Jeremiah, September 15

Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Jeremiah 1:4, 5.YRP 267.1

The Lord gave Jeremiah a message of reproof to bear to His people, charging them with the continual rejection of God's counsel; saying, “I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye hearkened not unto me. I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers” (Jeremiah 35:14, 15).YRP 267.2

God pleaded with them not to provoke Him to anger with the work of their hands and hearts; but they “hearkened not.” Jeremiah then predicted the captivity of the Jews, as their punishment for not heeding the word of the Lord. The Chaldeans were to be used as the instrument by which God would chastise His disobedient people. Their punishment was to be in proportion to their intelligence, and the warnings they had despised. God had long delayed His judgments, because of His unwillingness to humiliate His chosen people; but now He would visit His displeasure upon them, as a last effort to check them in their evil course.YRP 267.3

In these days He has instituted no new plan to preserve the purity of His people. He entreats the erring ones who profess His name to repent and turn from their evil ways, in the same manner that He did of old. He predicts the dangers before them by the mouth of His chosen servants now as then. He sounds His note of warning, and reproves sin just as faithfully as in the days of Jeremiah. But the Israel of our time have the same temptations to scorn reproof and hate counsel as did ancient Israel. They too often turn a deaf ear to the words that God has given His servants for the benefit of those who profess the truth.—The Signs of the Times, February 12, 1880.YRP 267.4