Thursday, September 11, 2008

Be Thou Instructed

Jeremiah 6:8 KJV
Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee; lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.

This passage is, of course, speaking to Jerusalem as a warning of the judgment of God through the Babylonians. In this case, Jerusalem was to surrender to the will of the Lord for them - to be captured. In just the chapter previous God told them not to reason among themselves that "evil" would not come upon them. God said He would bring a nation upon them "from far....a mighty nation...a nation whose language thou knowest not..." And that nation would devour their land.

So now the word of the Lord to Jerusalem is "be thou instructed" The word means to be chastised or disciplined. God wanted Jerusalem to accept the discipline He was about to bring upon them and to be instructed and grow from it.

Then God warned them that if they did not accept this instruction His soul, His vitality would depart from them. Literally, it was being torn away from them.

I wonder how often we have torn the vitality of God's presence away from our lives because we would not accept the instruction that God has for us. Whether that instruction came
In the form of patient teaching of the Scriptures or
Through some form of rebuke or even
In the form of a chastisement

God wanted to mold us into the image of Jesus Christ. And because we refused to accept His instruction in our lives we ripped the power, the vitality, and life of God’s presence from our own benefit.

God help us be instructed.

No comments:

Post a Comment