Listen to the LORD’s message, you descendants of Jacob, you tribes of Israel. The LORD says: "What accusation did your ancestors bring against me? What made them turn away from me? They worshipped worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They did not care about me, even thought I rescued them from Egypt and led them through the wilderness: a land of deserts and sand pits, a dry and dangerous land where no one lives and no one will even travel. I brought them into a fertile land, to enjoy its harvests and its other good things. But instead they ruined my land; they defiled the country I had given them. The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ My own priests did not know me. The rulers rebelled against me; the prophets spoke in the name of Baal and worshipped useless idols.

"And so I, the LORD, will state my case against my people again. I will bring charges against their descendants. Go west to the island of Cyprus, and send someone eastward to the land of Kedar. You will see nothing like this has ever happened before. No other nation has ever changed its gods, even though they were not real. But my people have exchanged me, the God who has brought them honor, for gods that can do nothing for them. And so I command the sky to shake with horror, to be amazed and astonished, for my people have committed two sins: they have turned away from me, the spring of fresh water, and they have dug cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.

Jeremiah 2:4-13

We all stand guilty before the LORD and in need of His forgiveness. But because He loved us enough to send His Son to die in our place, we can find – before it is too late – the mercy no human court can offer.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.

Our Daily Bread – August 18, 2003