Following the compass

 This week's verses are Jeremiah 8:7-8:

 Even the stork knows
when it is time to move on.
The turtledove, swallow, and crane
recognize the normal times for their migration.
But my people pay no attention
to what I, the Lord, require of them.
How can you say, “We are wise!
We have the law of the Lord”?
The truth is, those who teach it have used their writings
to make it say what it does not really mean.

 These verses are God's word for the prophet Jeremiah, explaining what was about to happen to unbelieving Israel. He says that even animals do a better job of following the lifestyle God has for them than Israel did. That's pretty harsh!

I recently visited a science museum where they had an exhibit showing that some birds have a mechanism in their brain that uses quantum physics to help them navigate. So God basically engineered something into the birds themselves to help them to survive.

In the same way that birds have an instinct to migrate when it is time, we have a conscience. We know certain things are wrong, and we can sense it and change our direction. Just like the birds! The problem with us is we ignore our instincts and do the wrong things anyway. 

We also have access to the Bible and direct prayer to God himself but we mostly use it to congratulate ourselves on being believers. We don't necessarily do what true believers do. We don't follow our moral compass and check it against the map of God's law.

What's worse is that we even have people teaching things that make it look like God supports whatever the moral fashion or vice of the day happens to be. So not only do they not listen, but they actually make it difficult for others to find their way, or even steer them off course!

So we ignore our conscience, we ignore the Bible, and we make up stuff we want to do and then use the Bible out of context to justify it so that we can continue to ignore what God wants of us. We pride ourselves on being wise and we shut our brains off.

But God is not complimenting Israel in these verses. He is explaining why they are about to suffer an invasion and long occupation by a foreign superpower. They have brought a curse on themselves. We should be careful not to do the same.

If you feel your God-given conscience telling you something is wrong, don't ignore it. If you know the Bible takes a position on something, don't lightly choose something else. And don't rely on a good preacher or some random Bible study you found on the Internet to tell you what is right or wrong. Go to God and find out from the source. You or that teacher might not be as wise as you thought.

If God loves the birds he created enough to give them a built-in clock and compass so they can find their way, consider that he loves us even more. Don't treat his gift lightly by trying to find your own way without it.