Jeremiah 2:16 - Prayer Tents



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Jeremiah 2
The Message Help

Israel Was God’s Holy Choice

2GOD's Message came to me. It went like this:H1697H3068H559 2"Get out in the streets and call to Jerusalem, 'GOD's Message! I remember your youthful loyalty, our love as newlyweds. You stayed with me through the wilderness years, stuck with me through all the hard places.H1980H7121H241H3389H559H559H3068H2142H2617H5271H160H3623H3212H310H4057H776H2232 3Israel was GOD's holy choice, the pick of the crop. Anyone who laid a hand on her would soon wish he hadn't!'" GOD's Decree.H3478H6944H3068H7225H8393H398H816H7451H935H5002H3068 4Hear GOD's Message, House of Jacob! Yes, you—House of Israel!H8085H1697H3068H1004H3290H4940H1004H3478 5GOD's Message: "What did your ancestors find fault with in me that they drifted so far from me, Took up with Sir Windbag and turned into windbags themselves?H559H3068H5766H1H4672H7368H3212H310H1892H1891 6It never occurred to them to say, 'Where's GOD, the God who got us out of Egypt, Who took care of us through thick and thin, those rough-and-tumble wilderness years of parched deserts and death valleys, A land that no one who enters comes out of, a cruel, inhospitable land?'H559H3068H5927H776H4714H3212H4057H776H6160H7745H776H6723H6757H776H376H5674H120H3427 7"I brought you to a garden land where you could eat lush fruit. But you barged in and polluted my land, trashed and defiled my dear land.H935H3759H776H398H6529H2898H935H2930H776H7760H5159H8441 8The priests never thought to ask, 'Where's GOD?' The religion experts knew nothing of me. The rulers defied me. The prophets preached god Baal And chased empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.H3548H559H3068H8610H8451H3045H7462H6586H5030H5012H1168H1980H310H3276 9"Because of all this, I'm bringing charges against you" —GOD's Decree— "charging you and your children and your grandchildren.H7378H5002H3068H1121H1121H7378 10Look around. Have you ever seen anything quite like this? Sail to the western islands and look. Travel to the Kedar wilderness and look. Look closely. Has this ever happened before,H5674H339H3794H7200H7971H6938H995H3966H7200 11That a nation has traded in its gods for gods that aren't even close to gods? But my people have traded my Glory for empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.H1471H3235H430H430H5971H4171H3519H3276 12"Stand in shock, heavens, at what you see! Throw up your hands in disbelief—this can't be!" GOD's Decree.H8074H8064H8175H3966H2717H5002H3068 13"My people have committed a compound sin: they've walked out on me, the fountain Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns— cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.H5971H6213H8147H7451H5800H4726H2416H4325H2672H877H7665H877H3557H4325 14"Isn't Israel a valued servant, born into a family with place and position? So how did she end up a piece of meatH3478H5650H1004H3211H4069H957 15fought over by snarling and roaring lions? There's nothing left of her but a few old bones, her towns trashed and deserted.H3715H7580H5414H6963H7896H776H8047H5892H3341H3427 16Egyptians from the cities of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken your skulls.H1121H5297H8471H7462H6936 17And why do you think all this has happened? Isn't it because you walked out on your God just as he was beginning to lead you in the right way?H6213H5800H3068H430H6256H3212H1870 18"And now, what do you think you'll get by going off to Egypt? Maybe a cool drink of Nile River water? Or what do you think you'll get by going off to Assyria? Maybe a long drink of Euphrates River water?H1870H4714H8354H4325H7883H1870H804H8354H4325H5104 19Your evil ways will get you a sound thrashing, that's what you'll get. You'll pay dearly for your disloyal ways. Take a long, hard look at what you've done and its bitter results. Was it worth it to have walked out on your God?" GOD's Decree, Master GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies.H7451H3256H4878H3198H3045H7200H7451H4751H5800H3068H430H6345H5002H136H3069H6635

