“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory.” Jer. 17:1-3
Devotional Thought For The Day
While it is certain that all sins are equally damnable, deserving of and punishable by physical death and eternal hell, not all sin is the same. There are some sins that turn us away from God, that obscure God from human hearts and minds, that by nature drive people to impenitence and the blindness of idolatry and unbelief. These are what theologians of the past viewed as “mortal” sins, sins which inexorably expel the Holy Spirit and effect spiritual death. While these sins are paid for with the shedding of Christ’s blood – the problem is not some deficiency or shortage in God’s love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness; some sins drive men and women to despise and repudiate such forgiveness. The idolatry of the children of Israel was this type of sin. Idolatry is always integrated with a host of other sinful passions, and as such becomes very difficult to extricate oneself from. God knows when such hardness of heart sets in that repentance is no longer possible – and the children of Israel had reached that point. So their sin is described as being “written with a pen of iron” and “with a point of diamond,” on “the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars.” They had brought their children into such perverse irreligion, and this is what fascinated their children, what was remembered by them.
Because of our sinful nature, human beings will always find what is perverse more appealing than what is good, right, proper, reverent, and truly worshipful and loving. It is a sign of the modern idolatry of our time and generation that many people evaluate and cherish their “spirituality” and “religious exercise” on the basis of what is pleasing to them, what makes them feel better or excites them, what is “memorable.” At the center of this is idolatry to self and one’s pleasure; and such idolatry is then integrated into a variety of other sinful passions and pleasures. The danger in this is that it can easily end as it did for the ancient Israelites, with idolatry permanently etched into one’s heart and altar, while repentance and faith, true knowledge of God and His love, are completely driven out and absent. Only God knows when a heart becomes hardened beyond restoration to repentance, but these are warnings that all of us do well to heed. Religion is not neutral, and we are not neutral; children have to be trained in the rigors of repentance and true knowledge of God. If left to themselves they will obviously move toward what is “pleasing,” to the temptations of the enemy, and will settle in with what is comfortable and affirmed by their sinful nature. When parents involve children in such pleasant idolatry, of course this is what the children will remember. And sadly, this often occurs with the stubborn even within the church.
It truly is the greatest tragedy of human history, that God, Who is love, and Who wills for all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, and Who has provided abundant evidence of His power and prerogatives, and has also graciously provided forgiveness and eternal life for all people, should be shunned and rejected by so many. The great moral turpitude and deadly violence in the world is all based in this rebellion against God. It has been so from the fall and will be so until the return of Christ. While true children of God lament and deplore all aspects of this evil, it is pleasantly comfortable for the vast majority of mankind; if not the violence, then at least the sinful pleasures [including the intellectual arrogance and smugness of unbelief in all its various forms]. That it is permanently etched in certain hearts and minds is made clear in the political ads for abortion candidates, who affirm: “I am _________, and I approve this message.” I would pray “Lord, have mercy,” but there is no mercy for those who repel God’s grace because of their commitment to spiritual darkness and idolatry.
In that these same temptations appeal to our sinful nature, and strike us as reasonable [“Surely God wants me to be happy, to enjoy things and to be comfortable.”], we too must take great care and caution. We too can identify things that “satisfy” and excite us with genuine spirituality and true worship of God, when in fact they are centered in the perversions of our sinful nature. And there will always be a crowd to encourage us, and to go along with us to these “high places,” so the “majority” rule and peer pressure are treacherous buoys for our discernment and judgment. We rather need what Jeremiah offered, what all of the true prophets and apostles of God offered, and that is His written Word. May God Himself cause the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly, and direct our hearts and minds into His love and His wisdom, that these be “etched with a pen of iron” and “the point of a diamond” in our hearts and minds, and also in our altars. When it comes to all other advice and encouragement in matters moral and spiritual, “Caveat emptor!”
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus, protect and preserve from the many subtle and seemingly reasonable ways in which the devil and others lure and seduce us into idolatry and all other manner of evils. Keep us from going with the flow, from just following the crowd, and accepting the wretched amorality and immorality of the associations of men. Keep us in the discomfort of repentance, so that our only peace and joy comes from Your gracious mercy and forgiveness, and Your good and loving will for us to live abundantly. Without Your powerful assistance, and Your pure and faithful Word, we cannot prevail. Thank You for Your salvation! Amen.