Jeremiah 9:17

Jeremiah 9:17 says, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:  God called for the mourning women and the cunning women who knew how to write songs of mourning to be called for.  These were fake mourners, who knew how to go through the motions but who really felt no genuine sadness.  Verse eighteen adds, And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.  God called for them to come with haste so that they could cry tears without meaning.  The people of Judah were still enjoying life, and God said maybe the false mourners would point out their false happiness.  Verse nineteen declares, For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.  God said the people would be confused when they were cast out of their homes and had to seek shelter.  They would ask how this had happened.  Matthew Henry says that they were more concerned with the loss of their possessions than they were with the sin that led to them losing them.  If we find ourselves in a bad situation, we need to be more concerned with our relationship with God than we are with any material things that we may lose.  Verse twenty adds, Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.  God told the women to teach their daughters and neighbors mourning. The time of mourning was going to last for awhile.  Matthew Henry says that it was the women who were to do this because the men would not listen.  God will work through the women of God today, especially if the men of God will not listen.  Verse twenty-one says, For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.  God said that there was a time for real mourning, because death had come to them.  The faith of the people of Judah had become false, but the mourning would be real.  When our faith in God becomes weak or false, then we set ourselves up for mourning, spiritually if not physically.  Verse twenty-two declares, Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.  What was to be spoken was God's word, and that is what we need to speak today, even if people do not want to hear it.  Death and destruction were coming, and yet God's people were still speaking of the good times and denying it.  Verse twenty-three says, Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:  God said that people were not to glory in their earthly status, and neither should we today.  Verse twenty-four adds, But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.  God said that if people wanted to delight in something that they should delight in Him, not because of what He might give them but because of Who He is.  We need to delight in the Lord always if we are followers of Christ, no matter how much or how little we may have in the world.  Verse twenty-five declares, Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;  God said the time was coming when He would punish both those who should have been His people, the circumcised, along with those who never were His people.  Going through the motions of being a follower of Christ means nothing if we have not truly accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Verse twenty-six adds, Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.  God said that the people of the other nations were uncircumcised, or had never entered into a covenant relationship with Him, and that even though the people of Judah were circumcised, or identified as God's people, that their hearts were not committed to Him.  If we are to be true Christians today, we must be circumcised in  the heart, or have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.  When we do it should affect all that we think and do.