Jeremiah 44:16-17 (ESV Strong's)
“As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster.
Subject: Pragmatism
As we do today, the remand left in the land of Judah was very pragmatic. Pragmatism is basing your belief in something based upon the practical application of the belief: "Since I now feel good, what I just did must be good.". In the 1960s the phrase was, "If it feels good, do it!". Our society today is very pragmatic. So, too, however, was this remnant. They had sent Jeremiah away to inquired of God what they should do. The King of Babylon had left them in the land and they were afraid he would return to kill them, or take them back to Babylon. For the time being they had escaped ... or, so they thought. Jeremiah inquired of the Lord and came back and told them to stay put; that God would take care of them, in the land. Above was their response to Jeremiah's message. They could only think past a time when they had good food and false peace. They attributed that to their worshiping the "queen of heaven.". This is in reference to the god of the Egyptians. In the next chapter they will return to Egypt. They were relying on pragmatism and not Theology. We all do this. Living in "faith" is not pragmatism. Living in faith is trusting God will do what He will do, despite the circumstances I see around me. Faith based living is living above pragmatism.
No comments:
Post a Comment