God is not Mocked

“We have turned pale because we have heard reproach; shame has covered our faces, for foreigners have come into the holy places of Jehovah's house.” (Jeremiah 51:51)

Many have written of this time besides Jeremiah. There is Isaiah, Daniel, writers of some psalms, Zephaniah, Micah, Nehemiah and Ezekiel to name a few. The Babylonians invaded Jerusalem, took them captives, sacked the treasures out of the temple and burned the temple down. Asaph lamented, “A Psalm of Asaph. O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps.” (Psalms 79:1) Jeremiah is the author of the book of Lamentations. In this chapter of the book bearing his name, he laments the invasion.

Jeremiah starts this verse with the phrase meaning we have been shamed. The thing that was most holy to them had been ransacked of its holy treasures. And then the temple was burned. (Jeremiah 52:13) Their lives had revolved around the temple and the rituals that kept them in contact with God. Now it was destroyed. And it was their fault. They had knowingly sinned against the Lord without a care for the consequences. Now the consequences were upon them. “We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.” (Jeremiah 3:25) This was people that had a connection to the God Who had shown Himself mighty and greater than any other god of other people. But they had treated His commandments with contempt and now were shamed before all the people of the world. “We have become a shame to our neighbors, a scorn and mockery to those who are around us.” (Psalms 79:4) They had scorned God and now they were scorned. “Have mercy on us, O Jehovah, have mercy on us; for we are exceedingly filled with scorn. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the contempt of those who are at ease, with the scorn of the proud.” (Psalms 123:3-4)

It’s a terrible thing to bring shame to God. Does our life reflect that we are the children of God?  Does our testimony bring God glory? Does our testimony to the world reflect how great is our God?  It would be shameful to live in such a way that would make the world question what kind of God we worship. “You make us a curse to our neighbors, a scorn and a mockery to those who are round about us. You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the people. My shame is always before me, and the shame of my face has covered me: because of the voice of the slanderer and the blasphemer; before the enemy and avenger.” (Psalms 44:13-16) That’s what happened to Israel. Their lives were not a reflection of the Great and Mighty God that brought them out of Egypt. “All who pass by clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city which they called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?” (Lamentations 2:15)

Our disobedience, our rebellion and our sloppy living is not a reflection of our great God. This is not to say that we live a righteous life out of our own effort, but that as people who are called the children of God yet who live in this flesh humbly live a life dependent on God. We practice the discipline of prayer, Bible study and worship but our righteousness comes from the Lord God as He works in us to make us more in the image of Christ. “But we all, with our face having been unveiled, having beheld the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are being changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord Spirit.” (2Corinthians 3:18)

How does this work? We live in this sinful flesh. But our spirits have been born of God. There is a constant conflict between the flesh and the spirit. “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another; lest whatever you may will, these things you do.” (Galatians 5:17) Every minute there is a choice to make, either to follow the flesh or to follow the spirit. Just think about it; TV or praying, social media or Bible study, etc... The flesh is tempted every second to take the easy way out, to choose what feels more comfortable or to feel pleasure. The lust of the eye wants what looks good to it. And pride just wants to be recognized and lifted up as better, bigger and greater. “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1John 2:15-16) But the spirit seeks to please and glorify God, not self.

When we recognize that we have chosen the flesh and have sinned against God, we need to repent. You may say, “Wait a minute. I repented of my sin when I received God. All my sins past, present and future have been forgiven. Why do I have to repent?” Yes, all our sins past, present and future have been forgiven. But we repented of known sin up to that time. This is a recognition of sin of which we haven’t repented because if we had, it would not have cropped up. Repent means to leave and turn from our sin. If we sin, that sin has not been left and we have not turned away from it. So, we need to repent and turn from it. It may be difficult because we never recognized it as sin, but maybe thought of it as a flaw or weakness. But it has to be recognized as sin. And we must repent of it so that the Holy Spirit can work in us and take us from that victory to another victory over sin in our flesh, taking us each time from one glory to another and making us more into the image of Christ.

And so, recognizing our weakness, we depend on the Holy Spirit. We tread lightly not arrogantly that we are the children of God, but humbly recognizing we are dependent on the Spirit of God to reveal our sin to us so we can repent. We acknowledge our righteousness depends on God’s grace, not our efforts.

Concluding, we have the terrible example of the Jews who in their arrogance went through the motions of holiness but had contempt for God’s commandments. Although we live in a time of grace, God will not be mocked. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he also will reap. For he sowing to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh. But he sowing to the Spirit will reap life everlasting from the Spirit.” (Galatians 6:7-8)