16 The word of the Lord also came to me saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in this land: 4 “They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be lamented or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.”
5 For thus says the Lord, “Do not enter a house of [a]mourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the Lord, “My lovingkindness and compassion. 6 Both great men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them. 7 Men will not break bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother. 8 Moreover you shall not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.” 9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I am going to [b]eliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.
10 “Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘For what reason has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 Then you are to say to them, ‘It is because your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law. 12 You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me. 13 So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’
God paints a pretty dismal picture here for Jeremiah… Don’t get married, she’ll just get killed and break your heart. Don’t have kids, they’ll be killed and break your heart. Don’t go to funerals, you’ll have too many of those. Don’t even bother going to parties, all those folks will be gone soon too. Yikes!
But why? And that’s the question God says the people will ask in v. 10. The answer God gives Jeremiah is that their forefathers had forsaken God, bowed down to other gods and served them. On top of that, the current generation had done evil, more than their forefathers (v. 11). So why not get married? Because good luck finding a wife in that culture that would leave her father’s wickedness behind and serve God alone.
Even worse, if you should have children, there’s little chance of keeping them from idol worship when all their friends are doing it. “Why can’t we go out to the grove Dad? My friends say it’s a blast!” The point in all this then–besides the obvious message that evil was everywhere, and (very) few would escape the consequences–was that Jeremiah had been called to serve God, without compromise.
Therein lies our challenge, we have been called to serve God, regardless of what our culture is doing, or what our friends (or neighbors, or co-workers) are doing. Paul wrote, “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.“
In our world today, that may not be quite as rare as it was in Jeremiah’s day, but it’s getting close to it. Even in churches, things are accepted that do not fit in Paul’s list. We put junk into our minds and say, “What’s wrong with that? It’s so much fun, it can’t be wrong, can it?” God asks us to live differently, to live by the Spirit, and not in obedience to our flesh.
It’s not an easy task in any time, or in any culture, but God is calling us to be set apart. Not to go live in a commune and block out the world, but to live different and be salt and light to a lost and dying world. We are not called to blend in, but to swim upstream, walking a narrow path to freedom and everlasting life. We should live different, think different, and be different. Are we?