Bible Week begins with a deeply challenging message
In his first Bible teaching in Jeremiah entitled, ‘The broken heart of God’ David, David Parker gave a deeply challenging message, calling us to personal confession, repentance and restoration.
David introduced Jeremiah as a difficult book, not just because of its mixture of styles and non–linear progression, but because of its searing and uncompromising honesty where the real anguish of broken–heartedness lies on every page.
“If there is anything that is abundantly clear from Jeremiah’s passionate, relentless, graphic, and piercingly accurate denunciation of the kingdom of Judah in coming judgement, it is that God has taken His people’s rejection and refusal personally,” he said.
“In the language and emotion of a betrayed spouse, a disregarded father, and an abandoned friend, Jeremiah’s forecast of the cataclysm of Jerusalem’s fall and Judah’s destruction is not seen as just another geopolitical event – the rise and fall of nations in the ancient near eastern world – it is viewed as the tragic outcome of a people’s historic unfaithfulness in their covenant connection with God.”
David continued, saying that Judah’s brokenness and ours is not beyond repair, but only possible if we do three things: respond to hard truth; recapture a bigger history; and reject worthlessness.
He called us to be honest with ourselves about the ways in which we have exchanged faithfulness to God for false idols, habits and props:
“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jer 2:13)
He also urged us to take responsibility for those sins and their consequences:
“Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart!” (Jer 4:18)
David noted that it’s easier to respond to hard truths about ourselves given by those who also speak positively to us. How much more then should we accept hard truths from God, who tells us such wonderful truths about ourselves.
He encouraged us to recapture our place in God’s history – a history far bigger and better than that which we could ever create for ourselves.
And finally to reject worthlessness by rejecting the idols that make us worthless. (Jeremiah 2:5)