly soil.

Jeremiah speaks to us...will we listen?