C, Pent 14 Proper 17 - Jeremiah 2:4-13 "Yesterday, Today, & Forever"

Jeremiah 2:4-13 Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, all you clans of the house of Israel. 5 This is what the Lord says:

“What fault did your fathers find in me, that they strayed so far from me? They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. 6 They did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and rifts, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives?’ 7 I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable. 8 The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.

9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the Lord. “And I will bring charges against your children’s children. 10 Cross over to the coasts of Kittim and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this: 11 Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols. 12 Be appalled at this, O heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord. 13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

It may come as a surprise that the chosen people of God would be so silly, as to turn their backs on the graciousness of God. It might even surprise you more, that those largely responsible for this apostasy were the priests who became preoccupied with pampering the egos of the Israelites. They turned their backs on what God wanted, and therefore, failed in their office to seek God and lead God’s people with God’s counsel into God’s holy presence.

God had led the people out of Egypt, which was remembered for its cruelty, oppression, and slavery. He then led them through the Sinai wilderness for forty years, where one could remember that God provided all their needs despite being in a barren desolate place.

After this the Lord God led them into the land of milk and honey, Canaan, or what we know became Israel. There they dwelt on the fertile hills and flood plains surrounding the Jordan River. And as they dwelt in this place, God was there amongst them, coming down to be with his people, where he dwelt with them at Jerusalem’s temple after they atoned for their sins through the sacrifice of animals and the sprinkling of blood on the altar and in the Holy of Holies.

But Baal worship prominent in Canaan amongst the native Canaanites enticed the Israelites away from trusting the Lord. The fertility of the land which the Israelites enjoyed was dependant on their trust in God, and their blessings through the keeping of his law. Yet as they had done before many times in Egypt and in the Sinai wilderness, they turned away from the profound providence of God through ordinary things in their lives and sought their destiny in the extraordinary fertility worship of Baal.

In worshipping Baal they turned from God and sought to draw water from another spring. Turning from God was their first sin, and then turning to their own experiences and emotions was their second sin. They sought to appease Baal through cultic sexual practises so he might rain down his seed on the earth fertilising the feminine in an extraordinary climactic sensory explosion of experience. Worship for the Israelites had become no more than an exercise in entertaining the selfish greed of humanity as they turned away from God and turned the temple into a whore house of Baal.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that before long both priest and people had turned away from God in a bid to seek the extraordinary ejaculatory experiences in the hope that this prostitution would bless them with fertility in the soil and in the womb. But it’s no surprise that through their turning away from God toward this evil, their self-gratifying fertility worship had the opposite effect and the people became barren through sexually transmitted diseases and Baal proved to be most impotent of gods and the land became infertile.

Earlier God had said through Jeremiah, “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. 3 Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them”. (Jeremiah 2:2-3) Yet, as we’ve heard, Israel sought to sleep with a god guilty of delivering impotence and infertility. Israel has deviated into desecrating and defiling God’s holiness.

In Hebrews twelve verse eight; we hear that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. What is this sameness? Holiness! Jesus is holy yesterday, today, and forever. But parallel to this is humanity which carries the same nature yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Ever since creation and the fall, so often we seek deviations away from God and his holiness. We are lured into the deception of our experiential feelings and love, which promise much success and empowerment, but deliver little because they are useless and powerless.

Love without the foundation and truth of God’s word is flaccid and impotent. Feelings elevated to the status of faith, see us become pimps of powerlessness. The Holy Spirit was never sent to be a whore to our emotions, our feelings, and our pleasures! Like Baal these are false gods. They are only hookers which give hallucinations of holiness. But really they’re diseased deceptions covered with a thin veil of happiness; mirages in the haze of our sinful natures which dry up the minute we seek to quench our thirst. In turning away from God we can only ever dig water wells that become dry old hell holes of death.

However, we have Jesus Christ. He is God the Son, the word of God made flesh. He was there at creation with the Father and the Holy Spirit, he is here today, and he will remain forever. He with the Father and the Spirit have not changed, God is always the same. He is holy! He was there in our youth, together with the Father and the Spirit. The Triune God came to us and made us the first fruits of his harvest, sowing faith in our hearts, sprinkling us with the grace of his blood spilt at the cross, and giving us peace in the hope of one day dwelling with him in perfected holiness too. This is the place where all our needs will be quenched as we sit in the shade of his glory, for Jesus Christ is the tree of life, from him flows the waters of life.

So as the day draws near, to where our eternal thirst will be quenched forever, where we rest in the eternal presence of our Lord in paradise, we wait on our Lord God Almighty. Don’t be surprised as we wait that he faithfully comes to us. Don’t be surprised that you hear the word of his forgiveness for your sin; that your sins are actually real but are forgiven. Sing to the Lord for he is your strength. He walks with you and me through this life. Yes! Let him carry you through the wilderness of this world. Lie back in his arms and rest in his faithfulness and forgiveness. Open your mouth in faith, and let the Lord fill it.

Have faith in God, not in yourselves. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, which love to attach themselves to your sinful nature. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, by Christ and his food of forgiveness and faith, so the old sinful self is continually drowned. In receiving God’s grace, we are being made holy, as we exchange our worthless idols for the glory of Christ crucified.

Lord — the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours — yesterday, today and forever, Amen.