Passage Read: Jeremiah 13-16
Meditation Verses: 13:9-11
Thought
The Lord called Abraham and made his descendants into a nation that He intended to bring Him glory and praise and renown. They were to do that not by being rich and powerful, but by following His Word and ways so that He could bless them in every possible way. Then all the peoples of the earth would marvel at the goodness of this people and the greatness of their God. But instead, they walked in the stubbornness of their own evil hearts and turned to the gods of other nations, to follow their ways, as if they were better than the Lord. Those other gods promoted immorality, requiring no love for neighbors, but only material sacrifices. They were thought up by men who didn't want to have to live righteously, but wanted to pursue their own fleshly appetites. So God's own people became an embarrassment to themselves and to God.
Application
The Church today, and me as a believer, we are meant to bring God glory and praise and renown by how we live, by how we love Him more than our own lives so that we practice and preach righteousness and goodness, as His representatives and His likeness on earth. I'm supposed to live and act and speak like Him, so people can see how holy and righteous and good God is. That's what it means to be His image bearer, not just that we're a special creation as human beings, but that we live and act in the very same way that God does, so everyone who doesn't know Him can discover what He's like through us. Ideally, they see us and marvel at God's goodness, but many will be driven away by His righteousness and holiness, even as the Israelites themselves chose to abandon the Lord to seek other gods who wouldn't ask them to walk in holiness. My purpose as a source of glory and renown for the Lord is not to make Him less holy so that more people would be willing to accept Him as God--only to continue walking in ways that He intends to destroy--but to show truly who He is and what He's like so that one day every knee will bow and declare Him the Righteous One, whether they loved Him or hated Him.