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Daily Devotions

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 
Day 
Day 225

"Ask now among the Gentiles, who has heard such things?"

Text: Jeremiah 18:13

UNHEARD OF THINGS!

The Lord continued to reach out to the children of Israel in every way possible. He appealed to reason. He urged them to even consider the example of Gentiles and their behaviour!

“Therefore thus says the LORD:
‘Ask now among the Gentiles,
Who has heard such things?
The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?'”
Jeremiah 18:13-14

1. “Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Ask now among the Gentiles, who has heard such things?'”

a) The Gentiles
i) Israel did not respect Gentiles much.
ii) The nation looked down on them as being “inferior” in many ways.
b) What could the Gentiles teach them?

“Has a nation changed its gods,
Which are not gods?
But My people have changed their Glory
For what does not profit.”
Jeremiah 2:11

i) Nations do not change their “gods”.
ii) Many nations added “gods” to their pantheon.
iii) But the children of Israel had changed their God who was their Glory for idols that do not profit!
c) Who indeed had heard such a thing!
i) To change God for what are not gods.
ii) To change their Glory for what is inglorious.

2. “The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing”

a) God had regarded Israel as a pure virgin.
b) Yet, Israel had given itself to harlotry (Idolatry).

3. “Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon, which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?”

a) Lebanon in those days was famous for two things:
i) The majestic cedars.
ii) The unpolluted snow water which flowed from the rock to the field.
b) These were cold flowing and refreshing waters.
c) Would anyone forsake such waters for “strange waters?”
i) Unknown waters
ii) Untested waters
d) It would be a very foolish nation who would forsake God who is described as “the fountain of living waters” (Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13).