I Gave Them All They Need [Jeremiah 5:7]

"I gave them all they needed." [Jeremiah 5:7]

Jer 5:7-9 "Why should I forgive you?

Your children have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are not gods.

I supplied all their needs, yet they committed adultery and thronged to the houses of prostitutes.

8 They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man's wife.

9 Should I not punish them for this?" declares the LORD.

"Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?

Phil 4:19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Matt 6:7-8 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Acts 20:35 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

One strong, pragmatic reason people don’t bother to attend church is the perceived reality that there is nothing the church offers that is absolutely needed. This won’t ever be admitted, but it is an underlying factor. The perceived needs of people in our society do not have church attendance at the top of the list – or for that matter – anything that has to do with Christianity. They – we – "meet our own needs." We earn it

Of course, the practice of Christianity in the church or anywhere else does not counteract that apathetic attitude very well. In fact, it reinforces it. The church tries guilt. The church tries entertainment. The church tries marketing. The church tries programming. The church even tries elitism. But the reality is, the church does not typically meet the needs – the real primal needs – the immediate needs – of people.

Abraham Maslow is known for establishing the theory of a hierarchy of needs. He writes that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied. His list, lower to higher, is: physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization. In other words, your human need for "esteem" can not happen until you have fulfilled the need for "love." Or can it? And he puts the search for God as the highest need which is furthest away from the bottom of the needs pile.

Using Maslow’s list, most of the organized church does not address the physiological needs of most people, and they certainly don’t meet the safety needs. They teach love, but the practice in the church demonstrates anything but. As for esteem and self-actualization, that’s for the "up-front-ers" and leadership. This is a rather negative view of the church and of Christianity. Whose fault is it? Maybe it is our understanding of "needs"? What are our physiological needs anyway? They are really basic.

NEED ONE: AIR

We need air to live. Without air, without oxygen, we quickly die – it is within minutes. This is an important need. Mankind has developed tools to be underwater for lengths of time and to even be in space where there is no air. In hospitals and emergency situations, tanks of oxygen and plastic tubes feed the needed air into people who need it. Even athletes after their self-imposed torture are offered air to recover. But, this basic need is a provision of God. God gives us the ability to breath. And when we die, God takes that breath away.

The government does not provide air – it simply wants to tax it – or should I be politically correct and say "legislate clean air"?

Civilization does not create air – it only tends to make it difficult to use in places.

Mankind does not make air – it consumes air. Green things made by God modify it back to usability.

The church typically does not do anything about air, the first and basic need of mankind. It does not even address it. The church usually ignores it when scripture likens the activity of Holy Spirit to wind or moving air. Dare I suggest that without Holy Spirit moving in the church, the church is dead?

John 3:8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit ."

That was Jesus talking. I could tell – it was in red.

NEED TWO: WATER

"Water, water, everywhere. Nor any drop to drink." (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). [Much time could be spent explaining the poem and its relationships with the wedding guest, albatross, mariner, hermit and the basic Gospel message presented.] But water is another basic need of mankind. The state allowed a young lady to die of thirst recently because she was in a coma and her husband wanted to remarry, while at the same time giving food and water to whales stranded on the beach. Lack of water kills in a week or two. Mankind needs water to live. The church does not address water – or does it? Some have holy water. Some mix water and wine for communion. Some have water baptism: sprinkling or dunking. Some wash feet. Some teach offering a cup of water. Is this the kind of water that quenches thirst? A basic need?

NEED THREE: FOOD

You don’t come to church to eat food. You eat at home. And that is what the Apostle Paul told the church they should do. However, we still have food at church. Some churches who support the concept of a social gospel have soup kitchens, food shelves, and other help for people who need food. Without this need satisfied, mankind dies in a month or two. Most fasts don’t last longer than 40 days. The Lord’s Prayer says, "Give us this day our daily bread." That is food on a daily basis. Does Christianity put food in our stomachs? We thank God for food:

Come Lord Jesus be our guest / may this food to us be blessed / in Jesus name / Amen

NEED FOUR: REPRODUCTION

To delicately state it, in order for mankind to survive, babies must be made. This is the next generation. Perversion does not make babies. Neither does abortion. The changes being promoted in our western society are antagonistic to a basic need of mankind: procreation. And some see this trend as being good for the planet. But young men and young women all too often don’t consider the spiritual ramifications of the decision they make for a mate. We know of too many young girls whose attitude is: "well after we are married, I will get him saved." Young people, whose brains are turned on to the hormone setting, have no clue what they are getting into – and the typical church, typical pastor, typical Christian, typical parent, is too embarrassed to even consider discussing hormonal imbalances of youth. Their wisdom comes from their peers or worse – even younger siblings. Have any of them ever read Solomon’s wisdom in context?

Prov 6:27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?

ALL NEEDS

These are the basic physiological needs of mankind in their order of importance. You could add shelter and clothing – which may be the same thing – but, except for food, you don’t go to church for these basic needs. Supposedly you might go to church for the "higher" needs in Maslow’s list, but that is pushing it. Notice Jeremiah’s revelation again:

Jer 5:7-9 [NEB] How can I forgive you for all of this? Your sons have forsaken me and sworn by gods that are no gods. I gave them all they needed, yet they preferred adultery, and haunted the brothels; each neighs after another man’s wife, like a well-fed and lusty stallion. Shall I not punish them for this? the Lord asks.

