Walking the Talk

The Lord ‘My’ God…

Or, is he the Lord thy (someone else’s) God? Let me further explain.

I’ve been reading Jeremiah recently and I’ve been fully enjoying the entire book. I’m up to around chapters 40+ and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah have been taken captive by the King of Babylon. However, the poor of the land were left behind in Judah with Gedaliah as their governor. Jer. 40:5

Jer. 39:10 “But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people, which had nothing, in the land of Judah…”

In chapter 41:

Ishmael comes along and kills Gedaliah
Takes the women and others captive
Johanan (who back in 40:15 wanted to kill Ishmael before he killed Gedaliah, but Gedaliah said not to 40:16) gets the captives back 41:11-14.
By chapter 42 the people had forgotten God was ‘their’ God.

In the beginning of chapter 42:

Two times, the people referenced God as Jeremiah’s God and not ‘their’ God.

Jer. 42:2 “…and pray for us unto the Lord thy God…”
Jer. 42:3 “That the Lord thy God…”

Jeremiah tried to remind them, that God was ‘their’ God

Jer. 42:4 “Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words; and it shall come to pass, that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.”

Jeremiah made it a point to tell them: God was ‘their’ God, he would pray ‘their’ words, God would answer ‘them,’ and Jeremiah would declare the whole prayer to ‘them.”
Finally, in 42:6 it seems the people have gotten it and they are acknowledging God is ‘their’ God.

Jer. 42:6 “Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

At this point, I thought “Wow, they are getting it. They are realizing God as ‘their’ God.”
But, read further, there is a twist to this, and it is their downfall. Note: What I’m about to explain in scripture shows why we should read all around a verse to understand its meaning and not just read one verse and take it out of context. If I had stopped at 42:6, I would have taken it fully out of context.

Further down in chapter 42:

Jeremiah catches the people in their lies and deceit. Let me give a definition first and we’ll continue on.

Webster’s 1828 defines Dissembled “Concealed under a false appearance; disguised.”
Now let’s read:

Jer. 42:20 “For ye dissembled (were deceitful) in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, Pray for us unto the Lord our God; and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.”

Since ‘Dissembled’ means to be deceitful, this shows the people came to Jeremiah and they sounded good. They were talking a good talk, but they weren’t walking their talk. Jeremiah didn’t see their wicked heart but God did and revealed it to Jeremiah in the above verse.
In the next verse, the people have no intentions of obeying God and his commands to stay in the land and not go to Egypt.

Jer. 42:21 “…but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.”

The people were wicked and deceitful. Although in 42:6 “Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God…” they sounded good. There were talking a good talk, but they weren’t walking their talk and they had no intentions of walking their talk.

God knows a lot of people who talk a good talk. They dress right, come into church, talk good, look good; but inside God knows their heart. He knows they have no intention of obeying what has been taught and preached from God’s Word in church the day they attend.

Psalm 44:21 “…for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.”

People can fool a Pastor and other people. Since man cannot see the heart, it is fairly easy to fool people. But man cannot fool God – He sees the heart. God revealed the deception of the people to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was praying that the people would change and ‘walk their talk’ and not just ‘talk a good talk.’

Okay, just what was the people’s downfall?

What can we learn from this so we can ‘walk our talk’ and not just ‘talk a good talk?’

Here is the answer:

Jeremiah 44:10 “They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes…”
Jeremiah 44:23 “Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the Lord, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies…”

They would not humble themselves.
They did not fear the Lord.
They would not listen, obey, and walk in God’s law and statutes. They would not ‘walk their talk.’
They burned incense to other gods. We may not burn incense to other gods, but if there is something (other than extreme sickness) that keeps you out of church and away from serving the Lord, it is the same thing. Anything one puts in the way of serving God becomes another god in our life.
They sinned!

In summary, they were blatantly arrogant, and they didn’t care what God said and they were going to do whatever they wanted.

Jer. 44:16-17 “As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. 17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth…”

What a crying shame.

They talked a good talk, but refused to walk their talk and because – this was their fate:

Jer. 44:27-29 “…all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them. 28…and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose words shall stand, mine, or theirs. 29 And this shall be a sign unto you, saith the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil.”

As the song by S. Sundar Singh says, “I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back.”

Determine today to ‘follow’ and ‘walk your talk’ as a Christian for your Lord.