Jeremiah 16:10-13
10 “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12 and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
Our sin is often motivated by rebellion and the desire to be free of any constraints. We think "If only I could do whatever I want, and not be bound by the stifling rules of the Bible". But the truth is that we will always be constrained by something, either by our service to God or by our service to sin. This is what the addictive process is all about; we think we are free and independent in our sin, but we become enslaved to the sin, unable to control our behaviors. Thus God says in these verses that a consequence of the people's sin is that they "shall serve other gods" (verse 13). They wanted to be free of God, but in the process they became enslaved to false gods. The question I need to ask myself, is who am I going to serve?
Lord, help me to serve You and accept Your rule in my life.
10 “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12 and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
Our sin is often motivated by rebellion and the desire to be free of any constraints. We think "If only I could do whatever I want, and not be bound by the stifling rules of the Bible". But the truth is that we will always be constrained by something, either by our service to God or by our service to sin. This is what the addictive process is all about; we think we are free and independent in our sin, but we become enslaved to the sin, unable to control our behaviors. Thus God says in these verses that a consequence of the people's sin is that they "shall serve other gods" (verse 13). They wanted to be free of God, but in the process they became enslaved to false gods. The question I need to ask myself, is who am I going to serve?
Lord, help me to serve You and accept Your rule in my life.