We, in sanctimonious church presentations, usually don’t get past the "I supplied all their needs." Especially with this subject. What was God saying?

He supplies ALL – and He means ALL – our needs: air, water, food, procreation, shelter, safety, love, esteem, and beyond. The example that He gave about desiring more than what God provides is recognized in all societies as being degeneracy and sin. No matter what language you translate it, it is the same: wrong behavior. All societies seem to recognize adultery as sin and will either wink at it or try to redefine it as something else. It is still known as wrong.

But again, we don’t come to church or even to God to meet our needs because, particularly in our society, we identify "needs" as money and all the church ever wants is money "which I need." Of course, in the process of fund raising for the church, any number of anecdotes will be quoted how in direct relationship to a gift to the church, additional finances come into existence for the giver. And scripture seems to defend that point of view. BUT CHURCH IS STILL ALWAYS LOOKING FOR MONEY. [By the way, I am adding a link right here so that you can conveniently contribute via credit card.] http://www.ircc-church.org/ircc.html#donations

Reality is, you usually don’t get money by going to church. Church attendance takes time from you for more important things that you want or "need" to do. Need? Really? Probably not. The adulterer does not "need" to commit adultery. The adulterer WANTS to commit adultery. But this money thing is still there. And money meets our western needs. And we have things that we have to do. Going to church won’t get those done either. "And besides I am kind of tired from working so hard. I don’t need to be put to sleep by some apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher."

GOD IS THE PROVIDER OF ALL OUR NEEDS.

And yet Paul stated:

Acts 20:35 You yourselves know that these hands of mine have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions.

We can make this sound a lot more holy by declaring that God gave him that gift, skill or job – but he still made tents for a living. Notice David:

Ps 20:4 May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed .

But Psalm 19 comes right in front of this.

Ps 19:12-14 Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.

Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me.

Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight,

O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

God said He provided all our needs. "I gave them all they needed, yet they preferred..." This a choice that is made and it is a choice that separates us from God. It is a choice in another direction. Holy Spirit inspired the example of adultery to Jeremiah because it will always be a symbol of sin against God in all societies. Why does Los Vegas advertise, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" if it is not a direct acknowledgment of behavior that everyone would recognize as wrong? And the recognition of sin is even by the person doing it.

God provides us the breath of life.

Acts 17:25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

God gives us the water of life.

John 4:10-15 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water ."

11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water ? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

15 The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water."

Spiritual or physical water?

God gives us the bread of life.

John 6:35 Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life . He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

Obviously this is spiritual talk, not physical. What about our daily bread? God said He meets all our needs? What about Abraham and the heros of faith?

Heb 11:13-16 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

REALITY THERAPY

People die. Even those who have been raised from the dead. I don’t know of man living over in Bethany who is 2012 years old – and Lazarus was raised from the dead by the Son of God! (Although, I have wondered sometimes.)

Some men and some women do not procreate – their line stops upon their death. That family tree quits. And they may even have been Christian. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has for physiology, been dropped; you can’t get any further.

Some men and women have starved to death. Some of them may even have been Christian. God – who knows our every need – did not miraculously or naturally put bread in their stomachs and they died. Some could not eat. Some were not allowed to eat such as the state starvation of Terry in the last few months. With all the prayers and all the preachers pretending to cross the police line, she still starved to death or died of thirst.

Ps 37:25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

Does the greater context of this verse, which is frequently taken out of context, improve?

Ps 37:23-28 If the LORD delights in a man's way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.

25 I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

26 They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.

27 Turn from evil and do good; then you will dwell in the land forever.

28 For the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones.

Some men and women who may have been believers have died of thirst. And no – you don’t get euphoric dying of thirst. If you did, the state would use it to kill people sentenced to death. Even they get a "last meal." For those who have died without water, where was the "living water" Jesus talked about?

And some have even died without the breath of life available for them: drowning, asphyxiation. Were any of them Christian?

This is a perceived problem in the presentation of Christianity. We are taught to look at the spiritual now rather than the spiritual forever. We are taught that Santa Jesus will magically meet all our needs and wants right now just by yanking His chain with the right praise choruses, the right words whether in liturgical form or the latest emotionally charged charismatic format, and meeting in the right place with the right people: a two week fast will get a Chevy, but a three-week fast will get a Caddy. Endurance. That’s what is needed. Right performance. No wonder the next generation misses the value of church. The five-fold should be teaching the hope, not the now because the now is temporary.

Job 19:23-27 "Oh, that my words were recorded, that they were written on a scroll,

24 that they were inscribed with an iron tool on lead, or engraved in rock forever!

25 I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

26 And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;

27 I myself will see him with my own eyes-I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!

And he was scratching his sores with broken pottery while his comforters were preaching how sinful he was as indicated by his immediate condition. Job’s eyes were on the forever. Judah’s eyes were on the immediate now and the perceived pleasure of the immediate now included what they did not need – adultery – obvious sin. Judah was judged because they were looking upon the immediate now and the pleasures of the now, rather than the promise of the forever – with an "if."

Heb 11:24-26 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

We need to keep our eyes on the tomorrow rather than the prostitute of today. God supplies all our needs – and the greatest need we have – and the most fundamental need we have – is the redemption only He can provide.

"I gave them all they need" and they chose sin. God gives us all we need. Do we choose more?