July 12: Jeremiah 8
Joshua 16-17; Psalms 148; Jeremiah 8; Matthew 22
God reiterates His coming wrath upon His people: they will prefer death to life when it’s over (1-4). The problem is not their sin, but that the people refused to turn from their sin (1-7).
And why was this? Because their leaders “healed the wound of my people lightly” (11a), by applying lies to their wounds instead of truth (11b). They teach the people the lie that God will always bless and protect them, no matter what they do.
Around one-third of the references to lies in the Old Testament are found in Jeremiah. For him, all the other sins spring forth from this root sin of telling lies.
These lies come from liars who are so emasculated by their sins that they have no strength left for truth. Thus they commit all kinds of abominations, in the form of rank idolatry and rampant abuse of the vulnerable (see yesterday’s entry for Jeremiah 7). The scribes (8; the first mention of “scribes” in the Old Testament) commit all kinds of actual and metaphorical adultery against God. Thus God will turn the tables and allow their wives to fall into the hands of others (10).
We too are a generation of emasculated liars who love to be lied to by the same. So it has never been so important for God’s people to build themselves up into Christ by speaking the truth in love to one another (Eph. 4:15), leading to repentance.