Heed Wisdom
Jeremiah 25:1-14
“The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem: For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.
And though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors for ever and ever. Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.”
“But you did not listen to me,” declares the Lord, “and you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves.”
Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
“But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares the Lord, “and will make it desolate forever. I will bring on that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”
Proverbs 9:8-9
“Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you. Instruct the wise and they will be wiser still; teach the righteous and they will add to their learning.”
Proverbs 10:17
“Whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray.”
During my morning quiet time the last couple of weeks I’ve been slowly making my way through Proverbs. The best way to consume Proverbs, for me, is to read small bits at a time and chew on it for a while. Letting the Proverbs marinate in my heart and mind has been fruitful. A couple texts that have been making me think are the texts that are a part of this devotional. These texts pertain to the wise person’s relationship with discipline and correction. The wise will take correction and the end result will actually be love towards the other person. The fool, on the other hand, will hate the person who corrects them. The wise will take instruction and see it as the pathway to life, while the fool leads themselves and others astray.
One of the lectionary texts for today is Jeremiah 25:1-14. As I was reading this text, the Proverbs texts that were stewing in my mental Crock-Pot came to the front of my mind. Judah had been the fool for far too long. God had sent them prophet after prophet, message after message. God called out to them to turn from their idolatry and they just wouldn’t listen. The prophets were given messages that called the nation to turn from the way of death and to return to the way of life. Instead of loving these prophets and receiving the message they brought, they hated them. Instead of embracing the source of life, they hated the source of life.
One of the gifts of living in community with other Christians is the gift of refinement. God uses relationships with other believers to refine us. Refining happens in Christian marriages, where husband and wife build each other up as they follow Jesus together. Refining also happens in friendships that follow Jesus together. We all have rough edges that need to get knocked off. We all have sins in our lives that a wise brother or sister in Christ needs to speak into. Receiving a word of instruction or discipline from someone else is never comfortable, but how we receive those says a lot about who we are as a person. If we are wise, godly rebuke is a gift to us. If we are wise, we see God’s discipline as an act of love towards us. If we are wise we will see that a word of instruction is an effort to push us back onto the path of life.
Proverbs 4:5-9 says “get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget me words or turn away from them. Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you; love her, and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom. Though it costs all you have, get understanding. Cherish her, and she will exalt you; embrace her, and she will honor you. She will give you a garland to grace your head and present you with a glorious crown.”