"And you, devastated one, what are you doing
that you dress yourself in scarlet,
that you adorn yourself with gold jewelry,
that you enhance your eyes with makeup?
You beautify yourself for nothing.
Your lovers reject you;
they intend to take your life" Jeremiah 4:30
To fully understand the context of this verse and the title of this blog, the context from chapters 1-5 of Jeremiah are needed. Basically, the nation of Israel began walking away from the ways of God. He chose them to represent Him and to follow Him and they start following the gods of other nations. The prophet Jeremiah is called to speak to this nation and persuade them that if they do not turn back, destruction will follow. A destruction that comes from God, but also destruction from their own doing. This is where Jeremiah 4:30 comes into play.
Have you ever had to dress up for something in order to impress someone? Perhaps prom comes to mind, a date, maybe a wedding, or a meeting for work. What was the intended purpose to dress that way? Was it to work something to your advantage? Was it to catch the eye of that special someone? We dress to impress in order to "cover" those elements about us that are ordinary, that could be less impressive or are just plain ugly. Israel is called to repent, to turn from their ugly, sinful ways and back to God and His ways. If they don't a local nation will come in and take over their nation. They will be a people without a home. Instead of heeding God's warning, they "dress to impress" those they have been in a relationship with instead of God. In reality, they are only dressing for death, both physically and spiritually.
How often do we "dress to impress" spiritually either to others or before God?
Spiritually we can draw on a couple of points:
We cannot bring about our own salvation or life change.
Israel is refusing God's way of salvation that starts with repentance from their ways. Instead, they are hoping to impress those around them, woo them to keep from taking over their nation. Note that in the verse above that God calls them "devasted one" and that the other nations plan to take their lives. He knows what is going to happen. He is extending grace by His means and they reject it. We see this all the time with people who refuse the gospel, but what about those who believe? Remember, these people know God, they acknowledge Him...at least by word they do. When we refuse to accept God's way of salvation (both the initial moment and the continued process of removing the old way of life) and we try our own way we are only "dressing for death". Sin and the Enemy desires nothing more than to destroy to "death" our personal walk, our marriages, our parenting, our jobs, our kingdom impact, our church community, etc. Instead of adorning ourselves to look good, to put on a show, we must get real and raw with God and deal with the sin present in our lives. Only in Christ can it be redeemed and taken care of.
Repentance is more than just a one-time event
Often we treat repentance with the initial moment that one accepts Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Through Israel's example, we can see that repentance happens more than that. Repentance is about a posture spiritually just as much as it is a moment in time. God is big enough and able to handle our mishaps and mess ups, that's why Jesus died on the cross. But, when we refuse to accept the humble posture of dying to self daily, of recognizing that we are still a work in progress we can end up dressing to impress. We can try to impress others or even God by making our spiritual life look so "good" that we are just fine. We begin to try to cover up those undesirable things, those ugly things spiritually that actually hurt us. We become devastated by it and that sin intends to take our life. This means we need to make confession and repentance a daily action and conversation with God. We need to let God wreak havoc over our hearts in order to allow life to be brought in.
Therefore, I am convinced that the altar that preachers call people to in order to do their spiritual business with God is just as much for believers as it is those who need to "get right with Jesus". Just because we make a confession of belief initially does not mean we are done with repentance. It just means we are covered by the work and death of Jesus. He stands before the Father and says we are no longer condemned. But our fickle hearts need constant redirection back to God's way found in His Word and a reminder of what Jesus has done on our behalf. So, make your life one of continued confession and repentance. I bet you will find a refreshing in your spirit.
