Feeding on the words of God

Things were so bad in Judah, that God told Jeremiah he would not have heeded any intercession even from Moses or Samuel.

Basically, after Hezekiah died, Judah went on a downward slide. His son Manasseh had led the nation back into idol worship, and though he himself repented, the nation continued in their sin.

This despite the rise of Josiah, who like Hezekiah before him, truly sought the Lord from his heart.

The problem? The people refused to take in the words of God. They heard them all the time from Jeremiah and the other prophets. But they would not heed them.

Jeremiah, on the other hand, was different. He said,

When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty. (Jeremiah 15:16)

When the people of Judah tasted the words of the Lord, they immediately spit it out.

But when Jeremiah tasted the words of the Lord, he savored them. He delighted in them. And he took them in and let them transform him.

How about you? What do you do with the words of God?

Some people are literally starving spiritually because they fail to take in the nutrients of the Word.

They think that the Sunday message is enough, though they would never consider having just one big meal to sustain them through the entire week.

Other people hear the word, and immediately forget what they read, making it of no use to them.

But if we want to see God work in our lives, we need to feed on his words, delight in them, and take them into our hearts. To let them renew our minds and transform our way of thinking and acting.

If we do, we will find not judgment, as the people of Judah received. Rather, we will find mercy as Jeremiah and the others who followed God received even in the midst of a troubled time.