Jeremiah 10:23-25 – Have a heart for God

Jeremiah, the prophet showed how deeply he knew the fallen nature of man. So in Jeremiah 10:23, he states the obvious. He said that a man in himself has no capacity  to live a God-pleasing life. It’s true that mankind since Adam’s fall had inherited a nature that’s not only self-centered but also self-serving nature. His fallen tendency is to take the path of least resistance and cannot count on himself to take the right step. Jeremiah knew that well. Without the help of God, the fallen man would only gravitate toward his fallen propensity.  

In Jeremiah 7:16 God was so disappointed with Judah that He instructed Jeremiah not to pray them. His words to the prophet were, “As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you.”  Think of how sad the day would be if God would give up on us? Let’s never allow our life to come to that moment.  We must be tender-hearted toward God always.

 

In verses 23-265, we see Jeremiah found a way to intercede with the merciful God. While praying for himself, he was also vicariously interceding for the people of God. He identified with his people and acknowledged that as weak human beings, they did not have the ability to live an orderly and God-pleasing life. Isn’t this also how David prayed in Psalm 103:13-16? 

Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
For He Himself knows our frame;
He is mindful that we are but dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;

As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

When the wind had passed over it, it is no more,

Ans its place acknowledges it no longer. 

 

Jeremiah acknowledged that if God were to give Judah what they deserved they would be destroyed and reduced to nothing. In verse 25, he cleverly slipped in a prayer asking God to redirect His wrath on Babylon, Judah’s enemy instead. For they were people who did n0t know or acknowledge God. Besides, they had devastated Judah and laid waste to her habitation.

 

These verses in Jeremiah 10:23-25 tells us that Jeremiah was a person with a heart and passion to please God despite the hard time he was going through. He showed us that God was everything to him in life. The only desire he had was to have what God had installed for him. What about us? Like Jeremiah, let’s rightly appraise ourselves and seek to live a life in total alignment with God.