May 22, 2013 – Jeremiah 4

4 – I think it is always interesting when you see them talk about circumcision in the Old Testament and there is an obvious point made that it is about more than the physical act.  Here it talks about removing the foreskin of your heart.  It is obvious that God doesn’t just want an act of sacrifice but a change in your heart and a commitment to Him.  Yet, when Christianity started and as you read in Acts, circumcision as an act was something that divided and stopped Jews from bringing Gentiles into Christianity.  But if they looked in the Old Testament readings, they would see that it isn’t the physical act that was important to God, it was about something much more important.  St. Paul understood that, or by Grace, was given that insight, and was then sent to the Gentiles to convert them.

I think you could say that today there are many that are “wise in evil” and “know not how to do good”.  We almost take pride in doing wrong and praise those that can get away with it.  Yet, where is the praise for those that do right.  But, we are told by Christ that it is not for the world to see or we will not get the world’s praise for doing His work.  That praise and those rewards are being built up somewhere else.  I think that is why so many get frustrated with trying to promote a Godly way of life, because there really is no worldly benefit for doing it, yet we need to persist.  With the court setting down the decision it did yesterday, the praise for a Godly way of life is further and further from away, but it is building up, we just can’t see it and must rely on faith.