Jeremiah Chapters 10-12

10:2 - Again and again God has warned His people that they are not supposed to get caught up in the things that the world gets caught up in. They are not to buy in to the worldview of the pagan people round them and worry about what people who deny God worry about. These warning still stand for us today. Whenever you see people who allow their political, cultural, selfish leanings shape their faith - you see a distorted, twisted and non-Christian brand of Christianity. That does not bode well for life.

10:6-10 - In a stark contrast to the idols described in the verses that come before (v. 3-5), Jeremiah points out the amazing and unchanging nature of God. The other idols are lifeless...they are dead (trees cut down and carved into "gods")...they are unable to move...they are false. Our God is a living God...our God is an everlasting God - which one will you worship? Will you choose to worship money...meaningless material possessions...the adoration of others - these things are not worthy of your worship. You are a worshipper, created by the one and only God to worship Him...don't waste your precious time and worship on anything else.

11:8 - Over and over God gives His people warnings...He calls His people back to Him, but instead of listening to their creator, they choose to listen to the selfishness and evil within them. This is another form of idolatry, it is called self-worship. How well does that usually work out for us? We should each know exactly how screwed up and unworthy of worship we are personally!

11:14 - This reminds me of a Francis Chan teaching I heard a couple of weeks back. He said a man was leaving his wife and kids, and he wanted Francis to pray that he would be able to have a great new start on his new life (If you know anything about Francis Chan...he is probably the last person you would ever want to make this kind of request to). Francis told him to his face that there was no way he would pray a prayer like that. He told him it would be wasting his prayer because the man had chosen to reject everything that he knew was right from God and serve himself. Maybe the reason that we sometimes don't hear from God is that we have unresolved sin and rebellion in our hearts.

12:1 - Jeremiah puts a question before God that has been echoed by people since the beginning of sin. Why does it seem like the evil people in the world prosper? The interesting part about this passage is that God doesn't even really answer his question (It reminds me a lot of the way Jesus answered questions in the NT, which makes sense, since Jesus is God!)...God says back to him in verse 5 - it's really only gonna get worse from here, so you better get ready to keep pushing through. Wow - thanks for the comforting words God. When you look at the words of Jesus in the New Testament, there are no promises that life is gonna get easier when you follow him. In fact, he says that following him is actually gonna make life harder - "people will hate you because of me." Sometimes it seems that the evil people of the world are more successful here because they are taking the easy road...they are living for the here and now, serving themselves, and short-sighted. The only way that believers can deal with the brutality and fallenness of this world is by understanding that there is a deeper reality at play. The evil who find success in their rejection of God's way and the destruction of others, will find that they are lining up a great deal of destruction for themselves when the end comes. God's justice may not always be met out in this life, but it will be met out.

12:8 - God is still answering Jeremiah back when he says that the people of His inheritance have disgraced Him...He even says that He "hates" them, which is one of those verses that makes Christians very squirmy. God hates people?! I thought God was love? Well, in the Hebrew train of thought, hate is not the opposite of love. Do you know what the opposite of love is? It is indifference. When you don't love someone, you are indifferent to what they do and how their lives turn out. God, out of His unfailing love for His people, hates the evil within His people and willing to act to do something about it. That is love.

12:16 - I have lost count of them by now, but this is another verse in the Old Testament that references God's salvation plan for the entire world. Christians need to put an end to the thought that the God of the Old Testament is mean and angry and the God of the New Testament is Jesus. God, as Jeremiah told us, is everlasting. He is unchanging. The same God has existed for all time. He has always had a salvation plan for all the people of the world...He just chose to use a specific people-group (The Jews) to bring that plan to fruition.