Israel’s Choice

God’s message through Jeremiah is given but Israel, the self-willed, rebellious vessel chooses to ignore the One who made her and go their own way. They give excuses, they say there is no hope. It is too late. Judgment is coming so we might as well sin as much as we can. What difference does it make now?

God’s response is to ask if even the heathen, who never believed in Him, have heard of such a thing. Their rebellion is not only wrong, it is stupidly, foolishly, wickedly wrong. Even the Gentiles would know better.

He asks the question, Jeremiah 18:13-14 Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. 14 Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?

He reveals the reason why they would be so foolish, worthless idol instead of living God. Jeremiah 18:15 Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up

He tells the result. Jeremiah 18:16-17 To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. 17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.

Israel chosen by God, shaped and formed into a people, then made a nation by the hand of God, have now chosen His wrath instead of His blessing.

Our Choice

What is explicitly stated as God’s sovereignty in the affairs of this world and Israel, is also applicable on a smaller scale to us. Now, we are not Israel, nor is the church Israel, but God is sovereign in His will even the affairs and choices of our own life.

We can choose our own way. We can choose the rebellion and sin of this world. We can choose to ignore our Creator. That same creator some try to ignore is the One who gave us the ability to make such a foolish, even dangerous choice. Yes, even to the face of God we can say, "I know what's best for me, I will set my own path, I will not listen or care what God may say."

There is a famous poem by William Ernest Henly titled Invictus and it is the rebellious cry of a man against God, his creator.

Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.

Yes, he was the captain of his soul while he lived but after he died to his utter shock he found out that he was not the master of his fate. God was sovereign over William Ernest Henley and his poem, shaking a fist in the face of God, didn’t even sound a whisper in flames of hell.

The book of Proverbs 4:12, says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Unless he repented William Henly and all those like him realized the full truth of that verse.

Israel found out, King Jehoiakim and his descendants found out, even the mighty King Nebuchadnezzar found out. God is the ruler of all, he only is sovereign, and we can heed His warning and be blessed or we can ignore His word and suffer punishment. No, we are not the masters of our eternal fate, the sovereign God of the universe is.