Addicted to Alien Gods

20"A long time ago you broke out of the harness. You shook off all restraints. You said, 'I will not serve!' and off you went, Visiting every sex-and-religion shrine on the way, like a common whore.H5769H7665H5923H5423H4147H559H5674H5647H1364H1389H7488H6086H6808H2181 21You were a select vine when I planted you from completely reliable stock. And look how you've turned out— a tangle of rancid growth, a poor excuse for a vine.H5193H8321H571H2233H2015H5494H5237H1612 22Scrub, using the strongest soaps. Scour your skin raw. The sin-grease won't come out. I can't stand to even look at you!" GOD's Decree, the Master's Decree.H3526H5427H7235H1287H5771H3799H6440H5002H136H3069 23"How dare you tell me, 'I'm not stained by sin. I've never chased after the Baal sex gods'! Well, look at the tracks you've left behind in the valley. How do you account for what is written in the desert dust— Tracks of a camel in heat, running this way and that,H559H2930H1980H310H1168H7200H1870H1516H3045H6213H7031H1072H8308H1870 24tracks of a wild donkey in rut, Sniffing the wind for the slightest scent of sex. Who could possibly corral her! On the hunt for sex, sex, and more sex— insatiable, indiscriminate, promiscuous.H6501H3928H4057H7602H7307H185H5315H8385H7725H1245H3286H2320H4672 25"Slow down. Take a deep breath. What's the hurry? Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway? But you say, 'I can't help it. I'm addicted to alien gods. I can't quit.'H4513H7272H3182H1627H6773H559H2976H157H2114H310H3212 26"Just as a thief is chagrined, but only when caught, so the people of Israel are chagrined, Caught along with their kings and princes, their priests and prophets.H1590H1322H4672H1004H3478H3001H4428H8269H3548H5030 27They walk up to a tree and say, 'My father!' They pick up a stone and say, 'My mother! You bore me!' All I ever see of them is their backsides. They never look me in the face. But when things go badly, they don't hesitate to come running, calling out, 'Get a move on! Save us!'H559H6086H1H68H3205H6437H6203H6440H6256H7451H559H6965H3467 28Why not go to your handcrafted gods you're so fond of? Rouse them. Let them save you from your bad times. You've got more gods, Judah, than you know what to do with.H430H6213H6965H3467H6256H7451H4557H5892H430H3063

Trying Out Another Sin-Project

29"What do you have against me, running off to assert your 'independence'?" GOD's Decree.H7378H6586H5002H3068 30"I've wasted my time trying to train your children. They've paid no attention to me, ignored my discipline. And you've gotten rid of your God-messengers, treating them like dirt and sweeping them away.H7723H5221H1121H3947H4148H2719H398H5030H7843H738 31"What a generation you turned out to be! Didn't I tell you? Didn't I warn you? Have I let you down, Israel? Am I nothing but a dead-end street? Why do my people say, 'Good riddance! From now on we're on our own'?H1755H7200H1697H3068H4057H3478H776H3991H559H5971H7300H935 32Young women don't forget their jewelry, do they? Brides don't show up without their veils, do they? But my people forget me. Day after day after day they never give me a thought.H1330H7911H5716H3618H7196H5971H7911H3117H4557 33"What an impressive start you made to get the most out of life. You founded schools of sin, taught graduate courses in evil!H3190H1870H1245H160H3925H7451H1870 34And now you're sending out graduates, resplendent in cap and gown— except the gowns are stained with the blood of your victims! All that blood convicts you. You cut and hurt a lot of people to get where you are.H3671H4672H1818H5315H34H5355H4672H4290 35And yet you have the gall to say, 'I've done nothing wrong. God doesn't mind. He hasn't punished me, has he?' Don't look now, but judgment's on the way, aimed at you who say, 'I've done nothing wrong.'H559H5352H639H7725H8199H559H2398 36"You think it's just a small thing, don't you, to try out another sin-project when the first one fails? But Egypt will leave you in the lurch the same way that Assyria did.H235H3966H8138H1870H954H4714H954H804 37You're going to walk away from there wringing your hands. I, GOD, have blacklisted those you trusted. You'll get not a lick of help from them."H3318H3027H7218H3068H3988H4009H6743


The Message (MSG). All Scripture quotations are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, a Division of Tyndale House Ministries. More details.
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