“But afterward, they turned around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free and brought them into subjection as slaves.”
– Jeremiah 34:11
The whole picture here in Jeremiah 34:11 is God’s people turning from sin, initially, but then going right back to the sin they had turned from, and I read this and I think about this tendency in my own life. I’m guessing yours, too. How many times do we sin against God and confess our sin, express sorrow over sin, and yet the next day we can go right back to it.
Our sinfulness is so pervasive. We need Jesus every moment, every day, in new ways and praise God that his mercies are new for us every morning. But to see this picture in Jeremiah 34, and they’re foolishness. You’re reading this and you’re thinking, “Why are you going back to that?” You’ve already repented of that! But then I see in the people of God in Jeremiah 34:11, a picture of my own heart and my own foolishness.
Our sin is so pervasive. We need Jesus every moment of every day. May God help us to flee sin and run to Him.
So, God, we pray. Help us to see the foolishness of our own hearts in this way. That once we confess sin, repent of it, we turn from it, God, help us to run from it. To repent and run from it. Not to repent and then run back to it, God. The foolishness of our own hearts, the sinfulness of our own hearts. God, we need your grace. We need your mercy. We know, Jesus, that you have not only paid the price for our forgiveness of sin but our freedom from sin. And we don’t have to run back to it. Greater is he who is in us and he who is in the world. You give us power over sin.
So, God, help us to live in that, we pray. I pray for sin that … I struggle with. Sin that others struggle with who are listening to this right now. God, help us to hate it. As we confess it, help us to hate it all the more, and help us to repent of it and to run from it. Please, oh God, please. Give us victory over sin. The victory you’ve bought for us, Jesus. Help us to flee sin and pursue righteousness. Help us to run from our ways and run toward your ways and your word. God, help us to repent and run from sin. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
