Obedience

Obedience

The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay, says the Lord. For my people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me—the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!

Jeremiah 2:12-13

Imagine that it’s a quiet summer morning in your neighborhood. Since your children enjoy selling lemonade to friends and neighbors, you’ve decided to help them out. Before your kids even get out of bed, you prepare a large container of fresh lemonade—the real thing. You also bake a batch of homemade ginger cookies.

At the breakfast table, you and your children hatch a plan for selling the lemonade and cookies later in the day. Since you made the food, you suggest that they provide the signs. After lunch, you help them launch their sale outside before going back into the house to fold a load of laundry.

When you walk back outside to check on your children, you are horrified. Instead of lemonade, they’re selling cups of dirty water from puddles in the front yard. And the cookies have been replaced by strange weeds that grow by the side of the road. “What are you thinking?” you ask.

In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, we read that God was horrified when his people abandoned his plan for their salvation. The words Jeremiah uses are potent: God is shocked, shrinking back in horror and dismay. God’s people had forsaken him, the fountain of living water. As if that wasn’t bad enough, they went on to dig broken, underground water pits that couldn’t even hold water. First they rejected God. Then they turned to a poor substitute. What were they thinking?

Children and adults sometimes make irrational choices, rejecting and disobeying God’s plan and searching for substitutes. Only the truth and grace of God can preserve us from exchanging truth for a lie. Only the truth and grace of God can help any of us obey him.

Father,

Thank you that you are the source of life. Please help us not to go looking for false substitutes. We don’t want to exchange your truth for a lie. Amen.