27 “You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction; [j]truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.
29 ‘Cut off [k]your hair and cast it away,
And take up a lamentation on the bare heights;
For the Lord has rejected and forsaken
The generation of His wrath.’30 For the sons of Judah have done that which is evil in My sight,” declares the Lord, “they have set their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. 31 They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, and it did not come into My [l]mind.
32 “Therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be called Topheth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topheth [m]because there is no other place. 33 The dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth; and no one will frighten them away. 34 Then I will make to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a ruin.
That had to be hard for Jeremiah, to know right away (v. 27) that God has asked you to speak a message that no one will listen to. So rightly, God tells him to shave his head and weep on the heights. For not only were the people going off and sinning outside the city and outside the temple, but they were bringing their idol worship right into the very temple of God.
Which is pretty much exactly what is happening in our churches today. People aren’t content to live their sinful lives anymore, they want the church to embrace their sin and say it is okay. And sadly, many churches have given in, and not only allow the sin, but flaunt it openly. To be clear, we are never to reject a sinner, we are to love them as Christ loved us. But for the grace of God, so are we.
Yet to promote sinful behavior without a second thought, when we ought to weep for our shame? That should be unthinkable. God’s truth doesn’t change just because our culture decides something is maybe possibly okay. Even years ago, we’ve seen what bending God’s truth does to the church. False teaching has been rampant for centuries, not just years or even decades.
Unlike the sons of Judah, we need to read God’s word, and listen to what He tells us. We must put our flesh aside, even when it is uncomfortable–especially then–and clothe ourselves with His Spirit. God wants to help us live rightly, but are we willing? As Paul said, often the spirit is willing, but our flesh is so weak. Jesus told us to take up our cross daily, and it’s a reminder we all need. I need to take up my cross again, that I live for Him and not myself, all day and every day.