Jeremiah 21:1-22:9; Jeremiah 34; Jeremiah 46:13-28; Jeremiah 37:1-21; Jeremiah 30 – 31

Jeremiah seems at times to be a war correspondent, reporting the strategies, tactics and battlefield results in the ebb and flow of Babylonian assaults upon Judah, and the interventions of Egypt. The only difference is that Jeremiah is foretelling these events, not re-telling them. Instead of listening to the prophet of God whose prophecies keep coming true, they throw the messenger in jail and embrace the false prophets who tell them Babylon will not come against them.

The powerful truth spoken by God through Jeremiah is the days of Judah as a kingdom are over. Obviously, this is a startling message to folks who refuse to believe anything like this was possible. After all, they were the people of God living in covenant with Him. There simply was no way God could strip them of their salvation, once He extended His grace to them. It is incomprehensible that a loving God could act this way. The people of God should be able to conduct themselves any way they choose – even spiritual adultery – and God has no choice but to save them.

Does any of this sound familiar? We live in a time when religious men proclaim the same reasoning in relation to the covenant of Jesus the Christ. Once saved by God’s grace, nothing can separate us from this salvation. It simply does not matter what you do, God has no choice but to keep you saved. Anyone proclaiming otherwise, is (symbolically) tossed into prison and marginalized with disdain and ridicule. A modern day prison of truth, just like Jeremiah, meanwhile those who tell people what they want to hear are heeded.

The real prison of truth surrounds those who believe themselves free. The Hebrews believed themselves free to follow false gods and forsake Yahweh. Modern believers see themselves free to lust, covet, slander and formulate a religion that suits them. In both instances, it simply does not matter what you choose to believe, it matters only what God says.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jeremiah 31:31-33

The covenant children of God – the house of Israel and the house of Judah – BROKE the covenant. Yahweh did not take away their salvation … they gave it away. That’s the way covenants work. No matter how loving and righteous God is and how faithful He is to His promises, the free will of people is still in play. The covenant was broken and God’s patience with an unrepentant people ran out. So, God promised to make a NEW covenant in Jesus, the Holy One of Israel. In so doing, He would fulfill His promise to Abraham to bless the whole of mankind.

That’s the key to understanding truth. Because truth is truth, all are captive to it. Those who proclaim it faithfully are prisoners of truth. Those who deny it are still prisoners of it. Even Almighty God in whom is no darkness at all, because He is righteous, just and loving is a prisoner to the fact that He cannot lie. It is His nature. When He became one of us in order to save us from ourselves, He proclaimed “I am the way, the TRUTH, and the Life. No man comes to the Father except by Me.”

God is truth. Your free will is still in play.

Consider His nature.  Consider His ways.  Strive to love Him more!