What do the sins of a nation look like to God?
I will first review what sin is. Sin is anything that goes against the ways of God.
We can observe this by observing the book Jeremiah
The book of Jeremiah starts off by saying this is the word that came to Jeremiah. It took time for it to be unpacked. Jeremiah didn’t get the entire word in a moment.
One observation from this text and the time it takes to unpack the word of God is It is interesting how God confirms His word and how He gives us ample warning and time to be able to repent and turn from any manner of wickedness in our ways
Let’s unpack His mercy, grace, and love in the word
Jeremiah 1:1-4 MSG
1 1-4 The Message of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah of the family of priests who lived in Anathoth in the country of Benjamin. God’s Message began to come to him during the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon reigned over Judah. It continued to come to him during the time Jehoiakim son of Josiah reigned over Judah. And it continued to come to him clear down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah over Judah, the year that Jerusalem was taken into exile. This is what God said:
This message that the Lord had given Jeremiah was over MUCH time. Josiah became king of Judah at the age of eight after his father, King Amon, was assassinated. Josiah reigned for 31 years, from 641/640 to 610/609
13 years from this time God began to give Jeremiah this word. Zedekiah (flourished 6th century bc) was the king of Judah (597–587/586 bc) whose reign ended in the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of most of the Jews to Babylon
In the last year of Zedekiah’s reign, Judah was taken into exile.
Zedekiah’s reign ended with the siege and fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar II, which has been dated to 587 or 586 BC.
You can observe all the time, the exchange of rule and the siege.
We have reviewed what sin is and the grace of God in time before His righteous judgments.
Now we will review the nations.
What are the nations? The nations simply put are the people. What are the sins of the people? We will gain an understanding of this by reviewing the parallelism of Jeremiah and today’s now.
Let’s look at Jeremiah
1:16
16 And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands.
Jeremiah 2:3-8
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? Neither said they, Where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jer.2.13,Jer.2.5,Jer.2.6,Jer.2.7, Jer.2.8&version=KJV
Signs that a nation has turned from God.
So the sins of the nations were
- Walking after vanity
- Becoming vain
- They no longer remember God. That means passing down and recalling all of the goodness of God and the miracles, signs, and wonders He wrought in and through your life.
- Forsaking God – No longer desiring to please Him, surrender to Him and His leading, thinking He is foolishness
- Burning incense to other gods
- Worshipping the works of their hands
