Attitudes and Actions

           We have so much to learn from the attitudes and actions of God’s people in the Old Testament. In the early books of Jeremiah, the tribes of Israel formerly rejected by God for their faithlessness look good in comparison to the tribes of Judah. Judah stubbornly refused to learn the intended lesson from God’s discipline of Israel; the attitude Judah should have reaped was one of sorrow that led to repentance and salvation. Instead, the Lord declared that Judah acted deceptively because they washed themselves without being truly clean before him (Jer. 2:22/3:10), and he accused the tribes of Judah of forsaking him and worshiping idols made with their own hands (Jer. 1:16, Jer. 2:13). Unfortunately, we, too, fail to learn from the attitudes and actions of those in the Old Testament. Our attitudes are haughty as if we have nothing to learn from lessons old enough to collect the dust of antiquity. Consequently, our actions follow the same patterns as Judah’s, which were so repugnant to God: we quickly forsake the God who is everything to relentlessly pursue the empty gods of this world. We are whitewashed sepulchers as Jesus pointed out in Matthew 23:27: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (NASB). We too are in danger of being taken away as captives by the world in which we live. We have been given everything we need for life and godliness (II Pet. 1:3), yet our attitudes and actions do not reflect this provision of God. Will it be said of us by later generations as God said of Judah: “For My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are stupid children and have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know” (Jer. 4:22)? If we will take the time to learn lessons others have had to learn the hard way, our way will be so much more pleasant and profitable. We have no for our attitudes and actions to be offensive to God.