Got Your Foot Stuck?

One morning, my wife found a bird that had gotten its foot all tangled up in some netting around her garden.  To get that bird free, she put on some big barbecue mitts and held the bird in place while I cut away the netting from its foot.  I’m happy to report that we were able to free the bird, which flew off in a hurry!

(Let’s come back to this story later.)

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Sometimes, God seems to ask rhetorical questions.  I encourage you to read Jeremiah 2:4-8, rather than just this excerpt, but let’s take a look either way:

This is what the LORD says:
“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD,
who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
I brought you into a fertile land
to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
and made my inheritance detestable.
Jeremiah 2:5‭-‬7 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/jer.2.5-7.NIV

Verse 5 sounds to me like a parent asking a child, “What were you thinking?”  (Adults know the answer: they weren’t!  And, we know this because we ourselves have also acted without thinking things through.)

Or maybe this is more like someone in a broken relationship asking, “What did I do to you?”, or “What did I do wrong that you left me?”  Clearly, there is no fault on God’s part here, but yet His people have abandoned Him.

If the time described in the previous verses was the honeymoon (see previous article), this is like God filing for divorce against unfaithful Israel. [ref. Willis, cited below]

So, what had the people described in Jeremiah’s time done instead, as compared to when God was taking care of them in the wilderness?

• They didn’t look for Him, despite what He had done for them from Egypt to the Promised Land.
• They defiled the good land that God had provided for them.  Whether they made the inheritance that God provided for them “detestable” (NIV) or “an abomination” (NASB), they had taken a good thing – a land flowing with milk and honey – and corrupted it with idol worship.
• Even their spiritual leaders – priests and prophets – did not look to God, going so far as to prophecy by Baal, instead.

The NASB says that the people “walked after emptiness and became empty” (v5).  The NIV apparently interprets this emptiness as “worthless idols”, but both translations show how the people became what they pursued.  After all, when we pursue anything other than God, the result can never be as good as Him.

Similarly, in verse 8, the NIV again interprets the worthless things that the people followed as idols, and that’s probably accurate, from what I can tell.  I like the more generalized description from the NASB, where the prophets “walked after things that were of no benefit”.  No matter what we follow, seek, pursue, or put our trust in, if it isn’t God (or in God’s will), it is “of no benefit”.

In fact, multiple study guides (cited below) say that “worthless” here is what we know from Ecclesiastes as “vanity” or “meaninglessness”.  Following things that aren’t God, aren’t from God, and aren’t God’s direction for us…well, that isn’t just “less good” or “another option”.  It’s a total waste of time.

On the other hand, God’s calling is uniquely superior to our following anything else.  I feel like God’s calling is summarized in Leviticus 19:1-2.  Although this message was given to the people of Israel, I believe that we too should follow the holy God, and in doing so become holy ourselves.

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Going back to the bird at the start of this article, if you or I have allowed ourselves to get tangled up in something – anything – that isn’t God, I think that we can learn a few things from this bird:

• First, we probably can’t get free by ourselves.  We need help, so we must ask Him for that help.
• Secondly, we need to yield to God in order to let Him free us.  If that bird had kept struggling and kicking while my wife held it, it would have been difficult to cut off the knots that the bird had gotten wound around itself.
• Thirdly, the junk that keeps us away from God will need to be cut away.  We shouldn’t complain if this is a little painful, or if we find that we miss the bad habits or escape mechanisms that we had when we were pursuing something else to give us what only God can provide.

So, don’t stay stuck in chasing after anything that isn’t God Himself, God-honoring, or God-given.  You’ll just get yourself more and more entangled, unable to soar freely in God’s love and guidance like you were created to.

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From Sunday School lesson prepared for June 11, 2023

References:

• The Lookout, June 11, 2023, © 2023 Christian Standard Media.
• Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
• Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. Copyright by The Lockman Foundation.
• The College Press NIV Commentary – Jeremiah-Lamentations, by Timothy M. Willis.  © 2002 College Press Publishing Co.