by Jeremiah 8:14 asks the question, “Why do we sit still?” We can answer this. As the years have been creeping up on us, we sit still as our bodies force us to slow down. It’s then that we find out or are reminded that the roses really do smell good. Jeremiah’s question, though, pertains to the spiritual.
Jeremiah was written when God’s people were facing destruction at the hands of Babylon. Their problem was arrogance, thinking God will deliver them as He always had. With pride and smugness, they jumped feet first into the pleasures of sin. They continued in their wickedness and did nothing to get right with God. In Jeremiah 8:5, they were in a state of “perpetual backsliding,” and by 8:12 they had lost their blush. It is then that Jeremiah asks the question in 8:14 to draw God’s people to deal with their sin, “Why do we sit still?”
The context of Jeremiah 8 is a call to take corrective action. Jeremiah is saying, “This is your last chance, REPENT!” Similarly, Paul challenges us through the Corinthians to repent. Unlike those with Jeremiah, who ignored God’s warnings, the Corinthians repented in 2 Corinthians 7:8-12. Now, how about us? If we think we have no need to repent, then let us be reminded of 1 John 1:8-10, lest we call God a liar. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”
Just as our bodies force us to sit still physically as we grow older, a means of preventive maintenance, so it is spiritually as we grow older in the Lord. There are many biblical reasons to physically sit still, so we can grow spiritually: sit still to rest (Matthew 11:28-30), sit still to pray (Matthew 6:6-13), sit still to study (1 Timothy 4:13-16), sit still to repent (2 Corinthians 7:8-12). Through these and more, our body may grow weaker while our spirit can continue to grow stronger (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
God calls for us, not to spiritually sit still, but to reach forward to be “stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58). How is your spiritual walk today (Galatians 5:22-25)?
