Jeremiah 9:09

 Jeremiah 9:09 says, Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?  God asked Jeremiah if He were not justified in bringing punishment on the people of Judah for their revolting against Him. God knew that He was, so I believe that the question was asked so that Jeremiah might look at what was going on and understand why God was allowing this to happen.  We need to acknowledge that if we are punished by God that it will not be because He wants to punish us, but because we deserve it.  Verse ten states, For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.  God said that the destruction was coming, and that He was deeply saddened by it.  God gives everyone and opportunity to repent and come to Him for salvation, and He weeps for those who do not.  Still, God cannot overlook sin, so if someone will not come to Him through the sacrifice of Christ, then God will allow them to go away into everlasting punishment.  Verse eleven adds, And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.  God said all the cities of Judah were going to be desolate and without inhabitants.  The sin of the people of Judah had become so great that their destruction was to be just as great.  Verse twelve asks, Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?  Jeremiah asked who the wise man was who would understand what was going to happen and why and declare it to the people of Judah.  Matthew Henry says that they were proud of their wise men and prophets who proclaimed only good things, but asked if there were any who really understood what was going on in Judah.  We do not need to be wise in our own understanding, but we need to be wise in the word of God.  Verse thirteen declares, And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;  God gave the indictment against the people of Israel.  They had forsaken His law, had not obeyed His voice, and did not walk in His ways.  The first step in being out of God's will is to not listen to His voice.  Verse fourteen adds, But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:  God said that instead of following Him that the people of Judah followed their own imagination and false gods.  If we begin to follow our own imagination, we should not be surprised if we are soon following after false gods.  Verse fifteen declares, Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.  God basically said that He was no longer going to bless Judah and provide the best for them but was going to let them eat and drink of the bitter things of the world.  No matter how successful we may believe that we are, if we are out of the will of God, then we are eating and drinking of the dregs of the world.  Verse sixteen adds, I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.  God said instead of gathering His people, who by now were His in name only, together and protecting them that He was going to scatter them and allow the forces of the world to defeat them.  As followers of Christ, if we allow the things of the world to come between God and us, we should not be surprised that the world defeats us.