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Jeremiah 22:1-4 Can't we just be nice to each other? Day 207

Good afternoon,

  I think I have mentioned this before, but prophets rarely had a positive message of encouragement.  The endurance of the OT prophets in face of opposition is a message that a godly life is not easy or free from challenges.

Blessings

Jeff

Jeremiah is given a message for the king of Judah, but God does not use his name.  In the Navy, we were taught that saluting higher ranking officers was respect for their position, not the person.  I wonder if the sons of Josiah (the last good king of Judah) had misused God's name, so  God refuses to use the king's name.  God valued the position of the king, but not necessarily the person.  

God's call is no different than before.  He just repeats it again. Focused on the Second Table (horizontal relationship between people).  There is no mention of the First Table (vertical relationship between man and God).  I find this interesting because the First Table is really a prerequisite for the Second Table.  In a Christian worldview, It is impossible for men to treat each other with respect without an understanding of God as the judge.  Modern secular societies think that people can be good without God.  Many have tried, but no one has been successful.  This is not to say that all men mistreat each other.  But as a Christian, I credit this to common grace, not the "better angels of our nature."

By calling Judah to a "just society," He is also indicting them for being an unjust society.  It they were already doing justice and righteousness, there would be no need for God to tell them to do this.  The fact that they had been unjust for long stretches of their history tells us that it is unlikely that they were going to change.

Some would point to this passage as an example that Judaism was really just a moral code and that if they were good enough God would accept them.  Of course this would mean that man can earn his salvation which is not the message of the gospel.  What is more, it is not the message of the OT law.  In sermon this morning (4/11) Jonathan mentioned "moralistic therapeutic deism" as prevalent error in the church today.  Making people better people is not the gospel message.

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