April 28, 2022 8:00 pm
Chemotherapy reduced the tumor in my father-in-law’s pancreas, until it didn’t. As the tumor began to grow again, he was left with a life-and-death decision. He asked his doctor, “Should I take more of this chemo or try something else, perhaps a different drug or radiation?”
The people of Judah had a similar life-and-death question. Weary from war and famine, God’s people wondered whether their problem was too much idolatry or not enough. They concluded they should offer more sacrifices to a false god and see if she would protect and prosper them (Jeremiah 44:17).
Jeremiah said they had wildly misdiagnosed their situation. Their problem wasn’t a lack of commitment to idols; their problem was that they had them. They told the prophet, “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord!” (v. 16). Jeremiah replied, “Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed him or followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations, this disaster has come upon you” (v. 23).
Like Judah, we may be tempted to double down on sinful choices that have landed us in trouble. Relationship problems? We can be more aloof. Financial issues? We’ll spend our way to happiness. Pushed aside? We’ll be equally ruthless. But the idols that contributed to our problems can’t save us. Only Jesus can carry us through our troubles as we turn to Him.
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Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. My name is Mike Whitmer and I title today's reading Spiritual Diagnosis.
Should I take more of this chemo or try something else? Perhaps a different drug or radiation? The people of Judah had a similar life-and-death question. Weary from war and famine, God's people wondered whether their problem was too much idolatry or not enough. They concluded they should offer more sacrifices to a false god and see if she would protect and prosper them. Jeremiah said they had wildly misdiagnosed their situation. Their problem wasn't a lack of commitment to idols. Their problem was that they had them. They told the prophet, We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord. Jeremiah replied, Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed Him or followed His law or His decrees or His stipulations, this disaster has come upon you. Like Judah, we may be tempted to double down on sinful choices that have landed us in trouble. Relationship problems? We can be more aloof.
Financial issues? We'll spend our way to happiness. Pushed aside? We'll be equally ruthless. But the idols that contributed to our problems can't save us. Only Jesus can carry us through our troubles as we turn to Him. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Jeremiah chapter 44 verses 16-18 and 20-23.
We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord. We will certainly do everything we said we would. We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and we'll pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.
At that time, we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we've had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine. Now picking up at verse 20. Let's pray. Jesus, You are all we have. We'd rather fail with You than succeed without You. In Your name we pray. Amen. Today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-04-25 13:32:02 / 2023-04-25 13:33:26 / 1
