This semester I am taking a class on the book of Jeremiah. We just started today [it's a Focused weekend class], because our teacher was out of town on Thursday and Friday. We were in class for about five hours and got through chapter five of Jeremiah. I really enjoyed today's class. I've never studied the prophets, really, so I'm excited to learn more. Now, while I took many notes and wrote down a few side thoughts based on what our teacher [Mr. Summa] went over, one thing that really stuck out to me comes from the following verse:
' "Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception," declares the Lord.'
[Jeremiah 3:10, NASB]
Judah's sister, Israel, had gone astray and was not faithful to God, and Judah did not learn her lesson from Israel. So she, just as Israel had, turned away from God and participated in pagan worship. Mr. Summa noted that Judah used temple worship as a mask [of deception]. They didn't care about God or His law. It was an external act of worship; their hearts were not part of the worship at all.
That got me to thinking... Many continue to do this today - "Christians" especially. Most people like to use the phrase "going through the motions" because it's a nice way of saying that they don't righteously worship God or care about the states of their hearts. I wonder how many people think, 'Yeah, I'm a Christian... so I go to church on Sunday, make sure people see me - especially the pastor - and then I'm good to do whatever the heck I want during the week! Who's gonna know? The only time I see those people is at church...' They don't worship God with their lives. And they obviously don't care about their relationship with Him.
This is heartbreaking.
' 'Return, O faithless sons,' declares
the Lord;
'For I am a master to you,
And I will take you one from a city
and two from a family,
And I will bring you to Zion.'
"Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding." '
[Jeremiah 3:14-15, NASB]
No comments:
Post a Comment