I’m studying Jeremiah and Lamentations for my own personal study this year and I just came across a great text.

The context is God explaining to Judah why He is going to punish them with the Babylonian exile. In short, it’s because the people turned to other gods. As the Lord explains this, He describes how far removed from His commands the people went, to the point of offering their children as burnt offerings on pagan altars…

They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:

(Jeremiah 19:5) 

Judah ignored the edicts of the Lord and the statutes of true worship He laid down for them. In their place, they have turned to false idols, and built monuments to Baal. They have burned their sons with fire, offering them on pagan altars as burnt offerings. They have done things God never recorded in the Law (commanded not), never talked about it, either explicitly or implicitly (nor spake it), and never desired (neither came into My mind).

The latter part of the verse might sound redundant but it carries great significance when it comes to the interpretation of Divine edicts. As it did then, false worship exists today, and those who practice such do so out of willful ignorance of God’s Law. This verse offers the three-step process for how something becomes a doctrine of God for men to heed.

It begins in the mind of God. The Lord is holy and He thinks holy thoughts. He has holy ways. He desires holy things. Naturally, then, He wants His children to be holy people. Thus, next, He talks a lot about holiness. He speaks holiness, and in so speaking, makes both explicit and implicit statements about the holy expectations we are to uphold. And, so that there is no forgetting and no misunderstanding, the Lord writes His holy expectations down for us to read, study, and obey.

Anyone who wants to do something must do it in accordance with what God has written, which is in accordance with what God has said, which is in accordance with what God has thought. Obedience and holiness do not come from man; it comes from God. We don’t decide what is right and wrong; God has already done so. All we need to do is listen, read, study, and obey. When we do, we will be righteous as He is righteous (1 John 2:3, 3:7).

Anyone who decides they want to write down a list of all the things they like about God and all the things they think are important to God, with the attitude of “I’m going to write my list and that’s what I’ll live by,” has made a colossal error. They are picking and choosing the commands they like while ignoring the commands they don’t. We don’t get to trim or consolidate the Word of God. It must, in its entirety, be rightly divided and wholly heeded (2 Timothy 2:15).

We are only allowed to do what is right. What is right began in the mind of God, proceeded forth from the mouth of God, and was written down by the inspired men of God. Anything less is unsatisfactory. Anything more is an excess of human arrogance.

~ Matthew