Sophisticated Fire

Jer. 7:30-34, Gal. 5:16-23

Jeremiah describes the wickedness of Judah as beginning in the sanctuary. When people turn from listening carefully to what God says to do, they necessarily begin to substitute their own ideas, their own inventions and innovations. And this inevitably results in imitating unbelief and idolatry. It seems like an extreme, unthinkable thing to begin sacrificing children to pagan gods. But if Israel can get there, so can any nation. Perhaps our fires and altars get more sophisticated, but the children murdered in abortion clinics and the children disfigured by the push for gender neutrality and transgenderism are being offered to the god of absolute autonomy.

And the fact that many conservative churches are afraid to say out loud that God created men and women with different glories, and therefore they have different roles to play in the family, church, and society, that children are a blessing from the Lord and welcome in our in our communities, that marriage is sacred and to be honored among all men – all of this tells you we are already deeply compromised by the idols of our land.

This battle begins in every human heart, which is where all true worship begins. We will either be under the reign and rule of the Spirit or we will submit to the flesh. We will either serve Jesus or we will serve ourselves. The flesh demands a certain kind of blood, found in the works of the flesh. But the Spirit proclaims the blood of Christ and assures us that we belong to Him. The former is inherently violent and coercive, the latter is the only way for human societies to function or flourish. One is the kingdom of man where the voice of mirth is slowly silenced and the voices of bride and bridegroom cease from the land, but the other is the kingdom of God where the voice of gladness never ends.