Be astonished, O ye heavens, and be horribly afraid and utterly confounded, saith the Lord.
Jeremiah 2:12
What Jeremiah is saying is this. He says this spectacle [about man] is almost incredible. There’s something horrible about it. Be horribly afraid, be horrified he says. Don’t you feel that it’s something shocking? Stand back aghast! These are possible translations of these words. Why? Well, he says, this is such a monstrous spectacle; the way that these people have turned from the living God. Now then, that’s his dramatic way of bringing out this extraordinary element of perversity that is ever one of the chiefest characteristics of sin.
Let me put this to you. Let’s take a look at it for a moment in general. It’s worth taking a look at this you know in general in a kind of philosophical manner. It’s an extraordinary phenomenon. You know my friends, according to the Bible, the most extraordinary phenomenon in the world tonight is man himself; man in sin. There is no other phenomenon in the whole universe that is comparable to man. Look at the whole world. Look at the whole of creation. You will find nothing so foolish as man in sin, rebelling against God. How? Well, let me put it like this to you. Sin is that which makes a fool of man. Sin is that which turns men into a kind of monstrosity. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. At what? Well, at man rebelling against God and sinning. Man’s a spectacle! Man’s become a fool! Man’s become a monster! In what way? Well, in these ways.
Sin you see introduces into men this extraordinary element of contradiction. Isn’t that the thing that’s most obvious about man today? What do you make of man? Well, if you examine man truly if you follow this line of investigation pressed upon us by the prophet, you’ll be impressed above everything else by this extraordinary paradoxical element in man. He’s a mass of contradictions. Look at what I mean. Look at man on the surface and you’ll say, “How great is man!” And of course, there is a real greatness in man. Look at his wisdom. Look at his understanding. Look at his knowledge. You can’t deny that to man. You can’t deny that to the 20th century man. Look at the grand discoveries he’s made. Look at his genius and his brilliance in all these scientific investigations and discoveries. Look at the phenomenal advances in medicine and in the treatment of human sickness and disease. Look at the way in which man’s been able to explore the distance parts of the world. This is genius! Man is a great being! No animal’s ever been able to do anything like that. An animal just lives according to its instincts. It’s governed by its desires. It’s got a kind of mechanical law within itself that makes it do what it does. But man rises above it all! He has this great brain, this great knowledge, this understanding, and he’s searched out mysteries. He’s able, even in a theoretical manner, to think in a most extraordinary way. That’s all true about man isn’t it? Look at the achievements of the human race on the one hand, and you’ve got to stand back in amazement and say, “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason. How intimate in faculty. In form and moving, how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, how like a god.” That’s what Shakespeare said about him. And if that was true in the Elizabethan era, how much more so now?! Man! He’s an amazing creature. But oh alas, I can’t leave it at that can I? That isn’t the whole truth about man. There’s another side to man.
What’s the other side? Well, it’s the side that you see in the world round and about you. Here is man with all this astounding genius and ability, but look at his world. Look at the misery. Look at the shame. Look at the sin. Look at the evil. Look at the tensions. Look at the wars. Look at the destruction in the wars, this mass destruction. Look at what he’s proposing to do. Now, I’m talking about the same person. I’m talking about the same individual. I’m talking about this great person that’s searched into the depths and into the mysteries. There he is, but here he is also! He’s glorious! He’s infamous. He’s wise! He’s a fool. He’s above the animals. He does things that animals can never do. He’s higher than the animals, he’s worse than the beasts. Isn’t that the truth about man? You see, as Jeremiah says here, man is a spectacle. He’s a phenomenon. Be astonished, O ye heavens, and be horribly afraid and be very desolate, saith the Lord. But that is it. That is man as we see him tonight — this extraordinary element of contradiction. This paradox that is in him.
And what heightens it is this, that sin not only makes man a fool and a spectacle and a kind of monstrosity, but oh what heightens it is this: that he is a fool MOST OF ALL in the matters that are greatest and of greatest concern. It is when you come to the ultimate question that you see the folly of man at its greatest. Now that is, I say, what heightens the paradox. Not just that he’s a fool at certain odd points where they don’t matter – no, no, it’s much worse than that. And that is why this expression is right. It is something at which the heavens ought to be astonished – that man is so marvelous in so many respects, when you really come down to the question of life and living, becomes an unmitigated fool. That’s the phenomenon of man in sin. That’s the thing that is most evident in the world tonight. That is what makes the heavens horrified and should fill us all with a sense of amazement. That is why we should all be aghast! But are we? Are you amazed and aghast at man in the 20th century? My dear friends, if we’re not, we must be horribly blind. There must be something preventing our seeing things as they are, because this is the truth about us.
Let me put it in another way to you. This element of sin in man, you see, does another thing to him. It makes him reverse what he does. Not only what he is, but what he does in these other spheres. I mean this. In most spheres in his life: in his business, in his profession, and all the rest of it, man is generally characterized by thought, by taking care, by exercising reason, by being cautious, by taking forethought. Oh you know for many men, this is true don’t you? You know men in professions, the great learned professions: men in business, men in industry. Put them under their job and those are their great characteristics: wisdom, thoughtfulness, care, caution, making sure they’re taking the right action, forethought. We’re all agreed that those are their characteristics. But you know, when you come to these vital matters. When you come to man and his relationship to God, what do you find? Prejudice! He doesn’t stop to think. He doesn’t really give his mind to it. No, no, he jumps to conclusions. He starts with already made ideas. He knows everything before he’s read a word. He’s inherited from somebody else and he repeats it like a parrot! What’s he governed by? He isn’t governed here by the same element of calm, detachment, quiet, cool investigation, caution before arriving at a decision. He says, “It’s rotten nonsense! The opiate of the people! Soft stuff! Hope? Alright for women and children!” Isn’t that how he speaks? What I’m trying to say is this, you see, that there are men who would never dream of taking a great business decision without saying, “let me have the relevant data, bring me every memorandum you can lay your hands on, tell me have we ever tried this before, put all the evidence before me.” He’d have it sifted, he’d have it collated. He’d say, “I can’t arrive at a decision before I’m aware of all the facts.” Quite right.
But you know there are many men, and we’ve all known them, and we still know them, who rejects Christianity in total. They’ve never read the Bible in their lives. They display their ignorance when you have a discussion with them. They don’t even know their New Testament. They don’t know their Gospels. Here they are, saying there’s nothing in Christianity. But they’ve never investigated it at all. Now this is the element I’m bringing out you see. This is the supreme tragedy of man! This is where he becomes a monster! That in this matter which matters above everything else, he throws caution to the wind, he throws reason out the window, he jettisons his highest faculties, and he speaks like a fool. Prejudice is in control! You can hear them on the wireless and on the television almost whenever you like. If you went to them in their normal vocation and began to produce your theories, they’d smile at you and they’d say now look here my friend, I don’t want your theories, I want facts. And yet when it comes to their whole view of man and of life and of death and of eternity and of God, they base their whole position on nothing but theories and suppositions. You hear them saying dogmatically that evolution is a fact! But it isn’t a fact, and they know it isn’t a fact. It’s nothing but a theory. But they base their whole position on it and on a mere theory. God is dismissed! Christ is not needed.
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.
Listen to the entire Audio Sermon: https://www.mljtrust.org/sermons-online/jeremiah-2-10-12/the-condition-of-fallen-man/
