the passage today cuts to the heart. the prophet jeremiah uses a series of metaphors to illustrate judah's refusal to come back to the Lord. outwardly the people made a show of confessing and repenting of their sins through a series of reforms instituted by king josiah, but the Lord knew it was "only in pretence". whatever profession of faith they made was irrelevant because they persisted in their evil ways.
the warning of jeremiah is just as relevant today as it was in his own time. jeremiah was mocked, derided and abused by the people to whom he was sent to preach. he was told from the beginning of his ministry that none would return to the Lord, even as he was commanded to tell them to do so.
this is alarming. we are much too like the people of judah. like them, we have the privilege of hearing God's Word on a regular basis. we are lulled into thinking our situation before God is not that serious by the relative stability of our lives. nothing that "bad" happens--therefore we keep putting off doing the very thing that is most urgent and needful.
we will give account one day for every word we heard from God. did we repent when the word was preached, or did we ignore what we heard? Jesus states that for some, the preaching of the word leads to repentance; for others, it leads to a further hardening of the heart. the word hardened the hearts of the people in jeremiah's time. i pray that the same may not be said of us--if it is, how great and justified and right the condemnation will be on the day of the Lord's coming!
may God give us a spirit of true repentance for our sins. not outward, not temporary, but permanent, eye-opening, life-changing. may we leave our life of sin once and for all.