\u201cNevertheless in those days,\u201d says the LORD, \u201cI will not make a complete end of you. And it will be when you say, \u2018Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?\u2019 then you shall answer them, \u2018Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cDeclare this in the house of Jacob
\n And proclaim it in Judah, saying,
\n \u2018Hear this now, O foolish people,
\n Without understanding,
\n Who have eyes and see not,
\n And who have ears and hear not:
\n Do you not fear Me?\u2019 says the LORD.
\n \u2018Will you not tremble at My presence,
\n Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea,
\n By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it?
\n And though its waves toss to and fro,
\n Yet they cannot prevail;
\n Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.
\n But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart;
\n They have revolted and departed.
\n They do not say in their heart,
\n \u201cLet us now fear the LORD our God,
\n Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season.
\n He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.\u201d
\n Your iniquities have turned these things away,
\n And your sins have withheld good from you. (Jeremiah 5:18-25)<\/p>\n
People can tell God no. When God created the heavens and the earth, the physical objects had no choice in what they did. The earth rotates on its axis. It doesn\u2019t get the option to chose not to or to start rotating the other way. Gravity can\u2019t just decide one morning to stop working. The sky can\u2019t suddenly turn green. <\/p>\n
God contrasts his people with the waves of the sea. The waves are constrained. They have no choice but to obey God. But his people go and do whatever they want. They have simply disappeared; they no longer come to God. They don\u2019t even consider the possibility of repenting because they don\u2019t understand that there\u2019s any need. So far have they gone astray, so deep is their rebellion against God, that they can\u2019t even recognize a problem. <\/p>\n
The prophet\u2019s job is to try to inform the people about why they are suffering and what they can do to fix it. Unfortunately, they just don\u2019t get it. Not yet, anyway.<\/p>\n
But God has not given up on them. In fact, he promises that they will, someday, come back to him. When it comes to his people, God won\u2019t take no for an answer.<\/p>\n
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