Jeremiah (1-31) 7:3 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 7:3

Comments

‘Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,’ – the Lord is the authority of Jeremiah and his message; he is God's representative – ‘Amend your ways’, and the Hebrews is ‘make beautiful’, ‘make well and in order.’ ‘Amend’ is perfectly good: repair your ways, come back to where you should be. But look how all embracing it is: ‘your ways’, which means your roads or your trodden paths, your various big decisions and directions in life, your life policy. Repair, and bring back to where they should be, your ways, and your roads; and your doings, your actions. So it is everything. It is your plans, your ambitions, your purposes, your whole policy for life, as well as the things you do and think and say: everything is wrong. Not this or that specific fault, but everything is out of order. ‘And I will cause you to dwell in this place.’ in other words, you will be preserved from Chaldean invasion, and you will be secure here. Well the basis of this appeal is huge, and it is going to be broken down into more detail in the subsequent verses.

Application

It is a lesson for evangelists too, because, without crushing people, we are to attempt to put this across. Our problem before God is not one or two things that we have done; it’s our entire approach to life that is utterly away from him, pagan and polluted and infected, self-centred and this-life centred; the whole picture, is wrong. And that is what we are trying to get across. That is what dawns on us, when we first come under conviction. Yes, it is this particular thing which we feel especially ashamed of, which may be used instrumentally to bring us under conviction. But very quickly, we realise, it is me personally; it is everything; it is my whole life and attitude that is sinful. That is what the unbeliever doesn't understand, and we are thinking particularly about religious people. That is what people who are nominal Christians cultural Christians, cultural Muslims fail to understand. That is what we have to convey, and that is where Jeremiah begins here.

Questions

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Jeremiah (1-31) 7:3 Commentary and Bible Study