Amos Rails against Injustice
Judgment on Israel and Judah
God Will Never Forget
Jeremiah 14:1-10 The Message
Time and Again We’ve Betrayed God
14 1-6 God’s Message that came to Jeremiah regarding the drought:
“Judah weeps,
her cities mourn.
The people fall to the ground, moaning,
while sounds of Jerusalem’s sobs rise up, up.
The rich people sent their servants for water.
They went to the cisterns, but the cisterns were dry.
They came back with empty buckets,
wringing their hands, shaking their heads.
All the farm work has stopped.
Not a drop of rain has fallen.
The farmers don’t know what to do.
They wring their hands, they shake their heads.
Even the doe abandons her fawn in the field
because there is no grass—
Eyes glazed over, on her last legs,
nothing but skin and bones.”
her cities mourn.
The people fall to the ground, moaning,
while sounds of Jerusalem’s sobs rise up, up.
The rich people sent their servants for water.
They went to the cisterns, but the cisterns were dry.
They came back with empty buckets,
wringing their hands, shaking their heads.
All the farm work has stopped.
Not a drop of rain has fallen.
The farmers don’t know what to do.
They wring their hands, they shake their heads.
Even the doe abandons her fawn in the field
because there is no grass—
Eyes glazed over, on her last legs,
nothing but skin and bones.”
7-9 We know we’re guilty. We’ve lived bad lives—
but do something, God. Do it for your sake!
Time and time again we’ve betrayed you.
No doubt about it—we’ve sinned against you.
Hope of Israel! Our only hope!
Israel’s last chance in this trouble!
Why are you acting like a tourist,
taking in the sights, here today and gone tomorrow?
Why do you just stand there and stare,
like someone who doesn’t know what to do in a crisis?
But God, you are, in fact, here, here with us!
You know who we are—you named us!
Don’t leave us in the lurch.
but do something, God. Do it for your sake!
Time and time again we’ve betrayed you.
No doubt about it—we’ve sinned against you.
Hope of Israel! Our only hope!
Israel’s last chance in this trouble!
Why are you acting like a tourist,
taking in the sights, here today and gone tomorrow?
Why do you just stand there and stare,
like someone who doesn’t know what to do in a crisis?
But God, you are, in fact, here, here with us!
You know who we are—you named us!
Don’t leave us in the lurch.
10 Then God said of these people:
“Since they loved to wander this way and that,
never giving a thought to where they were going,
I will now have nothing more to do with them—
except to note their guilt and punish their sins.”
never giving a thought to where they were going,
I will now have nothing more to do with them—
except to note their guilt and punish their sins.”
For Reflection
Who
are the people God is abandoning to their own devastation? From these
passages it is hard to discern. Although the prophet pleads for God to
help these people God will stand down in this case. These are the
people who lead others to worship false Gods. These are the people who
followed the false prophets. These people are not pleading their own
case before God. They are not repentant. The prophets plead their case
for them.
God condemns blind leaders and blind followers equally. God has not commissioned them. God has not sent them on an angel's mission. Impenitent sinners will fall from their own folly. When those who deny God are overwhelmed with trouble they suffer from their own wickedness.
Pray
God condemns blind leaders and blind followers equally. God has not commissioned them. God has not sent them on an angel's mission. Impenitent sinners will fall from their own folly. When those who deny God are overwhelmed with trouble they suffer from their own wickedness.
Pray
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