August 23, 2017 Bible Study — God’s Message Is Directed To Those Who Might Listen

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 49-50.

    Throughout his life Jeremiah prophesied that God would bring judgment against the people of Judah for their sins. His focus was on them because they were God’s special people. In today’s passage we have a record of some of Jeremiah’s prophecies against the other nations of his day. Those nations were no better than Israel and Judah, so they too would suffer. Even these prophecies were directed to the people of Judah. If you look at them, unlike the prophecies which Jeremiah spoke against the people of Judah, they contain no advice on changing behavior in order to avoid the coming destruction. These prophecies remind us that those who make no attempt to do as God commands will suffer the same consequences for sin as those who give lip service to His commands. We cannot avoid the consequences of sin by dedicating ourselves to a belief system which says that they are not sin. The Book of Jeremiah is an important lesson for us today. While Jeremiah prophesied the coming destruction of the idolatrous nations surrounding Judah, the bulk of his prophecies were directed at those who considered themselves the people of God. In the same way, while we are called to confront the world about its sins, the bulk of our concern about sin should be reserved for ourselves and those others who consider themselves the people of God.