QT 3 Jun 11

Jer 1:14, 16 (NIV) The Lord said to me, "From the north disaster will be poured out on all who live in the land. ...

16 I will pronounce my judgments on my people

because of their wickedness in forsaking me,

in burning incense to other gods

and in worshiping what their hands have made."

NOTE: God's second prophetic piece of information to Jeremiah is the knowledge that Babylon will be coming to attack Judah.  In vs. 16, God provides his reasons, and they are three-fold.  The first reason, God names as wickedness, and it is the act of forsaking God.  To forsake means to abandon or to renounce, give up.  Israel gave up on their faith in God.  Maybe they became too sophisticated, too knowledgeable to still believe.  More likely, and consistent with the next few verses, they found a faith that suited them better, that they were more comfortable with living.  God calls it wickedness.  The statement that there are many ways to God is another form of wickedness because it is untrue.  The God of the bible is the only way, and in these last days he has made himself known through his son, Jesus Christ.  Jesus is now the only way to the Father (John 14:6).

God's second reason for judgment is the burning of incense to other gods.  To burn incense is most commonly associated with prayer.  The people sought to have their prayers answered by other gods -- maybe they didn't like the answers that God gave them.  Maybe they did not like all the "no's" in response to their selfish prayers.  Rather than exercising faith that God knows what is best, they chose another god.

God's third reason for judgment is the worship of what man's hands created.  God exists only -- he is not created.  There is no creation, no feasible work, no imagined beauty, that can encapsulate the greatness and glory of God.  Any work merely brings God down to our level.  Any work dismisses the glory and power of God.  We worship created things rather than the creator.  We need to reserve our worship for God alone.