“In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.” (Jeremiah 52:12–14, ESV)
My mother urged my dad to go to the doctor as he had a discharge of blood. Yet he refused to listen. Everyone knew there was a problem, but his stubbornness and a hatred of doctors and hospitals interfered. Things progressed and my dad got worse. He started taking megadoses of ibuprofen to help deaden the pain. Finally, one day the pain was so great that he curled up on the floor. He laid there for three days refusing help. Finally, my mother could not take it any longer and called for the paramedics who took him to the hospital. Well, he eventually left the hospital to the funeral home. The doctors stated that if he had come in at the onset of his symptoms, things could have been different. He had a cancer that was fully treatable.
So many people just will not listen. Others will listen but not respond until it is too late.
In the final chapter of the book of Jeremiah we see the epitaph of the final days of Jerusalem during the Babylonian conquest. The city, its houses, the temple, and its walls torn down to the ground. Its treasures taken to Babylon along with a small remnant of surviving Jews who were marched from their home in Jerusalem to Babylonian exile.
The problem was that all this was so unnecessary. The nation of Judah was repeatedly warned as Jeremiah brought the word of the Lord to them. But they constantly rejected the truth that he presented from the Lord. How different things might have been if they only would have listened and responded accordingly.
Today, myriads of people in the world and even some in our churches bring much hardship on themselves because they will not heed the words of God as revealed in the Bible. The Bible gives us the wisdom needed to handle every aspect of life. Yet people summarily reject its truth because it does not agree with their own opinions or cultural views of the day. Their rejection of God’s truth makes their lives unnecessarily more difficult than need be. There is enough tribulation in life without unknowingly adding the self-inflicted wounds of failing to heed the words of Scripture. Worst of all many reject the Bible’s plan to receive eternal life and those who reject this gift are destined for eternal punishment.
So, be students of the Bible and apply it to your life. Read it, study it, and obey it. Remember the words of James.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:22, ESV)
Consider Jesus’ words also.
““Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24–25, ESV)
What is the condition of your house? Is your life built on sinking sand or the solid rock?
