Today we are reading Jeremiah 16. In this chapter we read about the experience of God’s people in exile—in captivity where they have been taken as slaves. Why do they suffer? “”And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’” Jeremiah 16:10-13 ESV “Every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.” That kind of sounds like the guy I see in the mirror. Why are we so stubborn? Why do we insist on our own way? When we rebel against God how does our life go? God is gracious and merciful. He eagerly desires our repentance! May God melt our stubbornness with His great love! Pastor Tim
