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Double, Double, Toil And Trouble.


I will pronounce my judgments on my people because of their wickedness in forsaking me, in burning incense to other gods and in worshiping what their hands have made. (Jeremiah 1:16) 

          "Double, double, toil and trouble." That's what the witches in MacBeth said as they stirred the cauldron. That's the image that came to mind as I read the verses just before today's passage. Judah had turned its back on its contract (covenant) with God and God was going to pour out a boiling pot that was tilting away from the north. Judgment was coming to Judah because they were burning incense to other gods and worshipping what their hands had made.
          There are people who reject Christianity in favor of "spirituality." There are people who claim that all religions are the same or that all roads lead to God. That's not what God says in Jeremiah 1:16. He makes it very clear that for those who broke faith with Him, for those who broke their covenant with Him, there would be punishment. Breaking the covenant comes down to one basic idea: turning to any god other than God. 
        Jesus told us “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)  If you're going to follow other gods, even as a sort of joke (astrology, divination, psychics, etc.) then God has made it clear that it is up to those gods to save you when God turns over the cauldron in order to scrub away evil.

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