NOTES for Jer 11:1-23

The mildest thing one can say about a people who have turned away from the Lord is that they are astonishingly frivolous. But those whom He chose do not value what has been given to them, and such forgetful ingratitude is more than frivolity. Once Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for lentil stew; but now Jacob's descendants have agreed to exchange what is far more valuable than a birthright not even for food, but for poison. Now, by their own ingratitude, the people have brought a curse upon themselves. Those who turn away from the Source of all good things have no right to claim the use of those good things.

Well, the old saying is still alive: "Until thunder strikes, a man will not cross himself." And today, another man who crossed himself during the storm forgets God after the storm is over. It is too easy to start looking at the Lord pragmatically, turning to Him in times of need and forgetting Him when He is no longer needed. But is such a pragmatic approach not the beginning of betrayal toward Him? A betrayal for which one will have to answer...