Your Sins Have Deprived You Of Good

Declare this in the house of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah: Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but do not see, who have ears, but do not hear. Do you not fear me? Says the LORD; Do you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as a boundary for the sea, a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass; though the waves toss, they cannot prevail, though they roar, they cannot pass over it. But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. They do not say in their hearts, “Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.” Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have deprived you of good. For scoundrels are found among my people; they take over the goods of others. Like fowlers they set a trap; they catch human beings. Like a cage full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great and rich, they have grown fat and sleek. They know no limits in deeds of wickedness; they do not judge with justice the cause of the orphan, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. Shall I not punish them for these things? Says the LORD, and shall I not bring retribution on a nation such as this?

Jeremiah 5:20-29

God established boundaries for human behavior. Yet a day does not go by without countless violations of His commands, resulting in disastrous physical and spiritual consequences. Amazingly, we often argue that we have the “right” to violate these boundaries.

In the days of the prophet Jeremiah, God’s people had stepped out of bounds, using deceit to become rich and refusing to defend the needy. The result was disaster. Within creation there is inherent order. Violating it has inherent consequences. God in His kindness simply and lovingly communicated to us the order of things so that we can avoid those consequences. We are wise to know and to say within His prescribed boundaries.

Disregarding God’s order leads to disorder.

Our Daily Bread – November 5, 2007