All you can eat buffets must thrive along the coast year round because they’re on every corner. I’ve never been able to enjoy a meal with so many offerings because I fill up on the salad, and quantity over quality tends to prevail. Even after trying a small sampling of several items and desserts, I end up feeling uncomfortably full and lethargic.
Gorging myself to get my money’s worth is no longer appealing, but do I ever approach God with this mindset? After all, the Psalmist credits God with saying, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it with good things.” (Psalm 81:10) God did indeed say this, and Jesus also said “it’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you,” (Matthew 15:11) but taking either phrase out of context misses the point. These words from God came as stern warnings.
““Listen to me, O my people, while I give you stern warnings.
O Israel, if you would only listen to me!
You must never have a foreign god; you must not bow down before a false god.
For it was I, the Lord your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it with good things.
But no, my people wouldn’t listen.
Israel did not want me around.
So I let them follow their own stubborn desires, living according to their own ideas.
Oh, that my people would listen to me!
Oh, that Israel would follow me, walking in my paths!
How quickly I would then subdue their enemies!
How soon my hands would be upon their foes!
Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him; they would be doomed forever.
But I would feed you with the finest wheat.
I would satisfy you with wild honey from the rock.””
Psalms 81:8-16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.81.8-16.NLT
We tend to romanticize Jerusalem as God’s holy city as we do our own nation but during the time the prophet Jeremiah delivered God’s messages to her, she was polluted in many ways.
“What sorrow awaits rebellious, polluted Jerusalem, the city of violence and crime!
No one can tell it anything; it refuses all correction.
It does not trust in the Lord or draw near to its God.
But the Lord is still there in the city, and he does no wrong.
Day by day he hands down justice, and he does not fail.
But the wicked know no shame.
I thought, ‘Surely they will have reverence for me now!
Surely they will listen to my warnings.
Then I won’t need to strike again, destroying their homes.’
But no, they get up early to continue their evil deeds.”
Zephaniah 3:1-2, 5, 7 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/zep.3.1-7.NLT
““Look at the proud!
They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked.
But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.”
Habakkuk 2:4 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/hab.2.4.NLT
“Israel treated it all so lightly—she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone.
So now the land has been polluted.
But despite all this, her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me.
She has only pretended to be sorry.
I, the Lord, have spoken!””
Jeremiah 3:9-10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jer.3.9-10.NLT
Prophets and priests galore fed the people what their itching ears wanted to hear in the synagogue and on every street corner. (II Timothy 4:3-4) Jeremiah and a few minor prophets remained true to God and His Word in spite of the ill-treatment they received. Jeremiah delivered the hard truth obediently for nearly four decades.
“This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to his people:
“Do not listen to these prophets when they prophesy to you, filling you with futile hopes.
They are making up everything they say.
They do not speak for the Lord!
They keep saying to those who despise my word, ‘Don’t worry!
The Lord says you will have peace!’
And to those who stubbornly follow their own desires, they say, ‘No harm will come your way!’”
Have any of these prophets been in the Lord’s presence to hear what he is really saying?
Has even one of them cared enough to listen?”
Jeremiah 23:16-18 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jer.23.16-18.NLT
““I have not sent these prophets, yet they run around claiming to speak for me.
I have given them no message, yet they go on prophesying.
If they had stood before me and listened to me, they would have spoken my words, and they would have turned my people from their evil ways and deeds.”
Jeremiah 23:21-22 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jer.23.21-22.NLT
How many times have I demanded my money’s worth from my time with God? When have I depended on a Sunday sermon or weekday Bible lesson to nourish my soul for an entire week? How often have I read my verse for the day and asked God to bless what’s already on my agenda? When was the last time I vented to God about my situation, expecting Him to rend the heavens and manage the players like a cosmic chess match? Have I stopped asking God to guide my steps because He doesn’t give me the map?
I’m no different from the apostles. They wanted it all, on the fast track. They mistook being chosen, allowed to walk with Jesus, for title and position, arguing on more than one occasion about which of them was the greatest. (Mark 9:34) They wanted to always be in the know but Jesus reminded them that there are things only the Father knows, (Mark 13:32) and they were on a need to know basis, same as you and me. (John 14:26, 17:7-8)
“Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them.
He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies.
He will be killed, but three days later he will rise from the dead.”
They didn’t understand what he was saying, however, and they were afraid to ask him what he meant.”
Mark 9:30-32 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.9.30-32.NLT
“So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.””
Mark 9:10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.9.10.NLT
Jesus progressively revealed Himself, the Father, and His purposes to his first followers, and He likewise reveals Himself to us. Were He to give us the whole enchilada, so to speak, we would be left scratching our heads, same as the disciples, afraid to ask what it all means, or worse yet, selectively hearing the parts we prefer to our detriment. A friend once said she had stopped asking God for a road map because if He had given her one, she would only run ahead of Him. Instead, God was teaching her to walk with Him one step at a time.
“Since we are living by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit, following the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”
Galatians 5:25 NLT(NIV)
https://bible.com/bible/116/gal.5.25.NLT
“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.”
Psalms 119:105 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.119.105.NLT
When the time is right, God provides the lightbulb moments. My dad described the Holy Spirit’s teaching and reminding as a mental download. You and I need time to have a conversation. We search for the right words and ask questions of each other to clarify our thoughts. Maybe we come to a consensus but maybe we both need more time to process the situation and come to a mutual understanding. In our conversations with God, as we read His Word and meditate on it daily, He shines light on His truth as we are able and willing to accept it in obedience. However, in a single moment, He is able to open our eyes to see what He intends without words, without struggle.
“The Lord our God has secrets known to no one.
We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.”
Deuteronomy 29:29 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/deu.29.29.NLT
“They were now on the way up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them.
The disciples were filled with awe, and the people following behind were overwhelmed with fear.
Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus once more began to describe everything that was about to happen to him.
“Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law.
They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans.
They will mock him, spit on him, flog him with a whip, and kill him, but after three days he will rise again.””
Mark 10:32-34 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.10.32-34.NLT
Jesus said, “I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe.”
John 14:29 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.14.29.NLT
“Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.”
John 20:8-9 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.20.8-9.NLT
Jeremiah’s warning to those left in Judah and Jerusalem after Israel was exiled to Babylon, the ones who believed they were safe behind their walls and those assuring them that God would not really bring judgement on His chosen nation, rings true for us today. We who identify as one nation under God are not immune to His judgement. We must heed the stern warnings in Scripture and pray for our nation because judgement is coming. Jesus is coming again. The One who is the Way still teaches and reminds by His indwelling Spirit.
“You should keep asking each other, ‘What is the Lord’s answer?’ or ‘What is the Lord saying?’
But stop using this phrase, ‘prophecy from the Lord.’
For people are using it to give authority to their own ideas, turning upside down the words of our God, the living God, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Jeremiah 23:35-36 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/jer.23.36.NLT
“You say we’ve risen to a new age of truth
And you’re calling it a spiritual godly pursuit
You say we’ve risen to a new age of life
And you’re telling me what used to be wrong is now right
But I say,
What if we’ve fallen to the bottom of a well
Thinking we’ve risen to the top of a mountain
What if we’re knocking at the gates of hell
Thinking we’re heaven bound
What if we spend our lives thinking of ourselves
When we should have been thinking of each other
What if we reach up and touch the ground
To find we’re living life upside down
Upside down”
TRUTH: Living Life Upside-Down https://youtu.be/YVWpH6V_jUk
“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT
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