Lamenting the Consequences of Sin

 

By:  Dale Weckbacher

 

Text:  Jeremiah 4:19-31

 

Jeremiah 4:27

For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

(ESV)

 

Sadly, there is rarely the mention of sin in many Churches today out of fear of driving people away and with them their contributions to the Church.  However, sin is serious with God and brings with it a death penalty (Romans 6:23), and since we are all guilty of sin, everyone lives under this death penalty (Romans 3:23).  Thankfully, God has provided a legal means of escaping this death penalty through belief in the death burial, and resurrection of His son, Jesus (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Romans 10:9-10).  The role of the Church is not numerical growth and increased financial contributions but instead the pointing of people to redemption from sin, which cannot occur without the mention of sin from the pulpit.  This will result in numerical growth and increased contributions as people come to Christ and faithfully attend services to grow in their relationship with God and give out of love and service to God. 

 

Jeremiah 4:19-31 is a lament of Jeremiah brought about by the continued rebellion of Judah against God.  Judah has no excuse for they have seen how their sister Israel has played the whore in their rebellion against God.  However, instead of learning a lesson from what happened to Israel, Judah takes the same rebellious path and is about to suffer exile from their land due to an invasion from the North.  In the passage, Jeremiah,

 

1)      Laments the pending destruction of Judah and the ignorance of the people (Jeremiah 4:19-26) – Jeremiah is not writing his prophecies from the safety of some foreign land but is living in Judah and hears the alarm of war (Jeremiah 4:19-21).  His greatest lament, however, is not the sound of pending attack and war but the foolishness and stupidity of the people who are wise in doing evil but ignorant when it comes to doing good (Jeremiah 4:22).  From his vantage point as a resident in Judah, Jeremiah is aware of the consequences of the invasion from the north which will render the land formless and unfruitful (Jeremiah 4:23-26).  This rendering of the land to formlessness and unfruitfulness is symbolic of what continued rebellion against God does to one’s soul and consequently to the soul and spirit of their nation. 

2)      Laments the resulting destruction of Judah (Jeremiah 4:27-31) – While the destruction of Judah will not be complete or permanent (Jeremiah 4:27), it will have dire consequences.  Since Judah and Israel are God’s chosen people, their going into exile will cause the earth to mourn and the heavens to turn dark due to the absence of Godliness in the land with the rebellion of God’s people.  Instead of remaining strong in their faith in God, Judah continues to worship pagan gods while fleeing the land God has given them out of fear (Jeremiah 4:29-31).  The Church must guard against falling into the same trap by worshipping the gods of building large mega facilities and organizations, enriching themselves on contributions at the expense of preaching the Gospel, which includes calling out sin. 

 

Jeremiah 4:19-31 is not in scripture to provide a historical account of the invasion of Judah from the north for that is historically recorded in 2 Kings 25:1-21.  Instead, this passage is a warning from God through the prophet Jeremiah urging Judah to repent and turn to God by telling them the severe consequences of their sin of rebellion.  With this and many other warnings, Judah stands at a fork in the road and must decide whether to continue in rebellion or repent and turn to God.  Unfortunately, Judah chooses rebellion and goes into Babylonian exile with those remaining in the land fleeing to Egypt out of fear of the Chaldeans (2 Kings 25:22-26). 

 

This passage stands as a warning to nations like the United States today who are living in rebellion against God.  The rebellion began with the removal of prayer and the Bible from school and replacing it with a secular humanistic post-modernistic philosophy void of truth with truth defined as whatever one believes is right.  This has led to the cheapening of life in the interest of providing a means of elimination of unwanted pregnancies through abortion.  The rebellion has continued to where we now see rebellion against biblical marriage between a man and a woman through the condoning of gay marriage.  The rebellion against God has now reached a new low with the acceptance of transgenderism, which is a slap in the face of God, telling Him that he made a mistake with their created gender.  The passage in Romans 1:18-32, written by Paul to the Romans describes the United States and many other nations in the world today.  I encourage those reading this to pray for repentance in the United States and other countries of the world living in rebellion against God and that revival would sweep through the United States and the world.

While there is nothing wrong with large mega Churches, the attracting of people to the Church must be due to the drawing of people to the Church due to lifting up Christ (John 3:14-15).  This will involve the mention of sin and the need for one to repent of their sin which is the purpose of Jesus coming and dying for our sins.  For revival to occur in our world, the church must lift up Christ, trusting God for numerical growth and financial provision.