Contemplative Bible Reading

Jeremiah 11:13 (New Living Translation)

13 Look now, people of Judah; you have as many gods as you have towns. You have as many altars of shame—altars for burning incense to your god Baal—as there are streets in Jerusalem.

God is speaking to the people through the prophet Jeremiah. It seems there are problems with false gods or idols. The people were quite religious, but neither right nor righteous. The people believed there was something out there beyond the physical. There were spirits in the spirit world outside the physical world. There was at least one god per town in Judah. And every street in Jerusalem had an altar for worshiping a god.

Needless to say, this didn’t sit well with God. The first of the Ten Commandments is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Hmm. The people were not obeying the most fundamental of commands.

First things first and all that. Get this one thing right before we move on to the complicated stuff. Well, that wasn’t working.

Excuses? Reasons? We never run out of those. Good enough? Nope. But… nope. How about… nope. Simple.