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Jeremiah, September 15
Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee
in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb
I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Jeremiah 1:4, 5
.
The Lord gave Jeremiah a message of reproof to bear to His people,
charging them with the continual rejection of God’s counsel; saying, “I have
spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me.
I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and
sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend
your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in
the land which I have given to you and to your fathers” (
Jeremiah 35:14, 15
).
God pleaded with them not to provoke Him to anger with the work of
their hands and hearts; but they “hearkened not.” Jeremiah then predicted the
captivity of the Jews, as their punishment for not heeding the word of the
Lord. The Chaldeans were to be used as the instrument by which God would
chastise His disobedient people. Their punishment was to be in proportion to
their intelligence, and the warnings they had despised. God had long delayed
His judgments, because of His unwillingness to humiliate His chosen people;
but now He would visit His displeasure upon them, as a last effort to check
them in their evil course.
In these days He has instituted no new plan to preserve the purity of His
people. He entreats the erring ones who profess His name to repent and turn
from their evil ways, in the same manner that He did of old. He predicts the
dangers before them by the mouth of His chosen servants now as then. He
sounds His note of warning, and reproves sin just as faithfully as in the days
of Jeremiah. But the Israel of our time have the same temptations to scorn
reproof and hate counsel as did ancient Israel. They too often turn a deaf ear
to the words that God has given His servants for the benefit of those who
profess the truth.—
The Signs of the Times, February 12, 1880
.
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