Know His Heart Which Yearns Our Return
Scripture Passage: Jeremiah 9:1-16 (NASB)
1 Oh, that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For those slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh that I had in the desert
A travelers’ lodging place;
So that I might leave my people
And go away from them!
For all of them are adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous people.
3 “They bend their tongues like their bows;
Lies and not truth prevail in the land;
For they proceed from evil to evil,
And they do not know Me,” declares the Lord.
4 “Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
Because every brother utterly betrays,
And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
5 Everyone deceives his neighbor
And does not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves committing wrongdoing.
6 Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the Lord.
7 Therefore this is what the Lord of armies says:
“Behold, I will refine them and put them to the test;
For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
It speaks deceit;
With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor,
But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord.
“Shall I not avenge Myself
On a nation such as this?
10 “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And for the pastures of the wilderness a song of mourning,
Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
And the sound of the livestock is not heard;
Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.
11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
A haunt of jackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”
12 Who is the wise person who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed, laid waste like the desert, so that no one passes through? 13 The Lord said, “Because they have abandoned My Law which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, 14 but have followed the stubbornness of their heart and the Baals, as their fathers taught them,” 15 therefore this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them poisoned water to drink. 16 I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have put an end to them.”
SUMMARY
Jeremiah laments for the sins of his people, saying he would weep day and night. Jeremiah calls the Israelites adulterers because of their faithlessness to God and to each other. Every Israelites is a deceiver and slanderer who have taught each other to lie, so much so that “they weary themselves with sinning.” God says the Israelites have become so sinful that He has no other course but to punish them and avenge Himself for their faithlessness until Jerusalem is a “heap of ruins.”
MEDITATION AND REFLECTION
As I read today’s texts, I initially found myself feeling discouraged as the Lord’s reproachful words, spoken through Jeremiah, pierced my heart. And I kept asking: “Lord, what exact sins do you want to point out? What do you want to teach me?”
One verse that kept coming repeatedly was the verse 3.
“They bend their tongues like their bows;
Lies and not truth prevail in the land;
For they proceed from evil to evil,
And they do not know Me,” declares the Lord.
How many times during the day do I bend my tongue like a bow, think and say hurtful lies to myself about God?
How many times do I think in my heart when I am distressed, “where is God”?
How often do I forget God’s grace, which brought me out of the wilderness? How often do I say, even after receiving such grace, that God is against me just based on my present circumstances?
How easily am I overcome by anxiety and fear because I don’t trust the Lord and instead constantly doubt Him?
How quickly do I run to the voices of the enemy, which tell me to maintain control of my own life instead of believing and surrendering to the Lord?
Lies and untruth prevail in my heart and surround me. I not only believe these lies but pass them on to those around me, especially when I am irritated and impatient, and as a result I end up hurting those around me.
As God tells me in this passage, this is why I feel He is distant from me. This is why I don’t know the Lord and why I feel at times God is against me, when He is actually for me.
APPLICATION
I get easily stuck inside of my own negative thoughts and emotions when things don’t go the way I want them to go. The trigger for my negativity could be my relationships with people, my work, my kid or even my health. And once I become stuck, I allow my mind to fill me up with lies, fear, anxiety, doubts and despair. Instead of clinging to His Law and obeying His Voice (ver. 13), I stubbornly follow my own heart and the idols of self-pity and self-righteousness. Whenever I get into that mode, I need to take concrete steps to escape. Even if it means going outside physically and taking a walk while spending time in personal prayer and listening to my favorite praise song. Another way to get outside of my own sinful thoughts is to meet with my fellow believers. The pandemic has limited my chance to have such fellowship until now, but now that things are opening up again I will set aside time to fellowship with and pray for my sisters.
PRAYER
Lord,
Time after time, I fail to fully understand and receive your love. I so easily stumble, fall and give up, filling myself with the enemy’s endless lies and deceit. I shudder in anxiety and fear because my faith is so weak. But today, Lord, you once again come to me. Through the words of Jeremiah, you paint an image of you like a fountain of tears, weeping day and night for your daughter and her pain. Your heart is breaking because I keep denying you, still living like the orphan who only follows my own stubborn heart. You grieve because I am still living like someone who does not know you, even though you have shown yourself and your love again and again to the point of shedding your own blood on the cross and suffering the worst, unimaginable pain so I may know how much You love me. Forgive me Lord. And help me to stop speaking deceitful lies to myself. Instead, help me to speak the truth. The truth of your love and your promises. May my dwelling not be in the midst of deceit but be in your words of everlasting love.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
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