Jeremiah 18:12 “But they say, ‘That is in vain! We will follow our plans, and will every one act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’”

Here is the answer that God gets to His plea for them to return. God told them of the disaster He would bring if they did not return from their evil way and quit their wrongful deeds. They did not return to doing right, and God did, in fact, bring the disaster upon them. And what did they learn from that? What have we learned from that? If Paul was right and these things are written for us to learn from, we have failed to take advantage of the education. God is still calling the unrighteous to repentance, and the unrighteous are still saying that they will follow their own plans.

Stubbornness is still with us. We continue to worship the created instead of the creator. There are more Bibles in print today than ever in history. More churches, more preachers, and more teachers of the Word of God, and yet the world rejects the message they bring just like they did the prophets of old. Denial of God leads to idolatry and vice versa. Mankind thinks it can dismiss God by denying Him. In so doing, they confess to a crime that will result in eternal damnation. God’s existence does not depend upon the acknowledgment of men. The tide is a symbol of God in that man cannot turn it back or control its movement. For certain, it is a fool who says in his heart there is no God.

Task for Today: Don’t be a fool, open the Bible and read it. Bend your knees and pray. Try faith and prove that He is. Trusting in the reality of God leads to eternal freedom, whereas denial leads to captivity. Learn from Jeremiah’s people’s mistakes.