Take Heed
Jeremiah 16:13 “Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.”
It is not necessary to dive into a detailed history of the wickedness of the people of Israel here. The context of this passage tells us what we need to know.
Jeremiah 6:9-12 “For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. "And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' then you shall say to them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me…” (emphasis added)
The people of Israel were stubborn, and evil people, who forsook the Lord, and worshiped and served other (so called) gods and, what's more, they were worse than their fathers before them. Their hearts were so bloated with deception that they even had the audacity to ask these questions: “Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?” And even in the midst of their humiliation - rightly deserved no doubt - they delude themselves by calling the Lord, “[their] God.” Which can issue only one response: puh?! Wuh?!
What is truly shocking about this passage, is that the punishment that was dealt out to them was what their hearts truly wanted, the service to, and worship of, other gods. Their punishment was to finally recognize that these gods can provide them nothing, and that these gods were - in every way - completely bankrupt. There are many applications that we could draw from this passage, but I would like to consider two.
The first is this. We are living in a supposed Christian nation, endowed with all the trappings of what appears like Christianity (churches at every corner and in every place, “in God we trust” on our money, tv evangelists, the notion of a god in our constitution). And yet, we are experiencing accelerated ungodliness, conspiracy rampant throughout (see Jeremiah 11:9-10 for a biblical definition of conspiracy), and debauchery in nearly every direction we turn. I don’t think it is necessary to dredge up much evidence for this. It is perfectly evident. Our culture, our nation, has lost its mind and is off serving other - so called - gods and then the nation - and the evangelical church - looks around at all the mayhem as says “What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?”
It wouldn’t be too much to say that we are a nation that has lost its way. Just look around at the world we’re inhabiting: the unfettered murder of babies, the spoiling of marriage and the defilement of the marriage bed, rampant partiality, unbridled man stealing, and a stupendous idolatry that would leave the Calvin flabbergasted, just to name a few...this reminds me of Proverbs 6:16-19...but thats for another article…
But what is happening, no doubt, is that the nation is off fulfilling its dishonorable passions, and then on the Lord's day, many find themselves in church (or away from church because they don’t like “organized religion”) worshiping the “Lord their God.” But this is the indictment. This is the haughty attitude for which God destroyed his covenant people in Jeremiah’s day. Their fathers went after other gods and then the current generation did even worse than the previous generations. But this is where we find ourselves in America. God’s judgement is evident all around us, and it is because of the mass of idolatry that our nation is guilty of. While some may say, “but the Lord is gracious and full of mercy, he will restore us.” Yes, this is true, if there is sincere repentance and a turning back to the Lord, “but first” he says, “I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols…” Some may also say that America is not Israel, and this wouldn’t be a theologically accurate application. However, the Lord judges nations (Psalm 110:6, Psalm 2, Psalm 33) and he punishes wicked nations. Furthermore, I believe that this nation is where it is today, because of the failure of God’s covenant people to be the prophetic voice that this nation needs. It is the fault of the church, her infidelity to Christ, and her capitulation to the culture that has caused this judgement.
The second point is this:
1 Corinthians 10:12 “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Paul wrote this to the Corinthians in the context of idolatry. As a matter of fact, He is warning them to avoid the same pitfalls that overtook most of the people of Israel (1 Corinthians 10:5) which culminated in what our text is describing to us today: their destruction. The truth is however, we are (as Christians), simply put, just as able and likely to fall into the grip of idolatry as anyone else, even like the people of Israel. I say even the people of Israel because of the great benefit it was to be part of God’s covenant people.
Israel received all the benefits of being God’s people described in v1-4. They saw miraculous signs and wonders, passed through the sea, were baptized into Moses (a type of Christ), ate spiritual food from heaven, and drank from the spiritual rock which was Jesus Christ. Their actions are described as having put “Christ to the test” (1 Corinthians 10:9) which indicates that our Lord was in their midst. Some may say that they were the Old Testament people and did not have the same revelation that we have today, after the death and resurrection of Jesus. To this I would say two things: 1) they did have Christ as we just read and they also had the Gospel (Galatians 3:8) and 2) Paul is warning us of the very same thing, so this is just as much a realty and a danger now as it was then.
Paul warns us to flee idolatry so that we do not again litter our landscape with the carcasses of idols. But, sadly, this has not been the case for much of the sweep of Christianity in this nation. We have in fact either been guilt of idolatry, or complacent with others committing idolatry. It has been the church who has refused to condemn this wicked sin, and prophetically speak to the culture, to turn from its wickedness and turn to the one true God.
The Gospel
But here is the comfort that we so desperately need.
1 Corinthians 10:13-14 “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”
This passage does two things: 1) it encourages us that our God is a gracious God. He will not give us temptations greater than we can withstand and will rescue you from your trials (2 Peter 2:9), but 2) it also rebukes us. Since God keeps us from temptations greater than we can withstand we cannot plead that temptations are an excuse for our sinning. Instead, we are encouraged. God works on our behalf and only then are we told what to do: “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.” Paul exhorts us to flee from it. But he doesn’t just say flee, he tells us how to do this, in 1 Corinthians 9:27, he says, “...I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” We must be a people that will be disciplined in the power of the Holy Spirit, because only then will we have true freedom. Freedom to live faithfully to Christ, and freedom to flee from idolatry and run to the ever present and compassionate arms of our savior (Hebrews 4:15-16)!
The Lord will be praised, and the world “shall know that [his] name is the Lord” (Jeremiah 16:21) and there is simply no other way that it will be. Faithful slaves of Christ are going to endure much hardship, just as Jeremiah did, and grieve for our people (Jeremiahs 8:18), but God will restore his church as he has always done. Read:
Jeremiah 30:11-17 For I am with you to save you, declares the LORD; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished. "For thus says the LORD: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous. There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you. All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant. Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you. Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall be plundered, and all who prey on you I will make a prey. For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the LORD…
