1:5 - God's call on the life of Jeremiah highlights God's foreknowledge of everyone. How incredible is it to understand that the God who created everything knows you personally? He has always known you. And just like with Jeremiah - God has a plan for you...a mission for you to live out in this world. Th question is: will you, like Jeremiah, answer the call?
1:7/8 - This is a great verse for Christians of any age, but I think it could really give confidence to young believers. Your usefulness to God is not based on how old you are, or how long you have been a Christian, or whether or not you have all the answers...all that matters is that you choose to trust God and live to serve Him. He will give you what you need to be His missionaries in this world...all you need to do is live by faith.
1:18/19 - Do you understand what these verses are saying to us? God is telling Jeremiah that his ministry will never be successful. He is telling Jeremiah that he will be a prophet who is rejected and ignored...how depressing is that? Sometimes God calls us to difficult tasks - Jeremiah is called to live a counter-cultural life, and he will never see the fruit of the seeds that he plants. Do you and I have the faith to live counter-culturally, even if we never see the results of our faithfulness? Can we have an eternal view and trust that God will use our lives to the benefit of His kingdom even if we can't see it?
2:5 - God, through Jeremiah, is questioning His people - what have you found wrong in me? Why have you turned away from me? Was my love to perfect? Was the freedom and hope that I offered too fulfilling? God is brokenhearted that His people seek to find their value in the worthless things of the world, when He is offering meaning and love on an immeasurable scale. Why do you think we do it? Why do we turn from God to things that we know will eventually leave us empty?
2:11 - God is shocked to see that the pagan nations around Israel who worship non-existent gods have more faith than His people. All around the world, there were people who created their own gods of wood and stone, who would not forsake their gods no matter what. And Israel, the only nation connected to the one and only true God - they keep turning away from Him!
2:13 - When believers, who have been plugged into the Truth, turn away from God - they reject life-giving reality for the broken systems and gods of this world who offer them nothing but temporary pleasure. Everything this world has to offer will leave us thirsting for more...no matter how much we drink, we will never be quenched. Drink deep the living water...drink deep the presence of God.
2:22 - We cannot save ourselves. No matter how good we are - no matter how hard we try - we cannot save ourselves. (Romans 3:12) There is no one good, not even one. We are in desperate need of saving and fortunately we have a God who offered Himself as a merciful Savior.
3:6-10 - This passage describes how God's people continually turn from Him and offer themselves to pagan rituals and false gods. The two nations of God's people, Israel and Judah, actually lead each other astray and encourage one another in their debauchery. They see the sins of the other and allow that to give them licence to sin themselves. It is easy to look back at these Old Testament passages with judgement and question how they could ever allow themselves to fall so far, but I wonder if we as Christians today do the same thing. We may not be running off into the hills to participate in pagan cult orgies, but we buy into the false gods of this culture don't we? Do we give ourselves licence to prostitute ourselves to the ways of the world? Do we fail to live out the way of Jesus because it is too "radical" or too "weird" or because none of the other Christians we know live like that? Do we sit idly aside as we watch generation after generation of our children offered up as sacrifices to the belief systems of our culture? Competition. Success. Achievement. Wealth. Power. Sex. Money. Self.
3:12 - Always, God offers a way for His people to return to Him. Always, God offers forgiveness and mercy after discipline. He is so much more compassionate than I believe I would be in the face of adultery.
3:17 - In book after book of the Old Testament, we see that God's plan has always been for the whole world to come to know Him. His people exist to guide the nations of the world to Him. This is still our mission today...believers should see every day as a mission to show people the way to God through their faith lived out.
3:22/23 - God offers a free return to those who have rejected Him...God offers hope. The temptations of this world are vast and attractive, but they are all a delusion. The things of this world offer us nothing in the end, but emptiness and guilt. Does money offer us eternal worth? Sex? These things offer only momentary distractions from the serious issue...the sense of disconnectedness within us. We were made to be connected to our creator God and our salvation...our purpose...our meaning can only be found in Him.
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