Browse Bible Study Resources

Daily Devotions

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 
Day 
Day 231

"Because they have forsaken Me"

Text: Jeremiah 19:4

GRAVE SINS

The LORD brought the following charges against the children of Judah. These were very grave sins indeed!

“Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place,
because they have burned incense in it to other gods
whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known,
and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents
(they have also built the high places of Baal,
to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal,
which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind).”
Jeremiah 19:4-5

1. “Because they have forsaken Me”

a) This sin was listed as the first of many sins.
b) To forsake the Lord:
i) To reject God.
ii) To abandon faith in Him.

2. “And made this an alien place”

a) Familiar Judah and Jerusalem were no more.
b) The land had become “an alien place”.

3. “Because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known”

a) The burning of incense was an act of worship.
b) The children of Judah were burning incense.
i) To “gods” unknown previously.
ii) Their forefathers did not know these “gods”.
iii) These “deities” were unknown to the good kings of old.

4. “And have filled this place with the blood of the innocents”

a) The land was filled with the blood of the innocents.
b) This was a reference to child-sacrifice.

5. “They have also built the high places of Baal”

a) Features of Baal worship:
i) He was the fertility god of old Canaan.
ii) Associated with this is the promotion of immorality.
b) The children of Israel had built shrines called “the high places”.
i) To offer worship to Baal.
ii) To indulge in all kinds of perverted orgies.

6. “To burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal”

a) The worshippers were offering their sons to Baal.
b) This was one of the rituals.

7. “Which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind”

a) Child-sacrifice was never commanded.
b) Yet the children of Judah were caught up with this.