10 “Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you 11 and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth [e]because there is no other place for burial. 12 This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants,” declares the Lord, “so as to make this city like Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned [f]sacrifices to all the heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”’”
14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’”
Once a jar has been put through the fire, it is stiff and cannot be modified. If it has a defect and cannot serve its function, then there is nothing to be done except break it. Sadly, so it was for the people of Israel, who had stiffened their necks and would not heed the word of the Lord. Their idolatry was so ingrained that they even offered sacrifices on their rooftops.
No longer were they content with the hilltops and groves, or even defiling the temple itself with their evil, they practiced evil wherever they went. Unfortunately, so it is also today when people stiffen their hearts (and necks), but it isn’t just wicked and evil people who do so. There are even so-called good people, folks who call themselves Christians even, who put on a good show but refuse to submit their hearts to God.
We would do well to do a heart check ourselves. Have we become calloused to His word, going through the motions with no substance? Or are we ready and willing, listening for God’s voice. With all the noise and busyness in our culture, it isn’t difficult to get stuck in a rut, or to lose track of where we are with God. As we’ve seen before, the people of Israel here were still going to the temple, still offering the required sacrifices, but their hearts were far from God.
Check your heart this morning, has it gone cold and stiff? Let God break you down once more, to soften your heart and mind. Shut down the noise that distracts and listen for His voice. And don’t just listen, but obey and do the work that He has set before you, not half-hearted, but whole-heartedly, all in.