Where our hope lies

Here we see more warnings of judgment to come. 

Jeremiah first warns the people that they will be taken captive and put to shame because of their sins.  That while they would hope for light, God would cover them in the utter darkness of despair (Jeremiah 13:16).

Then he uses the drought Judah was going through to show them that this was just another warning for the people to turn from their sin before utter disaster hit. (Chapter 14)

In the midst of the drought, Jeremiah pleaded with God for mercy in spite of the people’s sins.  But after he finished praying,

The Lord said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. 

Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. 

Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.”  (Jeremiah 14:11-12)

Still, Jeremiah pleaded with God for the people, and in the end said,

Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?  Do the skies themselves send down showers? 

No, it is you, O Lord our God.  Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this.  (Jeremiah 14:22)

The thing that Jeremiah realized, which apparently none of the other people of Judah did, was that their only hope lay in God. 

The people of Judah put their trust in themselves, in their alliances with other countries, and in their own wisdom and strength. 

But that pride would end up destroying them.  And the gods they stubbornly clung to wouldn’t be able to pull them out of the trouble they were in.

Where does your hope lie?  Does it lie in God?  Do you put your trust in him for everything in life?  Do you do things his way?

Or are you like the people of Judah, trusting in yourself, and counting on the gods of this world to pull you through the troubles you are going through.

There is only one place we can truly find hope, and that’s in God.  So let us turn to him and follow him before it’s too late.