{"id":7689,"date":"2016-06-21T00:03:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T07:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=7689"},"modified":"2016-06-21T00:03:20","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T07:03:20","slug":"returning-evil-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2016\/06\/21\/returning-evil-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning Evil for Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to the word of the LORD, people of Jacob\u2014all you families of Israel! This is what the LORD says:
\n\u201cWhat did your ancestors find wrong with me
\nthat led them to stray so far from me?
\nThey worshiped worthless idols,
\nonly to become worthless themselves.
\nThey did not ask, \u2018Where is the LORD
\nwho brought us safely out of Egypt
\nand led us through the barren wilderness\u2014
\na land of deserts and pits,
\na land of drought and death,
\nwhere no one lives or even travels?\u2019
\n\u201cAnd when I brought you into a fruitful land
\nto enjoy its bounty and goodness,
\nyou defiled my land and
\ncorrupted the possession I had promised you.
\nThe priests did not ask,
\n\u2018Where is the LORD?\u2019
\nThose who taught my word ignored me,
\nthe rulers turned against me,
\nand the prophets spoke in the name of Baal,
\nwasting their time on worthless idols.
\nTherefore, I will bring my case against you,\u201d
\nsays the LORD.
\n\u201cI will even bring charges against your children\u2019s children
\nin the years to come. (Jeremiah 2:4-9)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

People just take God for granted during the good times. He\u2019s easy to ignore. Jeremiah began prophesying to the Israelites in the few years left before they would go into captivity in Babylon. God dares his people to try to justify their behavior. What, exactly, he wonders, can they say against him?<\/p>\n

But no. They continued with the same behavior, ignoring everything Jeremiah said. God told them how they were mistreating him. He told them that how they were acting made no sense. When someone is kind and helpful, when someone gives gifts, the normal human response is gratitude. Even the worst of human beings are usually nice to those who are nice to them, if for no other reason than a selfish desire to keep the gravy flowing. <\/p>\n

Loving regardless of how someone treats you is rare. But tit-for-tat is common. But God\u2019s people can\u2019t even muster that. In the face of God\u2019s goodness, they respond by chasing after other gods instead. Like a wife inexplicably cheating on a good and loving husband, heaping insults upon him even as she throws herself at her lovers. Those entrusted with leading the people: the priests and the rulers\u2014they were first in the line leading away from God. <\/p>\n

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Listen to the word of the LORD, people of Jacob\u2014all you families of Israel! This is what the LORD says: \u201cWhat did your ancestors find wrong with me that led them to stray so far from me? They worshiped worthless … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7689"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7689"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7691,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7689\/revisions\/7691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}