Pride...No Way to Go, But Down

Human history repeatedly shows us how blinding pride can be. Hitler once claimed as he marched through the eastern countries, "Today Europe, tomorrow the world!" He was dead only a few years later, and Germany was in shambles. Maybe the most dangerous thing about pride is how it distorts reality. People often believe that the ends justifies the means.....this will never hold water before the God of Truth.

Pride??? Who......us??? We see time and again where the countries surrounding Israel (Judah) are marked as prideful. The Israelites are compared to their gentile neighbors when they have followed false gods and turned from the Lord. Does this mean that God considers these countries an enemy, for which there is no hope? Absolutely not! The passages we read today reveal God's concern for these nations. We read about Egypt and Babylon in prophecy denouncing the god, Amon. God explains that there is no other god before Him, and He will see these false gods driven from His lands. Even if the Egyptians didn't hear the word of the Lord in this time, the Israelites certainly did. And, some of Judah had surely adopted the gods of the pagan lands around them. They may have forgotten much of their history, but something tells me they knew what was coming. Jeremiah had been saying it for years.

Even in the midst of all of this chaos, God's promise remains. "I will save a remnant. Do not fear, Jacob." These people shall return, they shall have peace and rest. But, at this time, the Lord has spoken. These people have gone too far, and God is calling them back. The close of these chapters is the prophecy concerning the fall of the Philistines and God addresses Moab. The city, who like Egypt, had trusted in it's own ability, wealth, and powerful name during these years. The city who thought it was strong enough to overtake the world and sustain power. Pride does evil in the sight of God. Pride has not way to go but down.

I continue to be on this journey with you girls. These chapters are hard to reconcile. I will not claim to understand all of this, and hope I never think that I do. I can rest tonight knowing that God is still working on me. He speaks to me through His word. When I decrease, He increases. When He works through me, He works on me. I am humbled when He takes my meager offerings and uses them for His great glory. I pray He removes more of me, and makes room for more of Him......

Can You Hear Me Now?

We have all laughed at that Verizon advertisement on TV and watched it until it really became a by-line for all of us. But this is exactly what I thought of when I read these verses from Jeremiah today.

How many times have you been in a situation where you really wanted some advice - someone to listen to what you were asking and to tell you the truth? But when the advice came, and from a source you respected, you decided not to listen and to do it your own way. Well, here we have this same scenario in today's readings.

A remnant of Judah found themselves in fear and were desperate for some direction. So, they asked the prophet Jeremiah to petition the Lord for direction and tell them what they should do.

Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the LORD your God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the LORD our God" Jeremiah 42:5-6 (NIV)

They promised to listen to what Jeremiah said and obey - yet when his answer came ten days later, they refused to accept it because it was not what they wanted to hear or do. They rejected the word of the Lord and plugged their ears.

Perhaps in your youth it was the "crowd" you were running with - you knew they were not a good influence, and your parents tried to tell you. Perhaps it was a financial decision you needed to make and you asked someone you truly admired to give you some sound advice, but then you decided not to listen and made the purchase anyway. Perhaps it was the "love of your life" but deep down inside you knew there was something just not right - but you married them anyway because you could "change" them, and now are reaping the heartache and disappointments.

What a great lesson for us today. As we look for answers and direction in our daily lives, let us not have our minds already made up. As we read earlier this week, God has a plan for us - a plan to prosper us and not to harm us. Let us be sure we are not asking for God's insight in an area or a decision that we want and then ignore what He tells us. This means we must read the scriptures and let them speak to our hearts. Listen for that still small voice. Ask the godly people around you for insight and wisdom. God loves His children and He has our best interest in mind.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will guide you with My eye." Psalm 32:8

Cisterns

A cistern is "a large hole in the ground lined with rocks to collect rainwater. The bottom would have been dark, damp, and...full of mud."(Life Application Study Bible) I'm going to add that it was probably cool, or even cold since it was dug into the ground. I absolutely cannot stand to be cold. The only thing I hate worse than being cold is being WET and cold. Add to that dirty and dark...well, I'm going to go on record as saying that if you ever desire to torture me a cistern would be a great option. Once again we see Jeremiah tortured by the officials of Judah. I found King Zedekiah's response to their accusations of Jeremiah interesting. "The King can do nothing to oppose you." Really??!! Are you King or are you King? If there was a man in Judah to opposed them, it should have been him. HE was the one who should have been giving them orders, not the other way around.

I'm also going to go on record and pose that King Zedekiah was in a much more miserable prison than even Jeremiah's cistern. When we are slaves to the opinions and approval of others, that is a prison that is terribly hard to break out of. King Zedekiah agreed with EVERYBODY, even Jeremiah at times. Too bad he didn't listen to him. Everything Jeremiah prophesied about him came true. That's the thing about God, he always does what he says he will do.

We have another character enter the picture, and man named Ebed-Melech. He rescued Jeremiah at the risk of his own life. Because of his trust in God and faithfulness to him, Ebed- Melech was spared when Jerusalem fell. (Jeremiah 39:15-18) Again we see that God always looks after his own when we obey him. As Jeremiah told King Zedekiah:

Obey the Lord...Then it will go well with you and your life will be spared.

Jeremiah 30:20

Did you notice what Jeremiah told him would happen if he didn't obey?

"They misled you and overcame you-

these trusted friends of yours.

Your feet are stuck in the mud;

your friends have deserted you."

Jeremiah 30:22

Does that sound a little bit like a cistern to you? Deserted, stuck in the mud, misled.

Unable to rescue yourself.

I have found myself in plenty of "cisterns" of my own making. The absolute worst feeling is that you are completely stuck- with no way out. Ladies, that is exactly how Satan wants us to feel. Stuck in the mud...trapped, deserted and unable to get out. God has already provided the way out...the rope he sent down to rescue us came in the form of his son Jesus. Obey him. Trust him. Then it will go well with you...and your life will be spared. We will all face physical death, but we do not have to walk this life spiritually dead.

In case you haven't noticed, God isn't in the business of always keeping his followers "comfortable." Jeremiah is a prime example. He had to spend time in prison, endure ridicule and spend some time in the cistern. So have countless other martyrs over the years. What are we going to do when God asks us to get uncomfortable? Oh trust me ladies, this isn't an easy one for me to grapple with. I love to be comfortable. We are used to being comfortable here in America. We can thank God for the times we are, and the many many blessings He gives us. But beware of thinking that anything that goes against that isn't from God. As we read earlier in Jeremiah, God knows the plans he has for us. And even the tough times can prosper us, if they are lived in obedience to him.

Of course we never wanted, and never asked, to be made into the sort of creatures He is going to make us into. But the question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what He intended when He made us. He is the inventor, we are only the machine. He is the painter, we are only the picture.

We may be content to remain what we call "ordinary people": But He is determined to carry out a quite different plan. To shrink back from that plan is not humility; it is laziness and cowardice. To submit is not conceit or megalomania; it is obedience.

C. S. Lewis- "Mere Christianity"