“Tell them all this, but do not expect them to listen. Shout out your warnings, but do not expect them to respond. Say to them, ‘This is the nation whose people will not obey the Lord their God and who refuse to be taught. Truth has vanished from among them; it is no longer heard on their lips. Shave your head in mourning, and weep alone on the mountains. For the Lord has rejected and forsaken this generation that has provoked his fury.” Jeremiah 7:27-29
The Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath: There are several reasons listed why God so radically punished Judah. This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord. They continued with their superficial rituals such as animal sacrifice, but had long abandoned simple obedience. Worse than their disobedience was their inability to be corrected. There was no helping a people who would not receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth in rejecting the truth of God; they gave themselves over to lies and falsehood.
God gave Jeremiah a solemn commission to speak to the people of Jerusalem and Judah. It wasn’t Jeremiah’s ambition or even his natural desire. Jeremiah did not have people come forward and declare themselves for God. His message went unheeded; yet it was his responsibility to deliver the message. God told him to do the job, to give out His Word, even if there was no response to it. It is not important for us to be able to count noses and see a response to our message. The important thing is the report we must give to God, to be faithful in giving out His Word and backing it up with our lives. At times I have a problem with my calling to the ministry. I want to count noses. I worked in the business world all these years. In the business world we want to know if what we are doing is working. We want to count noses so I guess this is why I want to count noses. We just need to do what God is telling us and let God be in charge of the results.