Jeremiah 7:29-34 –Unimaginable consequences for undealt sins

In 2 Kings 21:1-9, we learn that Manasseh ascended to the throne in Jerusalem at age 12 and reigned for 52 years. When he first started, he co-reigned with his father Hezekiah. It was not until age 22 that he ruled Judah all by himself. The passage highlighted a few things that marked his wicked reign. Firstly, he led the nation back into the abominable idolatrous worship of the foreign nations which God had Israel gotten rid of.  Secondly, he allowed the high places which his father had removed to thrive again. Thirdly, he adopted Baal and Asherah worship like King Ahab of Israel. Fourthly, he indulged in the worship of the starry hosts. Fifthly, according to 2 Kings 21:5,“…he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.” He had violated God’s plan for establishing His own name in Jerusalem. Sixthly, he made his son pass through the fire, and seventhly, he practiced all sorts of witchcraft by consulting mediums and spiritists.

Against the backdrop of what Manasseh did, we can understand why Jeremiah called for the people of Judah to mourn and lament in Jeremiah 7:29-34.  They had done so many detestable things to warrant the judgment of God. Death would overtake them shortly. Hence Jeremiah called on them to mourn and lament. He words to them in verse 29 words were: 

‘Cut off your hair and cast it away,
And take up a lamentation on the bare heights;
For the Lord has rejected and forsaken
The generation of His wrath.’

 

Jeremiah 7:31 said that they had even built a high place at Tophet in the valley of Hinnom and emulated the worship of Molech by offering their sons and daughters as burnt sacrifices. In so doing, they were setting themselves up for unwarranted slaughter. Ben Hinnom, the place in the south of Jerusalem where they carried out their abominable act would be known as the valley of slaughter. It would become a dumpling place for their corpses. And their dead bodies would not be left to rot in the sun for they would be freely consumed by the birds and the beasts with no one to drive them away. In other words, God’s unhindered wrath would be poured out to make Judah a total ruin. And it would be a place of joyless gloom totally devoid of gladness.

 

Sin undealt with always go from bad to worst. Wisdom dictates that we deal with it as soon as the Spirit of God alerts us. We must not become so accustomed to sin till we become oblivious that we are offending God.  The first instant our conscience alerts us to sin, we must confess and repent from it before things get from bad to worst.