Chapter 8

We have spent solidly 2 weeks in Chapter 8, now... At this point, we've had our men's group meeting on Tuesday nights take over this track of study...

Looking at the Book to this point, we're getting the point that Judah and Jerusalem, and the people had all gotten into this cruddy false religion. Society was ripping apart at the seams, within the community of believers. Disobedience and neglect of the commandments had given way to cults of sex and death, oppression of the poor, immorality... you get it...

At the same time, the "Professional Religious Community" was lathering the people with all kinds of false comforts! They twisted the meaning of the Scriptures and created "another Gospel" to keep people from seeing the truth.

Jeremiah was a voice crying out for people to RECOGNIZE the days they were in. The only hope for anyone in judah in those days was to SURRENDER to the judgment of Yahweh, and go over to the Babylonians... That was a very unwelcome message to just about everyone...

We are constantly looking at Isaiah, who prophesied the coming of Messiah, the rebuilding of the nation after the deportation, and the call to justice... Isaiah's prophecies help us understand a lot about where to turn with Jeremiah's cry...

Is. 28:10-17 were a big part of our study, as we looked at how false religion in Judah included lots of rules, but didn't stop immorality...

1 Kings 17 and the Story of Elijah on Mount Carmel showed us the extent to which false cults of sex and death take root in a nation with bad leadership. How much more true in the church?

We talked about how the church in america is riddled with just the same kind of denial, immorality, and rule-keeping religion that Jeremiah preached against...

We spent a chunk of time praying for those among us who struggle with the seduction of such falsehood. The most time was spent praying for Lew...

God have Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!