Warning: get your steel-toed boots on this morning. I’m dipping in and out of Jeremiah this morning. Jeremiah was called by God to prophesy to the Southern kingdom of Judah before and during the Babylonian captivity. He was not popular among the Jewish hierarchy because he spoke against their greed and idolatry, proclaiming the coming judgment of the Lord.
Why would God bring such hardship upon His chosen people? “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in the house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’ – safe to do all these detestable things? ‘I have been watching!’ declares the Lord.” (Jer 7:9-11).
The people – God’s people – thought they could commit all these sinful things and worship pagan gods and still run to the Lord for His protection and provision. They believed God was there only to serve them whenever they called for Him. They refused to obey Him but they expected Him to accommodate them. Is it any wonder that He sent the Babylonians to deliver His judgment?
I hope you can see the correlation to the church today. We have taken the Lord God for granted. We have made Him an accessory to our lives – a convenience when we need Him and a Deity-on-a-shelf when we don’t want Him to disturb us. We expect Him to come to our rescue in a catastrophe and fade back into the background when the crisis abates (see 9/11). We have welcomed all sorts of evil and wickedness into the Body in the name of “inclusion” – which means we have excluded Him.
Consider God’s words in the verse above. What might He say to the church today? It ought to throw us to our knees. One thing is for certain – He is still watching. He sees the parades of sin and celebrations of evil in His house. He sees the way we dishonor and discredit Him in our daily lives. He hears us give lip-service to His Word and live as if we have never read it.
I realize this has not been a warm and fuzzy devotional, but it is a word that God has burned into my heart. Make no mistake: God cannot and will never coexist with any other religion or god. He stands alone as the One True God. All others are pretenders to His throne – not the one in heaven, but the one in your heart. Beloved, won’t you give Him His rightful place?