Good Morning Friends,
“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh -- Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.’” (Jeremiah 9:25-26)
The Jews rarely had a problem with doing the outward things that God commanded them to do. They circumcised their young boys. They made the required sacrifices at the Temple. They attended the holy feasts. They refrained from work on the Sabbath. They followed the Law in its exacting details. They were proud of being God’s special people and were willing to do the things that marked them as such.
Their frequent problem, however, was that they just went through the outward motions. Frequently, their hearts were not right with God. They weren’t in a love relationship with God, they just did what He said because it made them special. What they did was often about them, and not about God!
Jeremiah compared that attitude -- which he called being uncircumcised in heart -- with the heathen nations that didn’t know God at all and didn’t even try to follow Him. God’s punishment would come upon all of them.
The heathen nations were not irreligious, they just didn’t know the Lord God. From them we learn that God does not honor religion -- He honors only a relationship with Him.
Israel knew God, they just didn’t love Him. From them we learn that God isn’t interested in outward religious form, not even outward religious form that is connected to Him! God is interested in the heart. He is pleased, not with those who go through the motions, but with those who love Him!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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