Jeremiah 2:1-8

GOD’s Message came to me. It went like this: “Get out in the streets and call to Jerusalem, ‘GOD’s Message! I remember your youthful loyalty, our love as newlyweds. You stayed with me through the wilderness years, stuck with me through all the hard places. Israel was GOD’s holy choice, the pick of the crop. Anyone who laid a hand on her would soon wish he hadn’t!’” GOD’s Decree. * * * Hear GOD’s Message, House of Jacob! Yes, you—House of Israel! GOD’s Message: “What did your ancestors find fault with in me that they drifted so far from me, Took up with Sir Windbag and turned into windbags themselves? It never occurred to them to say, ‘Where’s GOD, the God who got us out of Egypt, Who took care of us through thick and thin, those rough-and-tumble wilderness years of parched deserts and death valleys, A land that no one who enters comes out of, a cruel, inhospitable land?’ “I brought you to a garden land where you could eat lush fruit. But you barged in and polluted my land, trashed and defiled my dear land. The priests never thought to ask, ‘Where’s GOD?’ The religion experts knew nothing of me. The rulers defied me. The prophets preached god Baal And chased empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.