Tenchi
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Jeremiah 18:11-12
11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
' Thus says the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you:
return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.'
12 And they said, 'It is hopeless: but we will walk after our own devices,
and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.'
When the prophet Jeremiah spoke the words above, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem had long departed from God, serving false gods, and pursuing the dictates of their evil hearts. They were so deep into sin that they had taken up even the abominable practice of child sacrifice!11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
' Thus says the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you:
return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.'
12 And they said, 'It is hopeless: but we will walk after our own devices,
and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.'
Jeremiah 19:3-5 (NASB)
3 and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold I am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle.
4 "Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent
5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind;
When the prophet Jeremiah spoke the judgment of God upon the wicked religious leaders of Jerusalem and Judah, urging them to return to the Lord, warning them of the terrible plan God had devised against them, their response was astonishing! Unabashed and unrepentant, the leaders replied, "It's hopeless! We're too far gone in our own way to return to God's. We're going to continue to follow the evil imaginations of our own hearts!"
What a stark and disturbing scene! Not a shred of conscience remained within the leaders to whom Jeremiah issued his dark and dire prophecy. This is no surprise, really, given the heinousness of their demonic crimes. No one who could burn children to death upon the red-hot arms of Molech in open defiance of the command of God would be moved by the threatenings of His messenger. And they weren't. But rather than defend their indefensible deeds, the leaders simply shrugged their shoulders and admitted that they were too far gone into evil to turn back from it.
What did they mean? How could they take this view? Why was it hopeless to try? Well, they had passed through a gradual process of transformation, small step by small step migrating from God toward paganism. Along the way, God had diminished in their minds and hearts, shrinking from view as false gods grew large, gods that reflected their human (and devilish) designers, exciting the basest, most selfish and perverse impulses of human imagination. Temples of evil worship on hilltops and in groves were erected, priests installed and idols carved as the minds and hearts of the people of Judah and Jerusalem slowly yielded to the insatiable darkness within them (Jeremiah 17:9), growing rock-hard, and stone-cold, and inky-black. Orgies were held, obscene rituals performed and, finally, children were murdered, their screams and blood exciting the depraved minds and hearts of those who killed them. These were the wretched beasts who, hearing the judgment of God upon their wickedness, could only reply, "It's too late now. There's no hope for change for us. We're going to keep on following the evil of our vile imagination."
That would never be us, we think. We would never do such things! Never! But, then, in our modern, North American society, often with the help of our taxpayer dollars, millions of children have been sacrificed upon the altar of human selfishness, in abortion clinics torn apart in the womb, their limbs, organs and tissues sold for money to research laboratories. In our modern society, popular singers in their music videos enact sodomistic sex with the devil, or sing of the gushing fluids of their sex organs, or urge wild rage and violence upon their listeners to a chorus of foul cursing. In our modern society, we cannot say what a woman is, and call it "affirming" when impressionable children are chemically-castrated, or have their body parts cut off in pursuit of a delusion foisted upon them by perverse ideologues. In our modern society, the depressed, or poor, or disabled, or sick are offered a comfortable death rather than help. But we're not so far gone as the awful people of Judah and Jerusalem, right?
While the societies in which we Christians live are clearly well-steeped in darkness, ripe for the righteous, wrathful judgment of God, we in the Church have remained unstained, beacons of pure Light, we are sure, in an ever-darkening world. We would never sacrifice our children to false gods - though we might neglect to warn them off the soul-destroying worship of Self, and the World and the devil (who doesn't really exist, of course). We of the Church would never engage in the gross sexual sins of secular society - though we cannot bring ourselves to confront fornication, divorce, adultery and homosexuality within our own ranks. We, the Church, would never yield to the unrestrained orgies and perverse sensuality of the ancient pagans - though many of us are obese, and/or chase after sensual and hyper-emotional "experiences" of God, laughing or crying hysterically, or thrashing about on the floor in a "spiritual" frenzy, babbling unintelligibly, or are addicted to caffeine, or sugar, or online gambling or video games, or pot, or porn, or our cellphones (or all of these).
We of the Church don't think we are so far gone into rebellious sin that there is no hope for a return to God. Mind you, we won't be told that we ought to be holier than we are; we won't stand for anyone suggesting our neglect of evangelism, and discipleship, and prayer, and study of God's word is wrong. We're fine as we are, thank you very much, and don't you dare say otherwise. We might not enjoy daily, rich, joyful, holy fellowship with God, but we aren't some devil-worshiping pagan. We might constantly collapse into sin (after a brief, perfunctory struggle against it), our spiritual experience flat, grey and frustrating, but this is all there is in Christian living. Only beyond the grave is their something real and transformative with God; on this side, there is only the impossible battle with evil. If you even hint that this isn't so, that some Christians enjoy something better with God than others, well, shame on you! What unmitigated gall you have to say that some Christians have a better, greater, deeper experience of God than others? No, we are all the same: There is no hope for any of us but to toil on in sin and failure until God takes us home.
Might there be some connection between our modern, godless society and its headlong rush into darkness and depravity and the state-of-affairs within the Church - perhaps even a reflection of the latter in the former? Could it be that the salutary effect of the Church upon the world has ceased, the Church itself declaring to God, "It's hopeless!"? When I read of Jeremiah's encounter with the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem and their reply to his declaration of divine judgment and call to return to the Lord, I wonder if the response of the Church today doesn't sound an echo of their reply. I would urge those of you who have not followed the drift of the Church away from God to declare the words of Jeremiah to God's people. Warn them of judgment soon to come; urge them to return to God; and tell them it's not too late to repent. There is yet hope.
Isaiah 55:6-7
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD, And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.
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