Alexandra Shloss

My heart was heavy as I read more prophecy and destruction in the book of Jeremiah. I asked God to help me find some practical truths, and while I am sure there are many, here are two I’ll share.

First, it is so easy to ignore God’s commands! How many chances did people get to repent? So many! And for generations, they just ignored God. I imagine it became easier and easier the long they sinned. Aren’t we the same way? We can live in sin and justify it—we can even twist Scripture to justify it! The deeper we get in a particular sin, the easier it becomes to shut out God’s truth. There was a time in the not-too-distant past (and I say this with a mix of shame and gratitude for God’s grace) that I was not living in a way that was pleasing to God. I felt the Holy Spirit pricking my conscience, but I pushed past it. I had a long list of excuses. And the longer I lived that way, the less I even thought about it. Thankfully, I changed, and I look back and can’t believe that was ever me! But that’s the way sin works. It's so sneaky. How many of us would have been destroyed in Jeremiah’s day?

My honest overall reflection after reading last week’s readings? I’m so grateful for mercy and grace. We had six more chapters of Jeremiah’s prophetic warning of destruction on the people because they weren’t obedient.

Throughout all of this, though, Jeremiah still spreads hope. He tells them God will let them rebuild their lives after this judgment. This is the God we hear about more at SoGF—the God of mercy and the God Who blesses. I think most of us know God is also a God of judgment, of righteous anger, of holy wrath (and if you didn’t know before reading Jeremiah, you’re seeing it now), but I feel more comfortable with the God of love, grace, mercy. This reading was a good reminder of what life would be like without Jesus.

Well, this reading was rough. If you followed along with the reading, you read about some of the prophecies that Jeremiah was famous for. I don’t know why God told Jeremiah to have some of these elaborate visual aids to go along with His words, but Jeremiah did as he was told, and he certainly faced opposition because of it. He had to tell a lot of people that they were being sinful and that God was going to destroy them because of their disobedience. Once again, Jeremiah was captured and given a death sentence, and once again, he tells them “You’ll be killing an innocent man and this prophecy is still going to happen.” He escapes the death penalty and lives to deliver more tough news that we’ll be reading in the next few weeks, but he only BARELY escapes. Ugh. I don’t know why people weren’t listening. I’d like to believe I would—but who knows?

Jeremiah is full of judgment and bad news. It can be tough to read, but chapter 17 is full of beautiful chunks of wisdom from God, little truths that are incredibly powerful instructions for life.

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord. … But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit’” (v. 5, 7-8, NLT).

I started going to church because my mom made me, but by the time I was in 9th grade, I went to church every time the doors were open because I wanted to—and for all the wrong reasons. For me, church was a social outlet, not something I considered part of my spiritual journey. It was clear that most of the youth group, including a particularly cute boy, were what would be considered “the good kids.” I watched them, and I adapted my words and actions so that I sounded and looked like them, but nothing in my heart changed.