Jeremiah 2:29-37.  In yesterday’s reading we saw the people of Judah basically ignoring God.  Today’s reading presents their actions as an open fight or argument.  God declares that they are all guilty; they re all rebels against him.  Yesterday we saw God allowing them to suffer the “natural” consequences of their actins in today’s reading we see that sometimes God is more active in the consequences (v. 30).  We also see that the Israelites were not just passive in their rejection of God; they had actually killed messengers that God sent to them (that must have made Jeremiah feel pretty good a he wrote these harsh words to them).

In verse 31 God basically asks, “Do I really deserve this treatment?  Have I failed to care for you or meet your spiritual needs?  Why do you think you need to go somewhere else?”  In ancient times women would wear certain things to indicate their marital status.  We do the same sort of thing with engagement rings and wedding rings.  Some times in a movie or TV show you will see someone taking them off so they can cheat with someone else.  Most of us would consider that wrong (because it is).  In v. 32 God is asking if it normal to just forget we are engaged or married (unfortunately with many people to day it is “normal” but it is also very destructive in our lives and society).  The answer God expects is that it is not normal.  The parallel in our relationship with him is that we should not forget his care for us in the past and we should not go looking somewhere else for care in the future.

But of course cheating isn’t something new and in verse 33 we see the people of Judah described as preparing to “seek love”.  This is not a picture of a married couple preparing to be intimate.  I think this is more like the picture in Proverbs 7:6-23 of a married woman acting like a prostitute and seducing a stupid young man.  The end of that story is very sat with the young man destroyed.  According to Jeremiah 2:33 Judah had become so skilled at cheating that they were starting to give lessons.

Verse 34 describes another type of evil, treating poor people badly, to the point where they have died.  In Matthew 22:34-40 Jesus tells a young lawyer that the greatest commandment on the Law of Moses is to love God with all you are (rather than cheating on Him) and the second greatest commandment is to take care of others (rather than bringing about their death).  Jesus told him that those two ideas really summed up what God want from us.  The issue of “breaking in” is because in the Law you could kill someone breaking into your house and not be guilty of murder.  In this case though the poor people were not breaking into the houses of the people the people were just mistreating them to the point that they were dying.  In spite of their actions the people of Judah claimed to be innocent and felt that God would not hold them responsible for the outcome of their actions.  God assures them that he will deal with them though.

The last couple of verses return to the unfaithfulness of the Jews with respect to God.  The changing of their ways is with respect to political alliances.  Back and forth between Assyria and Egypt.  The problem is that they should have been allied with God not either of theses other nations (the book of Isaiah which we read through earlier deals a lot with this idea of foreign alliances).  Both of theses countries would bring shame into their lives.  The most immediate alliance Jeremiah was dealing with was one with Egypt.  God informs the people of Judah that this new partnership would bring shame into their lives just like their earlier alliance with Assyria had.  They were trusting in these nations but God was not behind them so they were not going to benefit from them.

We are just like the Israelites.  We have God’s word and God’s love and we ignore both of them.  We also make ‘alliances”.   We thing it’s cool to be with the cool people at school or church and we ignore the other people around us.  We are killing these people emotionally and spiritually and we think we are innocent but we are not.  The sad thing is that these types of actions are also killing us spiritually because we are prisoners of our own desires to be cool and we are ignoring God.  We need to admit our guilt, remember the God who loves us and show his love to other (especially the people we normally ignore).

God help me remember you.  Let me be faithful to you.  Help me see those around me the way you see them; as people whom you live.  Help me love them.  Let me be your hands and feet in their lives.  Give me your heart for them.  Thank you for loving me let your love flow through me to others.