“Again the Lord spoke to me and said, “I have discovered a conspiracy against me among the people of Judah and Jerusalem. They have returned to the sins of their ancestors. They have refused to listen to me and are worshiping other gods. Israel and Judah have both broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.” Jeremiah 11:9-10 NLT
There is nothing hidden from God. And, of course, he knows our thoughts, our ways – everything about us from before we were born even all through our external existence.
He sees all, for all time, for everyone in a constant instance, a moment of continual present or NOW.
However, to talk about with Jeremiah or us for that matter, God says, “I’ve discovered” something. I read this like a Dad who has found fireworks contraband under my son’s mattress or my own Mom who thought she discovered Marijuana in a baggie in my desk (it was dried parsley, but it looked like drugs) long story.
God has these conversations with us as though he has expected such good from us, but alas, we’ve been secretly seeing another god. He tells Jeremiah about the plethora of very visible idols throughout the city.
They weren’t exactly hidden. In fact they were blatantly visible, like David’s son Absalom, having intimate relations with his father’s concubines on the roof. God says, look around – idols are everywhere! “you have as many gods as you have towns. You have as many altars of shame—altars for burning incense to your god Baal—as there are streets in Jerusalem.” It wasn’t as much a conspiracy as an outright rebellion.
God does tell Jeremiah something that has been consistent throughout all human history and it’s the hard part of our story – “They [we] actually rejoice in doing evil!” The only thing, the necessary thing for us to do is repent (turning 180°) from our sin. To have and a regular and ongoing admission of our natural desires to have our own way, a confession of those desires as well as the behaviors that follow. I would like to think that I am never trying to hide my sin from God nor for him to ever see it as a flaunting of rebellion against his law or love. I regularly sin, but I do not regularly rebel or openly display my idols in the cities and streets where I live.
PRAYER:
Dad,
It makes it especially egregious to think of my sin as any means of taking on another love like some kind of adulterous affair. I so want to be loyal and grateful for the relationship, the covenant you have made with me. Of course, I hate that fact that my sin, my thoughts and behaviors would EVER be seen as a public display of rebellion against you. You know my weaknesses, you know my faults and shortcomings, you see my heart. Even still I come before you humbly in repentance and confession, not pretending that I have no sin not that I do not sin. Thank you for your Word and thank you for your Holy Spirit who calls me to obedience!