I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  I am going to be on vacation through August 10th.  I have prepared my daily Bible Studies for each day throughout that time in advance since I will have limited access to the Internet during this time.  The timing on when I publish these blogs may be erratic during this time.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 1-3.

Jeremiah’s prophecy today reminds me of the history of the United States.  I want to be clear that I do not view the United States as God’s new “Chosen People”.  I think that similar comparisons can be made of other people and nations.  Jeremiah begins by speaking about how the Israelites loved and worshiped God as He led them through the wilderness.  Yet soon began to stray to the worship of other gods.  In the United States, before there was a United States, there was a great revival.  However, it is not entirely accurate to call it a revival because few of the early settlers were particularly religious (there were some notable exceptions: the Puritans in Massachusetts, the Quakers and others in Pennsylvania, and a few other similar groups elsewhere, but before the “Great Awakening” most of those who lived in the Colonies had no use for God).  That all changed with the Great Awakening.  The Holy Spirit swept over the thirteen Colonies like a wild fire.  Then came the conflict between the British and French colonists and the war which followed.  Than, just as Jeremiah said of the Israelites, the settles did not ask, “Where is God?”, they asked, “Where is the government?” (in this case the British government)..  There were similar revivals where the people of the United States turned to God in large numbers, only to a few years later look elsewhere for solutions to their problems.

I want to point out that Jeremiah began to prophecy while Josiah was king.  Josiah was one of the kings of Judah who “did what was pleasing in God’s sight.”  So, just because you attend Church regularly and worship God, does not mean that you are not one of those whom Jeremiah would accuse of idolatry.  Where do YOU turn for solutions to the problems you see around you?  Are you lobbying the government? Or, are you seeking to do God’s will?