“What are you doing, O devastated one? Why dress yourself in scarlet and put on jewels of gold? Why shade your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.” -Jeremiah 4:30
The family is up and about for church and she’s once again having a difficult time deciding what to wear. Forty pairs of shoes, twenty pairs of pants, hundreds of blouses and dresses, yet she still can’t decide. The fashion police scares her, and on the worship center’s red carpet, she gets the attention of the paparazzi congregation, and focuses to live up to that ‘responsibility’. Everyone is ready for church except her.
This modern day scenario may seem funny and quite true in our respective families, but it is as well reflective how we Christians today tend to be like the Israelites. This Christian worships the glamor of the world. She has given way to modern-day idols. Her God has become herself, and to please her desire and please people have taken over meeting, focusing and experiencing God.
Jeremiah Chapters 4-6 depict Israel’s sin, Jeremiah’s frustration and describes God’s anger. Israel has given way to the gods of other nations and wore jewelry and gold to favor gods, instead of God. They have forgotten their identity and forgotten God’s love, mercy and compassion to their nation. God saw the nonsense Israel was doing, and this spurred God to give them an intense awakening.
We go to church and our focus is on our appearance. We go about our business in school and work and our focus is on getting ahead. Does this describe you?
Application
Do we wait for God’s wrath to realize that we sometimes choose the world instead of Him? Pray and ask for forgiveness now.
