Then they said to Jeremiah, The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us.
Jeremiah 42:5
When a people are in self deceit mode, you can’t really do much to help them. These people came to Jeremiah to pray to God for them, promising to obey whatever God tells them to do. They even swore to it.
Now, having just come out of the harrowing experience of seeing their governor killed and many fellow citizens as well, you will imagine that they will have a lot of sense. However, you find that this is not the case with these people.
They got into this situation in the first place due to their constant disobedience to God’s instructions. They were set on going abroad but then remembered that they should perform the ritual of asking God so that God would not say they didn’t make the inquiry before embarking on that journey.
This is the case with many of us. When we are starting a journey in our lives, we have decided on what to do but then remember to ask God to approve after we have made up our minds. However, the right order is to wait on Him for answers and then start planning based on His approval. Even if we made the mistake of how the other of things should be and God said ‘no’ to our plans, do we have the courage to cancel that plan and yield to God’s perfect will? Many of us don’t. And that is the sad truth.
When those actions now burn our hands, it is the same God that we made our appendage that we ask to fix it and heal us. The good thing is that God is not a human being so His patience with us and compassion for us is immeasurable.
Jeremiah stayed 10 days before God to pray for them before hearing what to tell them from God. But what did they do with the message after all the promise to obey? We will find out soon.
However, for you today, you can do it right. It starts with obeying the first injunction, which is to accept Jesus as your Lord and personal Saviour.
Jesus is Lord!
IYABODE OMOLARA AKEWO NWABUEZE 