“And when the people ask, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.”
~ Jeremiah 5:19
Hi James and Ellen,
How would you live your lives if you did not believe that a divine Being – Who is called God, created all things? How would you live your lives if you did not believe that a divine Being – Who is called God, is right now in a place that is called heaven watching every move that you make? How would you live your lives if you did not believe that a divine Being – Who is called God, wrote the script for the lives that you are living on planet Earth and will live in heaven? Your grandpaa will never understand how a divine Being – Who is called God – Whose peerless power – because He is omnipotent, created all things, Whose searching eyes – because He is omnipresent, watches over all that He has created, and Whose inescapable presence – because He is omniscient, knows exactly what is going to take place or said before it takes place or said would design on planet Earth’s stage an entry door that opens up to apostasy or a complete rejection of Him by the earthly beings that He created. Jeremiah was convinced of the existence of a divine Being. Jeremiah wrote about his relationship with the divine Being – Who is called God, and about what God’s expectations were of him as one of His mouthpieces or spokesmen to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah’s writings were compiled in a book which is now known as the Jeremiah Book. Jeremiah 5 identifies the issue that God expected Jeremiah to counter with a warning of pending doom if . . . God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem had been manipulated by their circumstances and environment – which was influenced by a dastardly snake of a spirit, to live lives that were self-appeasing and self-gratifying. The lives of God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem were no longer being influenced by a zealous fervor to pursue a sincere, genuine relationship with their Creator God.
You may sometimes think that as you read the Bible that then was then and now is now. Jeremiah lived about 2600 years ago. God’s specially chosen guys and gals today have still not accepted the fact that God did do what He said that He was going to do for them – that He would redeem them once and for all with a ransom payment – Who would be Himself as God the Son. If your dad and ma owned a house in the city of Jerusalem 2600 years ago, your dad and ma probably would be doing fine financially, they would be worshipping handmade idols made from clay, wood, rocks and metal and they would be rabid party goers where anything and everything went. If you were living with your dad and ma in the city of Jerusalem about 2600 years ago, you would not pay attention to what they told you to do. Kids who were living with their dads and mas in the city of Jerusalem 2600 years ago could see that the leaders in the city of Jerusalem were doing just as many wicked things as the poor guys and gals were doing who were living in the city of Jerusalem. Jeremiah could not find even one guy in the city of Jerusalem who believed in a divine Being. Every guy and gal who was living in the city of Jerusalem during the time that Jeremiah was doing his thing as a prophet spokesman for God, felt like it was just fine to cheat, lie, pursue illicit relationships, ignore caring for the orphans and poor, be unfaithful to the laws that were given to them by God through Moses and refuse to listen to God’s mouthpieces or spokesmen. God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah had seen what had happened over 100 years earlier to their northern cousins who lived in the land area of Israel; they just did not think that it was ever going to happen to them. Jeremiah would use metaphors to explain his case to God’s specially chosen guys and gals. Jeremiah told God’s specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem that they would be attacked by lions who lived in the forest, ravaged by wolves who lived in the desert and torn apart by leopards that will be lurking outside towns in the land area of Judah for a guy, gal or kid to eat. God made it clear to His specially chosen guys and gals through Jeremiah that they would be exiled one day soon by a distant, ancient nation – which would be Babylonia.
A way that your grandpaa reconciles why there has been and still is such misery and evil on planet Earth is that this is one way that God can showcase His grace and mercy to the guys, gals and kids who He has specially elected to be His adopted kids. Verse 19 is God’s answer to why He had to do what He did to His specially chosen guys and gals, “And when the people ask, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.’” Your grandpaa wonders at times that this just may very soon take place in the United States. Of all the nations or countries that exist on planet Earth today – other than for the guys, gals and kids who are living in Israel, the guys, gals and kids who are living in the United States may have be given the best underpinning of Biblical truths and heart relationships with God the Father to jumpstart believing in God’s redeeming power. God was honored and put on center stage by a baby nation 245 years ago on the day of this editing. The relationship that many guys and gals had at that time with the divine Creator of all things – who is called God, has been badly bruised and bashed by atheists, foreigners, self-seekers and embryo killers to where your grandpaa is sensing more and more that God is now letting the United States wallow in the same mucky sin bogs that most every other country and nation that is on planet Earth has made as their filthy sin bogs. Jeremiah’s warnings are as valid today as they were 2600 years ago.
Jeremiah 5 (494)