Israel had a unique relationship with Yahweh, their Covenant Lord. From Israel's history, we learn that Israel became divided after the reign of King Solomon. His son Rehoboam caused the nation to be divided into the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Living unfaithfully to the call placed on them, Israel fell into the hands of Assyria and was destroyed in 722 BC. Judah continued till 586 BC and was taken into exile by the Babylonians for the same reason. She should have learned from the experience of the North and been faithful to God, but she did not. She continued on the path that brought destruction to their northern brethren.
Judah’s
horrible sin was absurd. Her appalling response to the kindness of God was
unheard of among the nations. The purpose of the two rhetorical
questions asked in Jeremiah 18:4 was to contrast the faithful of nature to the
unfaithfulness of Judah. God used the all-year-round snow-capped mountains in
Lebanon and the swift-flowing streams of water down the slopes to show that
even nature was more faithful than Judah. Choosing to be unfaithful, Judah had
rejected their Covenant Lord. They
pivoted from their true God to pursue a new relationship with those worthless
gods. Stumbling all the way, Judah departed from the faithful path and pursue a
relationship with those worthless gods and actively burnt incense to them.
In
choosing to abandon God, they had chosen the consequence of their choice.
Verses 14-17 then detail the impending suffering that would be coming on them.
Judah would become a desolation and an object of scorn and sneer. Everyone who
passed by her desolate remains would be aghast by what had happened to her. The
people of Judah would be scattered before their enemies much like how a strong
wind would disperse leaves. God would also turn his back on them on the
day of their calamity. In their time of desperation, all they could see would
be the back of God and not His face. In other words, God would turn His back on
them.
Just as he prized faithfulness from Judah, God is looking for faithfulness in our relationship with Him. We must treasure our relationship with God and learn to be faithful to God in the little things in life. Our ability to remain faithful all the way lies in being faithful to the little things we face each day. Faith in God demands faithfulness. The word faith can be defined as fidelity. Hence, the life we now live, we must live it by the integrity of the Son of God who loves us and died for us!
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