Do we trust Him or don’t we? It’s the battle that seems to be ongoing. We will trust him for some things and then the next time something rolls around it’s like we have developed spiritual amnesia.

It makes me think of the poem:

There are two natures within my chest
The one is foul, the other blessed,
The one I love, the one I hate
The one I feed will dominate.

Judah’s sin ran deep. The Lord described it as “engraved with an iron tool…on the tablets of their hearts” (v. 1). Even the children knew the ways of wickedness at a young age. The LORD says this:

“Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you” (v. 4).

He goes on to describe the horrors of what they will face. God was going to withdraw his hand from them and they would get the full desires of their heart. They just had no idea though what that looked like.

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD” (v. 5).

We are not to look to man but to the LORD. Man is not dependable as the heart is not dependable:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (v. 9).

There is a blessing for the one who trusts in the LORD. And that blessings is a reiteration of Psalm 1. Here it is in Jeremiah:

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by 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” (v. 7-8).

Jeremiah goes on that a many may make his fortune with the riches of others. But when his life is at his end he will be proven to be a fool (Jer 17:11).

Then Jeremiah cries out for protection. The heat is on him. But Jeremiah has been faithful.

“I have not run away from being your shepherd” (v. 16).

Jeremiah didn’t want this job. But nor has he run from it. Nor run from the pressure and the persecution.

Then the LORD speak and. he says to remind them people to keep the Sabbath. Not to do work on his holy day. And if they trust and obey him in this, he will bless them. But if not he will turn them over to their enemies. Jerusalem will be destroyed.

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So many thoughts here.

1. The Sabbath. You know there is such a hierarchy culturally of sin. Every nation and country and region places one sin higher than the other. Even social grievances. In the Bible breaking the Sabbath was one of the “higher” sins. In fact, it is one repeated over and over throughout Scripture.
   
   Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath as we read in Colossians. And yet there is something to be said of the Sabbath that is rooted in creation.
   
   Of course Jesus taught that the Sabbath was for man and not man for the Sabbath. There was the spirit of the law and the letter and Jesus knew the difference.
   
   But perhaps we would do well to continue to have a higher honor of the Sabbath. That it’s not a day of buying/selling or working, but one of honoring the Lord. Being at rest in Him.
   
2. The Heart. The heart can truly trick us. In Christ, we have a new heart and a new mind, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t deceive ourselves. We have to be careful in what and who we trust.
   
3. The Shepherd that Stays. Jeremiah prophesied in terrible times. Not only was he hated but he saw the horrors to come. His role was terrible and any sane and healthy person would have run. But he knew his call from the Lord.
   
   It makes me think of what is to come. We have terrible and horrific times coming in the near future. We can be shepherds that stay within the people or shepherds that seek our own safety and comfort.
   
4. Cultivating trust. Trusting the LORD is an ongoing journey. It seems like with every fresh challenge we are provoked again whether we will trust him or not. In fact worry is a sign that we are not trusting.
   
   I have been wondering and “worrying” a lot lately. There are so many things in the near future that do not have solutions. Important life changes. I would like to have a plan about them but the circumstances don’t give me that. So will I trust that the LORD will show me? Or will I fear that there will be silence? Because those times I feel stressed by. Am I cultivating worry or faith?