Jeremiah 40:2-3

‘”The LORD your God has pronounced this doom on this place. Now the LORD has brought it, and has done just as He said. Because you people have sinned against the LORD, and not obeyed His voice, therefore this thing has come upon you.”’ (Jeremiah 40:2-3)

This sounds very much like most of the rest of Jeremiah. The Jews have been taken captive, and they are walking back to Babylon in chains. But if you are clever, you may have noticed something about the way it was worded. Also I must confess I was a bit naughty and left out the context at the beginning of verse 2:

‘And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him: ....’ (Jeremiah 40:2a)

See, it starts with ‘The LORD your God’, not ‘The LORD our God’. This was a pagan captain of the guard saying this.

Often we find that non-Christians have some very intelligent and pertinent things to say about Christianity. Why? Well often they are not biased by traditions of the church, or caught up in the mindset that seems to take people in the church. Granted, neither are their eyes opened by the Holy Spirit, and thus on deep spiritual matters they are often at complete odds in their beliefs and views. However, I think we should be challenged at times by the way that even non-Christians will see something that is glaringly obvious, and yet we will consider it vaguely, as if we don’t have complete authority to say whether it is right or wrong.

For instance, most non-Christians would agree resolutely that homosexuals and Christianity do not mix. Even if they don’t fully agree with Christianity. And yet here we are, appointing them as elders and priests and whatever else.

I think we should be challenged to take a more plain-eye view of God’s word and what it really means for us. And we should be challenged to study it so that no ‘embarrassing’ situations like this arise.