What Will It Take?

Chapter 1 of Jeremiah is a very disturbing word from God.  Jeremiah was not known for mincing words or sugarcoating the truth.  In fact, God clearly called Jeremiah to boldly proclaim, "I have put words in your mouth.  See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant (Jeremiah 1:9-10)."  Did you notice that that passage is 2/3 on the negative side?  Why?

Over the past few years, we have intensified the work at The River.  We hope to accelerate this project and have a workable/usable building in the spring.  While we also need folks to accelerate giving toward this project, we are hopeful that God and God's people will be faithful and generous.  In doing the work at The River, we have learned, through a lot of sweat, labor, and even some lost blood, that much had to be torn down before we could begin rebuilding.  That 2/3, 1/3 ratio seems to be an accurate estimate of how renovation works!

Here is what is happening in Jeremiah's time.  Through Jonah's preaching in the 750s BC time period, Nineveh (Assyria) is spared destruction.  Assyria grows in power and dominance and becomes a leading world power.  Assyria demolishes the Northern Kingdom of Israel (722 BC).  The Southern Kingdom (Judah) is spared, but continues a spiritual decline and cultural drift from God's plan.  In the battle of Carchemish (605 BC), Babylon defeats Egypt and what remained of Assyria, making Judah an unwilling puppet of the Babylonian Empire, and Jerusalem falls to Babylon in 586 BC.  Babylon's rise is predicted and described by Jeremiah's prophecy.  He spoke hard truth, but Judah did not listen and chose to align with and trust world powers, rather than the God who brought them into the land they occupied.  The message (then and now) ... God is bigger than world powers and greater than the kings and princes of this world.

It took renovation (uprooting and tearing down, destruction and being overthrown) for Judah to look up and see God.  It took "a bronze wall to stand against the whole land- against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land."  That bronze wall was Babylon.  So ... are we on that same road, "forsaking God, and burning incense to other gods and worshipping what our hands have made (Jeremiah 1:16)?"  This is a hard question worthy of our reflection, and (I think) repentance.