Day: February 4, 2024

Sunday, February 4, 2024

“The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger” (Jeremiah 7:18 KJV).

What is their family enterprise?

The most basic unit of human civilization is marriage (which results in family, the next unit). As Genesis chapter 1 reports, “[26] And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. [28] And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Indeed, God created us humans to be social beings: “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet [fit, suitable] for him…. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet [fit, suitable] for him. And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man” (Genesis 2:18,20-22).

Families come in all sizes, shapes, and colors. What binds them can be food, religion, language, geography, finances, education, hobbies. One clever axiom adequately captures this idea: “The family that prays together, stays together.” In this case, the reference is to religion. Let us exposit today’s Scripture so as to see how the families of Judah—Israel’s southern kingdom—found clever ways to start a certain enterprise and thus greatly enrage the LORD….