30 More Days... Day 26

Jer. 7:16  “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.

Jer. 11:11  Therefore thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.
Jer. 11:12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
Jer. 11:14  “So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble.

Jer. 14:10  Thus says the LORD to this people:
“Thus they have loved to wander;
They have not restrained their feet.
Therefore the LORD does not accept them;
He will remember their iniquity now,
And punish their sins.”
Jer. 14:11  Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good.
Jer. 14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

It has been interesting how our days have come together. It has been interesting that the topics often seem to fall in order. Yesterday we looked at the praying of prayers over and over and how even in fall after fall, rebellion after rebellion God listens. He waits. He warns. He calls us back. He gives forgiveness after forgiveness and chance after chance. When we come to Him in repentance. When we come to Him openly and honestly He judges fairly but also with compassion. Yet we said that His mercy cannot be an excuse for us to increase evil that grace might abound. God calls us to repentance.

Now it is kind of hard to look at the content of these prayers... because there is none. What is not said in prayer is more significant. It is something that we see people fear at various times throughout the Bible...

In these 3 chapters we see it 4 different times. Jeremiah...

“So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble.”

Those are perhaps some of the most frighting words that we have yet looked at. Those are perhaps some of the most frightening words we could hear. That God is finished listening to prayer. That trouble is more of less all that is left and there will be no help from prayer in it.

Yet it seems to go against what we talked about last time. How is it that God would not hear? How is it that God, whose name is “Our Redeemer from Everlasting”, could fail to hear, listen and redeem?

We get some insight into this terrible state in these chapters and also in Chapter 15. In chapter 7 we see God calling to the people to amend their ways. He calls them to do what is right. But the people are breaking the law and worshipping other gods and then coming into the temple as well, when and how it suits them. God has warned and they have not listened. They worship the queen of heaven. Then 4 chapters later again we see God speak this way again. Again he calls them back. He reminds them of the covenant He made with them and warns again. However, they have a god for each city and an altar for each Jerusalem street. Then again in chapter 14 the downward spiral has continued and God again speaks to Jeremiah not to pray for these people.

They have not at all repented. They carry a form of godliness in the temple and sacrifice but they are far from God. God says enough. In chapter 15 we find that God has reached the end of His patience. It has taken Him a long time to get there but it has come. God now says

Jer. 15:6 You have forsaken Me,” says the LORD,
“You have gone backward.
Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am weary of relenting!

He has been here so many times. Now there is no more time left. They have pushed and pushed. Even grace has its limits. But there is something that we need to notice. We see the reason that God is doing this.

Jer. 15:4 I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

And here is what we need to understand. Manasseh was a wicked king. Arguably, the most wicked Judah had ever known. He reigned a long time and did a lot of awful things. He supported idolatry and practiced sorcery. He set up altars and defiled the temple. However, God finally gave him over to his enemies. He was dragged off into captivity and in his captivity he repented. He cried out to God. God heard him and returned him to Judah as king! After this Manasseh instituted all kinds of reforms. He was a good king and followed God the rest of the days of his life. He tore down idols and altars and brought back proper temple worship. God was gracious to him. While he was alive Judah also reformed. Yet Israel is to be punished for the sins of Manasseh! How could Israel suffer for these sins when God had extended mercy to and forgiven Manasseh? Because, while the man had repented the people had continued in his sins and their influence. The man was forgiven and lived in repentance. The people only reformed for the time of Manasseh’s final years and then after his death they turned back to all his old ways.

God is great in mercy. He is abounding in love. But we can take his grace for granted. People ask, “how could a loving God send people to hell?” The answer is, of course, that He doesn’t. People in failing to obey bring such punishment on themselves. They receive the wages of sin, which is death. They get what they have earned by their own works. We can also fall into this. But, God is forgiving. That is right! He is very forgiving. The incredible thing is that God has been willing to hold out His hands “all day long” to a stubborn and obstinate people. Grace. Mercy. Compassion. They all have their limits. We don’t know exactly what those limits are, but it is important for us to know that they exist. There is a time that such a point can be reached. Don’t pray for them. I won’t listen. It is an awful place to be. God is patient “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”. The Psalmist says, blessed is the man whose sin is forgiven and whose iniquity will not be held against him. This our God. Yet, God warns us not to harden our hearts, because there comes a time when He might refuse to listen.

Prayer Request
* Please pray for the training this weekend taking place for the Crisis Pregnancy Center. Pray for Sylvia who will be teaching this seminar for the first time. Pray for those attending that they would absorb the information and be equipped to use it in the lives of those know and meet and in volunteering at the center. Pray that all who wanted to attend would be able to come and would make the final effort to be there this weekend. Pray for Olya and I as we speak with others about our involvement and role in the center from Maribor (the center will initially be only in Ljubljana)