Year 6, Day 55: Jeremiah 2

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

When I read Jeremiah 2, it is a very interesting chapter from God’s perspective.  This is largely a chapter about God complaining through Jeremiah about how the people have abandoned Him.  As often happens with the prophets, the complaints from God about the people easily turn into a conversation about character.

How many times in this chapter do we hear God talk about how He brought htem out of Egypt.  But they did not respond.  They did not show gratitude.  They made up their own idols and worshipped them.  They cared more about their own lives and their own gain than they did about the people around them.  They even killed the prophets that God sent among them!  Although God set them up with everything that they needed, the people fell away from God.  They didn’t have the character to stay with God.

However, the character flaws don’t actually start with the people.  Do you hear the condemnation of the leaders of the people in these verses?  The teachers didn’t teach.  The priests didn’t uphold the Law and put God in the public eye.  The failure of the people is absolutely related to a failure of the leadership.  The character flaw about which God complains through Jeremiah is absolutely connected to a character flaw in the leadership, too. 

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