Day 207, July 26 Chronological Bible Study Timeline. Map. Go to today’s Bible reading (use your browser arrow to return): Jeremiah 1–4
Help for Backsliders
In the summertime, many people climb mountains. Perhaps that is not your passion, but have you ever tried climbing a slippery hill and fallen back time after time? Down you slid again and again and again! You just could not find a right way to get back up that hill! The nation of Judah was like that when Jeremiah prophesied to her—a backsliding nation. Are any of us backsliding in our spiritual life? In today's Bible reading, God offers us a chance to climb back up that hill and stay at the top.
God's Messenger
Today, we begin the book of Jeremiah. The Word of the LORD came to Jeremiah when he was a young man during the reign of King Josiah. God said to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5, NIV). Jeremiah’s ministry will last for thirty-five years.
God gives this humble prophet a difficult assignment—he is to preach messages of judgment to the disobedient nation of Judah until she is destroyed and taken into captivity. These messages will be unpopular, of course. At times, Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, will deliver them with tears. God knows this assignment will be dangerous, and so he encourages the prophet that he will be with him and rescue him when he is in trouble. Jeremiah's messages will also include pleas for the nation to turn to the LORD from their evil ways. God does not want to destroy her.
God-given assignments are not always easy or glorious. It is difficult to confront people, even when LORD leads us to do it, and the motive is a genuine concern for their spiritual lives. We may suffer for it. We may shed tears.
Evidence of Backsliding
Josiah is the last good king of Judah. The king sees that there is idol worship in Judah and the remnants of Israel, so in the twelfth year of his reign he begins to “purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Ashera poles, carved idols and cast images” (2Chronicles 34:3, NIV). However, the people, priests, and his own leaders do not buy into his reforms. They conform outwardly but inwardly they are unchanged.
God gives Jeremiah a vision of the spiritual state of Judah and Israel. He first sees a blooming almond tree. In the Middle East, the almond tree is one of the first to blossom in the spring (The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the O.T., edited by Walvoord and Zuck, ©1985, p.1131) The significance of this image is that God will quickly bring judgment to Judah for backsliding.
The Israelites in Judah worship the LORD in pretense; they travel to the feasts and offer their sacrifices, but secretly they still worship idols (Jeremiah 3:10). They have slipped back from following God; they have turned their backs on him.
Perhaps some of us have done the same thing. Have we forgotten all that God has done for us? Do we hang on to worthless things, sins, and habits, which God finds offensive? Do we nurture our relationship with the LORD, or are we just making a religious show?
The reality of Judah’s situation is also shown in a second vision. A vision of a boiling cauldron tilting down from the north symbolizes the nation of Babylon and its coming war upon all the nations in her path, including Judah. Through Babylon, God's wrath will soon be poured out upon Judah. She will be judged for her idol worship and wickedness.
If any of us have a relationship with the LORD and are backsliding from him, we, too, can expect his judgment (meaning discipline, not condemnation). The LORD does not judge his children because he hates them but because he loves them. He does not want them to stray from him and destroy themselves (Hebrews 12:1-11).
How has Judah slipped? Like an ungrateful marriage partner, Israel, took the LORD for granted and forgot the early days of her relationship with him.
The early days were days of joy! God delivered the helpless and oppressed people of Israel. He protected them from Pharaoh and his armies. Israel worshipped God in holiness, and he provided for her in the desert. The LORD miraculously fed and gave her water, and her clothes did not wear out, although she was in the wilderness for forty years. The LORD gave her great military victories, esteem, and wealth. God gave her a beautiful and bountiful land to live in. He was faithful all the time and kept his promises to her.
But Israel forgot the love God lavished on her and became ungrateful. The Israelites thought the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. She forsook the relationship, and like a prostitute, she sought other lovers (alliances with other nations). She adopted their sinful lifestyles and exchanged her worship of the Almighty God for worthless man-made gods of wood, stone, and precious metals. How appalling! says the LORD (Jeremiah 2:11-12).
Now Judah is committing even worse sins than her sister nation, Israel. God charges Judah,
“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:11-13, NIV).
For these sins the people of Judah bring trouble upon themselves. God continues his words of judgment in Jeremiah 2:19
“Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty. (NIV)
Yet, where does Judah turn to when she is in trouble? To the LORD of course. “Come and save us!” the people say.
“Why do they not look to their own gods to save them?” God asks.
God punishes them, but they do not and will not respond. Therefore, because her stubbornness is like that of her sister nation, Judah will also go into exile. The LORD pleas to both Judah and the remnants of Israel, “Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding” (Jeremiah 3:22, NIV).
How to get Back on Top; the cure for backsliding
How does God cure people of backsliding? To those in exile who want to return to God, the LORD says,
“If you will return, O Israel, return to me,” declares the LORD.
“If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ [instead of other gods] then the nations will be blessed by him and in him they will glory.”
This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground [i.e., repent because you have hard hearts] and do not sow among thorns [seeds of righteousness can be choked out through bad influences].
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD [cut off the layers of your heart until you get to the tender part], circumcise your hearts you men of Judah and people of Jerusalem, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done—burn with no one to quench it.”
So, put on sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us (Jeremiah 4:1-4, 8, NIV).
The cure for backsliding is true sorrow and humility over our sins and a change of heart. Then we will listen to the words of God (found in the Bible), remove idols from our lives, and live in the fear (reverence) of the LORD. Evil influences will bring us trouble, so we avoid or get rid of them. Will we listen and heed the words of God, or will we bring trouble on ourselves? It is our choice (more...).
Unfortunately, Israel and Judah made the wrong choices. God says, “Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart!” (Jeremiah 4:8, NIV). Exile is not pleasant, and it hurts God when it is necessary to discipline his children. But, after they suffer for seventy years, ;the LORD will have mercy on them.
Perhaps our own conduct threatens to bring God’s judgment upon us. Why should we make ourselves suffer? Why not make the right choices and serve the LORD exclusively, so our lives will not be destroyed like the land of Israel? We could lose everything like Israel and Judah. Sometimes, it takes devastation to wake us up and to make us see our need for God. But why lose everything? If we live in the fear of the LORD now, we can experience his grace and favor.
Take-Away Lessons
regarding spiritual backsliding
- God-given assignments are not always easy or glorious. We may suffer for it.
- If any of us are a backsliding children of God, we, too, can expect God’s judgment (meaning discipline). He does not judge his children because he hates them. He loves them and does not want them to stray from him and destroy themselves.
- The cure for backsliding is true sorrow and humility over our sins and repentance from the heart (more...).
- Let us make the right choices and serve God exclusively so our lives will not become devastated like the land of Israel. If we live in the fear of the LORD now, we can experience his grace and favor.
Focus Verse
1Samuel 12:24 (NIV) “But be sure to fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.”
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A Look Ahead: Obstinacy and Its Results
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