Mock....

Jeremiah 5:7-19 "Why should I forgive you?
Your children have forsaken me
and sworn by gods that are not gods.
I supplied all their needs,
yet they committed adultery
and thronged to the houses of prostitutes.
[8] They are well-fed, lusty stallions,
each neighing for another man's wife.
[9] Should I not punish them for this?"
declares the Lord.
"Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?

[10] "Go through her vineyards and ravage them,
but do not destroy them completely.
Strip off her branches,
for these people do not belong to the Lord.
[11] The house of Israel and the house of Judah
have been utterly unfaithful to me,"
declares the Lord.

[12] They have lied about the Lord;
they said, "He will do nothing!
No harm will come to us;
we will never see sword or famine.
[13] The prophets are but wind
and the word is not in them;
so let what they say be done to them."

[14] Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty says:

"Because the people have spoken these words,
I will make my words in your mouth a fire
and these people the wood it consumes.
[15] O house of Israel," declares the Lord,
"I am bringing a distant nation against you—
an ancient and enduring nation,
a people whose language you do not know,
whose speech you do not understand.
[16] Their quivers are like an open grave;
all of them are mighty warriors.
[17] They will devour your harvests and food,
devour your sons and daughters;
they will devour your flocks and herds,
devour your vines and fig-trees.
With the sword they will destroy
the fortified cities in which you trust.

[18] "Yet even in those days," declares the Lord, "I will not destroy you completely. [19] And when the people ask, 'Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?' you will tell them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.'

We cannot mock God. We cannot hear his words to us and laugh them off dismissively, especially when they are words of correction. The people are telling Jeremiah that to them the words of the prophets are wind – like air they carry no weight and have no force. In effect they are meaningless. Yet God tell his prophet that the words he gives him will be like a consuming fire. It is almost as if he is encouraging Jeremiah by saying that he will see with his own eyes the judgement that is about to come.

And that judgement will be terrible and shocking – partly because the people of God have taken his goodness for granted. They are relying on their special place in God’s heart to protect them, no matter how they behave. They have taken no effort to conform their lives to his will. But God is not to be mocked. His judgement is coming. I wonder if there are areas of my life, and the life of the church I am part of, which takes God’s goodness for granted, and doesn’t follow the correction he brings?

Because God will correct us, he will take action to put an end to our destructive behaviour, as he is about to do to the Jews. But even in his discipline his goodness shines through. He is not vengeful and his wrath is tempered. He does not intend to wipe out the Jews, but to send them into exile. He wants them to learn that he cannot be mocked.