#DailyDevotion The Lord’s Warnings To Israel, The Church Should Take Heed
November 5th
Read Jer 7:1–29
Jer 7:3-7 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. (4) Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ (5) “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, (6) if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, (7) then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever…
Oh what a great warning for us, Christ’s holy Church! The Jews in Jeremiah’s time did have faith in the Lord, but they had faith in the Lord’s house! We are to put no trust in any created thing, even if it appears right and good to do so. Look how the Jews were before the exile. They went to the Lord’s house to worship and then they went to foreign gods and worshipped them as well. They lived lives that were not in keeping faith with the Lord. Their actions of oppression display the lack of faith in the Lord their God. Yet, the Lord sends the prophet Jeremiah to warn them, to call them to repentance. The Lord knows though they will not repent. So the most horrific thing happens in verse 16. The Lord tells the prophet not to pray for or intercede for this people. He will not hear his prayer. There can be no worse condemnation for them than that.
So what about us dear Christians? What or who is our trust in? We say we have faith in Jesus. Is it manifest in our lives? Do we go to church on Sunday mornings only to live lives worse than our pagan, heathen, a-religious and atheistic neighbors? St. Paul warns us, 1Co 6:9-10 “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, (10) nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” And again, Gal 5:19-21 “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, (20) idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, (21) envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Take heed and warning Christians lest you find yourselves living this sort of life.
Paul also reminds us, 1Co 6:11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. And Gal 5:22-24 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (24) And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Having the salvation of our God from damnation, the devil and our flesh and having the intercession of our Lord (Rom. 8) let us not return again to our former wicked ways. For in them is death and destruction. Remember you have been washed, sanctified and justified in Christ Jesus. It Jesus’ doing this in Baptism, in Confession and Absolution, in the Sermon, in the Lord’s Supper that we crucify our flesh and lives the lives worthy of our salvation.
Lord Jesus Christ, do not cut us off from the vine of your salvation when we sin, but by your intercession call us back to you in sincere repentance of faith in your work. Amen.