Jeremiah 3:6-10

‘When will they ever learn?’

‘’Her flighty sister, Judah, saw what she did. She also saw that because of fickle Israel’s loose morals I threw her out, gave her her walking papers. But that didn’t faze flighty sister Judah. She went out, big as you please, and took up a whore’s life also. She took up cheap sex-and-religion as a sideline diversion, an indulgent recreation, and used anything and anyone, flouting sanity and sanctity alike, stinking up the country. And not once in all this did flighty sister Judah even give me a nod, although she made a show of it from time to time.’’

We must learn from the sins (and mistakes) of others (6). Life furnishes us with many salutary object lessons. We can learn from the pain and misery of others, let alone our own. Such hard-bought lessons should not be wasted. As we read the Bible we find that there are numerous warnings to heed as we read the stories of ordinary sinful people just like ourselves.

Judah had much to learn from the sin and punishment of the northern kingdom, Israel (7, 8). Israel fell first and was taken into captivity first. This happened around 100 years earlier. But Biblical history teaches (and history in general) that we are slow to learn important lessons.

‘’The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.’’

‘’There are none so blind as those who will not see.’’

It was like God gave Judah a front seat in the stalls. They ate their popcorn and watched what was played out on stage. It was a powerful drama, as Israel was disciplined and the people were ‘divorced’ by being sent into captivity. The Judeans, however, thought they could put on the same play without facing the same devastating ending.

To change the image: Israel played with fire and got burned; Judah thought she could play with the identical fire and not get burned. ‘’The only thing we learn from history…’’

Verse 9 refers to Judah: ‘’Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her’’. They totally played down what the Israelites had done. It seems that we face a similarly serious situation in our land with sin mattering ‘’so little’’ to many people. We who are Christians are in danger and we’d better recognise it. We live in the same environment, populate the same culture and breathe in the same air, and we need to be careful that we are not infected with this ‘bug’. We can’t afford to become careless about sin. Yes, we may be forgiven; yes we get right with God through faith in Jesus. But this does not mean that we can live casually. Someone observed that ‘’sin is never less than serious in a Christian.’’ (See Romans 6.) It is true that we continue to sin, but our attitude towards it is to be one of implacable hatred and hostility and fierce resistance, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Judah only pretended to return to God. That sham front can never escape the scrutiny of the One who has X-Ray vision (Revelation 1:14b).

Prayer: Lord, you know my heart. I want to hate all sin, and love righteousness. I recognise that sin can never matter little to those who see what it did to Jesus. The cross tells me to hate evil and love you. I do so want to side with you against all sin and evil. Deliver me from its power, even as you have set me free from its penalty. I praise you that one day I will be rescued from its very presence.