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under-appreciating God

Jeremiah 9:17-26 (JDV)

Jeremiah 9:17 This is what Yahveh of Armies says: Consider this closely, and summon the women who mourn; send for the skillful women.

Jeremiah 9:18 Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us so that our eyes may flow with tears, our eyelids be soaked with weeping.

Jeremiah 9:19 Because a sound of lamentation is soon to be heard from Zion: How devastated we are. We are greatly ruined, because we have abandoned the land; our dwellings have been torn down.

Jeremiah 9:20 Now hear the word of Yahveh, you women. Pay attention to the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters a lament and one another a dirge,

Jeremiah 9:21 because Death has climbed in through our windows; it has entered our fortresses, cutting off children from the streets, young men from the squares.

Jeremiah 9:22 “Speak like this: ‘This is what Yahveh declares: Human corpses will fall like manure on the surface of the field, like newly cut grain behind the reaper with no one to gather it.

Jeremiah 9:23 ” ‘This is what Yahveh says: The wise person should not boast in his wisdom; the strong should not boast in his strength; the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.

Jeremiah 9:24 But the one who boasts should boast in this: that he understands and knows me – that I am Yahveh, showing covenant faithfulness, justice, and righteousness on the land, for I delight in these things. This is what Yahveh declares.

Jeremiah 9:25 ” ‘Look, the days are coming – this is what Yahveh declares – when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised:

Jeremiah 9:26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the open country who clip the hair on their temples. All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.'”

under-appreciating God

Benson [1] comments on verses 23-24:
“Let not men value themselves on account of their wisdom, strength, or riches, which are things in themselves of a very uncertain continuance, and such calamities are coming, in which they will stand the owners of them in very little stead. The only true, valuable endowment is the knowledge of God, not as he is in himself, which is too high an attainment for poor mortals to pretend to, but with respect to his dealings with men; to have a serious sense of his mercies to the penitent, of his judgments to the obstinate, and of his truth and integrity, in making good his promises and threatenings to both.”

The people Jeremiah was prophesying to had over-appreciated who they were, and underappreciated who God was. Death was coming to them through the windows and in the streets, and they were not prepared for it – yet they stubbornly refused to seek the only one capable of helping them.

Our generation has many such people. They need to be warned that something is coming which they cannot handle. God will either be their rescuer or their destroyer.

Lord, we appreciate who you are. Help us to share your words of warning with those who do not.

[1] Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments.