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They surpass the deeds of the wicked, Jeremiah 5:28

Jeremiah is given another message from God. In Jeremiah 5:23 God says, “But this people have a defiant and a rebellious heart; they have revolted and departed.” Verse 25 says, “And your sins have withheld good things from you.” He also says in verse 26, “For among My people are found wicked men.”

During the time of Jeremiah, the Jewish people were at a spiritual low. The evil imaginations of the heart and mind were running wild. It was very similar to the time before God sent the great flood on the earth. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,” Genesis 6:5. It would also be comparable to the time of Judges 17:6, when “everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”

The picture set before us was one where indulgence and disregard for others was abounding. As I considered the condition of the Jewish people at that time, I remembered an experience our family had about 20 years ago. Our oldest boy was given a beagle pup (Dutchess) as a gift, somehow it ended up becoming part of the entire family.

I remember going to purchase the beagle; for some reason the owner couldn’t find the one pup. It had left the others and went off to harass a small kitten. This was a different pup; she didn’t conform to the status-quo. She thought for herself and had a mind of her own, that was the dog for me. Because of its small size, it could do things it probably shouldn’t have.

It could bring a rabbit around for the second or third time if that was needed. She loved to chase rabbits during the night and then sleep in the daytime. Some rabbits would venture up through the yard and make a turn under the maple tree where Dutchess would sleep. Coming within several feet of her, they would then turn and run down through the yard and into the brush. The disturbed beagle would take off after the rabbit howling as if she was wounded.

The beagle never challenged our Doberman and the food bowl. Dutchess would playfully run away from the bigger dog and circle around the house, using the diversion tactic. She would then sneak in to the food bowl from behind and eat as much as she wanted. She also had a strange habit of backing in on the cat with her hind end first. Apparently, she did not want to risk getting her feminine face scratched.

Another experience we had was when we picked the Japanese beetles off the grapevine. The beagle began picking its own and crunching them down, devouring all that she could get. When the kids saw how the dog enjoyed the beetles, they began to generously donate handfuls at a time. The beetles would cling desperately to the dog’s muzzle while it was chowing them down.

Because of the excessive amount Dutchess was eating, she began to bloat. All the toxins and poisons in the beetles were having a negative effect. After a quick call to the veterinarian, we were advised not to give the dog anymore beetles until it had passed the ones it had eaten. After a few days, the dog was back to normal, backing in on the cat and helping herself to the dog food bowl. I really think we should have called the dog “Beetlejuice.”

So how does this story apply to our study in Jeremiah? The Jewish people enjoyed their sin, just like the beagle enjoyed the Japanese beetles. Those sins were taking the people away from God into moral and ethical decline. Their sins were like the toxins in the beetles, causing bad results. But unlike the beagle that stopped eating the toxins, the Jewish people did not stop their sin and rebellion against God. The end result was that God sent judgment on the Jewish people. Many of the Jews that weren’t killed, were carried off captive to Babylon for seventy years.

So here comes my closing question. The beagle was restored and returned to complete health, because she stopped consuming the bad toxins in the beetles. But the Jewish people never gave up their sinful pleasures that were taking them away from God. Are you going to be like the beagle or the Jewish people?

Comments or questions, contact me at: thoughtsonword@gmail.com

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