Jeremiah 18:15-16 – A Testimony Either Way
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“Because My people have forgotten Me,
They have burned incense to worthless idols.
And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
From the ancient paths,
To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
16
To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.
"History is," Will Durant in The Age of Louis XIV gives the call, "a race between art and war."
We are at once in the dust of the derby and gawking from the grandstands. God's Word is faultless guide, but we willfully choose where to linger and allow even it to distort our view. By grace, give it to extol, as Jeremiah has been in the run-up to Jeremiah 18:15-16, the art of redemption, and we will begin to declare our own beauty.
What a piece of work, or art, is man, am I, that God would go to that trouble, would pay that price, would have the nations paint the picture for me that He offers refreshment like the Lebanon snow! What a beautiful tableau… about me!
Jeremiah 18:15-16 addresses this sticky self-sweetness in the heart of man. No sooner do we realize that we, accurately with Scripture, are wooed and persuaded, than we begin to see the drama of our decisions at history's center. We may even find ourselves withholding, delaying, the right decisions of submission because we LIKE the tension and attention. Forsaking the REAL drama that comes from walking humbly and obediently in the's good works Christ preordained, we get caught up in self-centeredness.
The storyline is not about us, though, as these verses made clear. God will get His glory. He will captivate the attention of the nations by the opportunity He gives his own for repentance, and by the scandal that some who appeared to be His will turn away from the opportunity of grace. Declares Stephen Charnock in The Attributes of God, "The decrees of God make use of the sins of man for the glory of His grace."
One who since is God's gentleness, persuasion, offered refreshment should let conviction and humility do their work to the ultimate degree. This is most meaningful compared to the rightful alternative. God's wrath is what we deserve. The vindication of His reputation, one way or another, is the arc toward which the great narrative of the ages bends.
The war which man purports to make for a season will be incorporated in the grandeur of His calm and premeditated art. His proprietary work is a chance for some of the paints to switch from dark to light and to be used for purposes only He could render.
“Because My people have forgotten Me,
They have burned incense to worthless idols.
And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways,
From the ancient paths,
To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
16
To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head.
"History is," Will Durant in The Age of Louis XIV gives the call, "a race between art and war."
We are at once in the dust of the derby and gawking from the grandstands. God's Word is faultless guide, but we willfully choose where to linger and allow even it to distort our view. By grace, give it to extol, as Jeremiah has been in the run-up to Jeremiah 18:15-16, the art of redemption, and we will begin to declare our own beauty.
What a piece of work, or art, is man, am I, that God would go to that trouble, would pay that price, would have the nations paint the picture for me that He offers refreshment like the Lebanon snow! What a beautiful tableau… about me!
Jeremiah 18:15-16 addresses this sticky self-sweetness in the heart of man. No sooner do we realize that we, accurately with Scripture, are wooed and persuaded, than we begin to see the drama of our decisions at history's center. We may even find ourselves withholding, delaying, the right decisions of submission because we LIKE the tension and attention. Forsaking the REAL drama that comes from walking humbly and obediently in the's good works Christ preordained, we get caught up in self-centeredness.
The storyline is not about us, though, as these verses made clear. God will get His glory. He will captivate the attention of the nations by the opportunity He gives his own for repentance, and by the scandal that some who appeared to be His will turn away from the opportunity of grace. Declares Stephen Charnock in The Attributes of God, "The decrees of God make use of the sins of man for the glory of His grace."
One who since is God's gentleness, persuasion, offered refreshment should let conviction and humility do their work to the ultimate degree. This is most meaningful compared to the rightful alternative. God's wrath is what we deserve. The vindication of His reputation, one way or another, is the arc toward which the great narrative of the ages bends.
The war which man purports to make for a season will be incorporated in the grandeur of His calm and premeditated art. His proprietary work is a chance for some of the paints to switch from dark to light and to be used for purposes only He could render.
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