Jeremiah 9:1-26

Tears are the natural byproduct of physical or emotional pain.  Jeremiah cries because of the plight of His people to the point that He is all cried out.  The people cry because of the punishment they experience due to their idolatry.  God cries because His chosen people have rejected Him and refuse to return to Him despite His numerous efforts to call them back to Himself and be reconciled with them.  There are plenty of tears to go around due to both physical and emotional pain.  If only those tears would produce a true turning back to the Lord.

JEREMIAH WEEPS OVER THE REBELLION OF HIS PEOPLE: Jeremiah has seen the rebellion and idolatry of His people as well as the consequences this rebellion will bring upon them in the future.  This knowledge has overwhelmed him with tears.  He is discouraged by the hard hearts of his people and would like nothing more than to be able to turn his back on them and be relieved of any responsibility for them.  Their mouths are full of lies.  Their evil grows unchecked to the point that nobody can trust their neighbor or even a family member.  They have no desire to know God.  This rebellion will bring upon the refining fires of God’s wrath.  This will bring on even more weeping from Jeremiah as he sees the land of his people destroyed and the city of Jerusalem become the home of wild dogs.  Sin and the lack of knowing God will always bring great heartbreak to us and to our leaders.

THE PEOPLE WAIL OVER THE RETRIBUTION OF GOD: As the people experience the retribution from God for their sins, they wail due to the condition of their land and their own pain.  They have brought this condition down upon themselves due to having forsaken the Law of the Lord.  Their wicked hearts have been their guides instead of the Word of God and now they are paying the price.  They will be scattered and enslaved to the nations.  Women will wail as if they had lost a child to death.  Their eyes will flow with tears as they see the land destroyed and all of their homes become rubble.  This will not be just a short period of captivity and destruction because God tells the wailing women to teach their daughters how to wail too because the following generation will find no relief.  The bodies of men will pile up in the fields with nobody to bury them.  The retribution for our sin is always far greater than we would imagine and far outweighs any pleasures experienced through sin.


GOD WAITS FOR THE REPENTANCE OF HIS PEOPLE: God calls for men to come before Him with a humble heart.  Men cannot boast about their wisdom or riches because they can all be stripped away or made of no consequence.  God waits for men to repent of sin and seek to know Him, love Him and practice love, truth and righteousness.  God is planning a day when all the gentile idolatrous nations will be judged.  Unfortunately, Israel will also experience this judgment because of the uncircumcision of their hearts.  God longs for His people to recognize their sin, turn from their sin and seek to know and love Him with all of their hearts.  It does no good for us to follow religious rituals if our hearts are far from the Lord and unrepentant before Him. 

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