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walking in the wrong direction

Jeremiah 5:20-31 (JDV)

Jeremiah 5:20 “Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah, saying:

Jeremiah 5:21 Hear this, you foolish and senseless people. They have eyes, but they don’t see. They have ears, but they don’t hear.

Jeremiah 5:22 Do you not fear me? this is what Yahveh declares. Do you not tremble before me, the one who set the sand as the boundary of the sea, a permanent barrier that it cannot cross? The waves surge, but they cannot prevail. They roar but cannot pass over it.

Jeremiah 5:23 But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts. They have turned aside and have gone away.

Jeremiah 5:24 They have not said to themselves, ‘Let’s fear Yahveh our God, who gives the seasonal rains, both autumn and spring, who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’

Jeremiah 5:25 Your violations have diverted these things from you. Your failures [1] have withheld my bounty from you,

Jeremiah 5:26 because wicked men live among my people. They watch like hunters lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.

Jeremiah 5:27 Like a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have grown powerful and rich.

Jeremiah 5:28 They have become fat and sleek. They have also excelled in evil matters. They have not taken up cases, such as the case of the fatherless, so they might prosper, and they have not defended the rights of the needy.

Jeremiah 5:29 Should I not punish them for these things? this is what Yahveh declares. Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

Jeremiah 5:30 An appalling, horrible thing has taken place in the land.

Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it like this. But what will you do at the end of it?

walking in the wrong direction

I have an extreme supernatural gift of getting lost wherever I go. It is something that I can depend on. If I am faced with two roads to take, I will inevitably chose the wrong one.

Knowing this about myself, I rarely put myself in a situation where I make the choice of which direction to go. It would not make sense for me to usurp my own authority and decide such things, knowing my propensity to judge poorly.

Jeremiah was speaking to a people who also had a record of going in the wrong direction. The unfortunate thing is that his people loved it like that. So, Jeremiah challenged them to think about the consequence of living their lives apart from God’s corrective instruction. If they kept walking in the wrong direction, they would eventually come to a place where even God could not rescue them. Hell is such a place.

Lord, give us the wisdom to pay attention to your word, and carefully follow your Son.

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1 חַטָּאת = failure. Jeremiah 5:25; 14:10; 15:13; 16:10, 18; 17:1, 3; 18:23; 30:14-15; 31:34; 36:3; 50:20.