Breaking a pot at Jopheth Jeremiah 19

This chapter has really gotten me thinking.

God has been castigating the children of Israel for idolotry throughout this book of Jeremiah, but here he focuses in on the practice of infant sacrifice that was connected with this idolotry. Topheth -- 'the fireplace' -- was a place where children were cast into the fire. And as a result of this practice, which has stemmed directly out of their idolotry, Jeremiah is instructed to break a clay pot into irreparable pieces, and proclaim to Israel that God will do the same to her because of her evil practices.

I think of our prayers for our country last night at prayer group and recently at church, and they mainly have to do with the alleviation of the economic downturn. In other words, we pray out of our fears for our own selves, and ask God to help us and provide for us. (And we are so used to having much more than 'daily bread', that we are essentially asking God to keep on letting us live in the lap of luxury and we feel as if we are only asking for what is our due.)

I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for ourselves and present our cares to God, but the economic downturn and it's effect on us seems small when I look at the book of Jeremiah and God's concerns. He does not want us to worship other Gods. He does not want us to kill babies. Those are his concerns. And these offenses are such that, in righteous anger, he is justified in destroying the people and their way of life, sending them into extreme suffering in exile, turning his face from them, allowing them to feel the horror of their seperation from God until they turn again to him and reject the false worship and evil practices that go along with it. Not until then will God save a remnant of them.

Should we not be praying that we and our countrymen would return to the Lord, and that any adverse circumstances we find ourselves in would move us in that direction? Should we not be mourning the slaughter of babies in our country and our world, and the false Gods that are worshipped all around us? Should we not be more concerned with these things than with our economic woes? And as, at times, we pray for the Lord's quick return, should we not be cowering at the thought of the just wrath of God at our country's idolotry and practices of infanticide? Our suffering as a nation is nothing compared with the punishment we deserve as a nation.