“As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. Is it I whom they provoke? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers. (Jeremiah 7:16-26 ESV)
God did not command the Israelites to perform sacrifices when they left Egypt according to Jeremiah. Jeremiah said, “But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’” Walk in the ways of the lord that it may be well with you. Do not go after your own ideas or pleasures but walk in what the lord whats for you to do.
Jeremiah goes on to say that God also said, “But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.” They looked after what they wanted to do and and sought their own council and not that of God. They did not walk in His ways, but made their ways to be the way God wanted so they would be right. This does not please God, or men. It sets up a clear us and them.
It makes me think of excommunication and how some are removed from the fold, or not allowed into the gathering because they are deviant. They do not adhere to the ways of the establishment and therefor they are judged as being a trouble to the group. Was there not a man who lived just about 2000 years ago who was a deviant to the establishment? The establishment that Jeremiah is referring to. He was a person who stirred up trouble because He walked in the ways of God, whole those who made the rules He was against. Jesus was excommunicated by the Jewish High Council in the most severe way. They thought they were right, their religion told them so. But they were looking backward rather than forward, scared at what they might see, or have to do…
Who do we exclude because they don’t fit our mold? They don’t fit our understanding of who is allowed? Why do we continue to look backward rather than forward?
God has some amazing things coming down the road that you do not want to miss, so ‘obey His voice, and He will be your God, and you will be His people. And walk in all the way that He commands you, that it may be well with you.’
aSacredRebel 