Too Late

 

Wednesday, February 9, 2022

“So tell them, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:  May all your jars be filled with wine.’  And they will reply, ‘Of course!  Jars are made to be filled with wine!’  “Then tell them, ‘No, this is what the Lord means:  I will fill everyone in this land with drunkenness—from the king sitting on David’s throne to the priests and the prophets, right down to the common people of Jerusalem.  I will smash them against each other, even parents against children, says the Lord.  I will not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them.’”  Listen and pay attention!  Do not be arrogant, for the Lord has spoken.  Give glory to the Lord your God before it is too late.  Acknowledge him before he brings darkness upon you, causing you to stumble and fall on the darkening mountains.  For then, when you look for light, you will find only terrible darkness and gloom.  And if you still refuse to listen, I will weep alone because of your pride.  My eyes will overflow with tears, because the Lord’s flock will be led away into exile.  Say to the king and his mother, “Come down from your thrones and sit in the dust, for your glorious crowns will soon be snatched from your heads.”  The towns of the Negev will close their gates, and no one will be able to open them.  The people of Judah will be taken away as captives.  All will be carried into exile.  Jeremiah 13:12-19

Jeremiah, ever the weeping prophet, received a “not-so-veiled” threat to lay at Israel’s feet:  from the throne room to the common rooms, drunk with the power of personal choice, the hangover of exile for God’s people was coming. 

As the grandson of an alcoholic, I am aware of the results of too much celebrating, and not enough common sense, or self-respect.  My mother’s childhood was spent moving from one rented apartment to the next.  My grandfather had a good job, but his habit consumed even the rent money.  He was not a physically-abusive person, but addiction to alcohol carries its own brand of abuse.  When my mother was asked where she lived growing up, she had lots of addresses from which to choose.  One of those addresses she never even saw.  She had been hit by a car while walking home from school, and spent over a month in the hospital.  The family was in the process of moving that week; they moved-in, but had to move-out a few weeks later.  Mom added a new address to the pile, even though she never saw the front-doorstep.

Jeremiah’s prophecy was about the consequences of drunkenness, but this hangover wasn’t really about wine filling every jar.  Rather it was the confusion of why the kingdom fell apart, and every citizen would be at odds with every other citizen, from the palaces to the playpens.  In a massive pandemic of arrogance, Israel assumed the role of bad-chilld, leaving the Father no other choice but the woodshed from the North.  Destruction was on its way like a juggernaut of grief and mourning.  The rent money was due, and it wasn’t there; it was too late.

For You Today

It is impossible for me to read any of the prophets and not make the mental leap from Jerusalem in Judea, to Washington D.C.  I pray every day for the leaders of our nation in that jungle of self-importance called “government”. 

That for which I pray is an awakening, and the resultant sweep of revival.  Because, without revival in the lives of leaders, and without it spreading to the board rooms, businesses, schools, and every main street, back street, and dirt street, our drunken stupor of anger and violence, with its accompanying wrecking of the homes across the land, will make us a ripe, low-hanging fruit for a trip to Babylon’s jail.  In the darkness of national disaster, we won’t even know what happened.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©