“I’m Delighted You Are Reading This…”


BIBLE READING: Jeremiah 4-5

                                There are many reasons why I’m happy that you are reading this devotional but in light of this passage I have a fresh one – it suggests the high probability that you delight in the word of God. That reality, that grace, ought to have fresh significance in light of Jeremiah’s description of rebellious Jerusalem.  Jeremiah asked, “To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear?” As you might have guessed, this is a rhetorical question. It was a question of desperation. It seemed like everywhere Jeremiah went there was opposition or indifference to the word of the Lord. And Jeremiah gives the reason for the lack of response: “Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed.” This is a unique description. We read of uncircumcised lips (Ex. 6:12, 30) and uncircumcised hearts (Lev. 26:41; Ezek. 44:7) but here the description is of uncircumcised ears. In other words, just as the carnal mind is not subject to the Law of God and neither indeed can it be (Rom. 8:7-8) so the carnal uncircumcised ear is not receptive to the Word of God and cannot give heed. Fallen man walks, if you will, in willful deafness to God’s instruction. Men like that were not relegated to Jeremiah’s day; these were the kind of men that stoned Stephen – men with uncircumcised ears (Acts. 7:51), who walked in the footsteps of their fathers who also resisted the words of the Spirit-inspired text of Scripture and the messengers that communicated those words. That well-trodden path is still well traveled today.
The result, then, is no surprise: “Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; They have no delight in it.” Amazing. They loved the words of the false prophets (Jer. 5:31) but they had no delight in God’s true words. Instead God’s word was a reproach to them. They scorned it. They were offended by it. And suffice it to say – they had no delight in it. Imagine all the things they did have delight in. Lying words. False prophecies. Temple observance. Burnt offerings. Multi-site/hill idolatry. Money-getting. Immoral actions. Adulterous thoughts. Drunkenness. And the list could go on. They had plenty of delights but they reproached that which they should have delighted in most! And that diagnostic demonstrated that they were a nation that was on the verge of judgment.
Jeremiah, however, didn’t fit that description. He told the LORD, “Your words were found and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” (Jer. 15:16b). And the question becomes why? Why did Jeremiah have an appetite for the words of life? You might say – not only did Jeremiah have spiritually circumcised ears but spiritually circumcised taste-buds, and God was the one who performed the spiritual circumcision. Even as Jeremiah said at the end of Jeremiah 15:16:
 “Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.” (Emphasis added)So I’m happy that you’re reading this devotional because (a) it suggests you delight in the Word of God and (b) if that is the case, it’s because you, like Jeremiah, have been called by the name of the LORD God of Hosts. What grace!                                                -George Ippoltio



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