“Then the Lord said to me, “Even faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah! Therefore, go and give this message to Israel. This is what the Lord says “O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against him by worshiping idols under every green tree. Confess that you refused to listen to my voice. I, the Lord, have spoken!” Jeremiah 3:11-13
Judah is still not listening to God when He tells them to come back to Him. They even saw what happened to Israel when they did not come back to God. God is making it clear that the sin of Judah is worse than the sin of Israel. The northern tribes didn’t have the same opportunity as the southern tribes. They did not have the temple nor did they have a copy of the Word of God. Therefore the judgment on Judah was greater. I believe the judgment on us will be greater also. God tells Israel that He will bring them back into the land if they will turn to Him. How gracious God is! How wonderful He is!
Today the big problem is a lack of confession of sin. I find that repentance is lacking in much of the so-called spiritual movements of today. We need to confess our iniquity. My friend, do you say that you are a Christian? What do you mean by that? Perhaps you say that you have trusted Christ. Trusted Him for what? You may say that you trust Him as your Savior. Fine! I’m glad to hear that. Did He save you from sin? Remember that He died on the Cross to save you from sin, not to give you a million dollars or a new car. We don’t follow Jesus for what He can do for us. We follow Jesus because He saved us from the life that we were living; a life that if not already, but would soon lead us to destruction. We must realize that we are a sinner and Jesus came to save us from the life of sin.
“Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.” (Romans 1:21) This is a picture of America today.