February 19, 2015
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

The Deceitful Heart

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Opening Prayer

Maker of heaven and earth, creator of sea and sky, You are my true home. My heart rejoices.

Read Jeremiah 17:1-18

[1] “Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. [2] Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills. [3] My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. [4] Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.” [5] This is what the LORD says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD. [6] That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. [7] “But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. [8] They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” [9] The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? [10] “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” [11] Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools. [12] A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. [13] LORD, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water. [14] Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. [15] They keep saying to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it now be fulfilled!” [16] I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you. [17] Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster. [18] Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Reflect

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psa. 139:23,24).

To keep preaching against the people’s sinful rebellion was a draining experience. Jeremiah felt persecuted as he faced the people’s taunts: “When will your prophecy be fulfilled?” (15,18). As he struggled with their blatant disregard of God, Jeremiah came to discover how stubbornly deep the problem was. Judah’s sins were engraved deeply in their hearts (1). Through their constant sinning, their hearts and minds were deeply wired to sin. They would sin without thinking; it was their default position. Sin had dug deep canals in their minds so that all their thoughts flowed naturally along these sinful conduits (2 Pet. 2:22).

The worst thing is that people were self-deceived by their deceiving hearts (9). They looked at themselves superficially and, in their false confidence and arrogance, thought that they were doing well. God’s examination is different, however; like a careful physician he probes deep into the heart and mind (10) to expose the deeply etched sinful conduits that run in the most secret recesses of the human soul (Heb. 4:12,13). There it will be discovered that the wealthy man may actually be a fool (11) or that the smart politician who makes deals with human allies (in this case, Egypt) may actually be clutching at straw (5).

Would Jeremiah carry on warning the obstinate sinners? He would, because God does not give up. The choice is still available: between being cursed and being blessed, between a barren bush in the wastelands and a flourishing tree by the flowing river (5-8). It is time to subject ourselves to a deep examination by God, to see whether there are sinful, hidden conduits deep within. Sinful habits of thinking, reacting, feeling and desiring must be dealt with if we are to escape the curse and receive the blessing–and we must share this truth with others.

Apply

Ask God to examine you deeply and reveal to you any stubborn patterns of sinfulness; then turn to his mercy and power.

Closing prayer

Loving Lord, sin is so often my default setting. I need to recalibrate my life and only You can enable that to happen. I look to You for that new thing.

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