Jeremiah depicts the people of Judah, not only as wayward, but as determinedly committed to their waywardness. Not only were they deeply committed to their waywardness, but they were willing to make huge sacrifices in pursuit of their wayward ends. God says about Judah through Jeremiah: “They cling to deceit,” and, “Each pursues their own course like a horse charging into battle” (8:5,6). We may not have done the kinds of things that the people of Judah were doing at this time, but there is a general tendency at work here that we would do well to recognise. There is an extra compulsion within us to cling to our own deluded plans precisely because they are our plans. Even if it is a bad plan, we tend to feel more committed to it because it is ours. The compulsion behind this is the deep and irrepressible inclination towards autonomy. It is a kind of ‘god-complex’ from which flows an obsessive pride. This is why, for example, you will be more committed to your opinions, not because they are more credible, but precisely because they are your opinions. It is why, when you are proven wrong, you will still struggle to let go of your error. In a famous discourse in Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground the narrator frankly admits that if he was shown a course of life that would guarantee his happiness, he would certainly reject it, simply to assert his autonomy. The point is to illustrate the irrationality of the human heart. We are more in need of Jesus than we often realise. Don’t trust yourself. Trust in Christ alone.
Ask God to bring to light the self-deceit he wants to save you from.
Read Jeremiah 7:30-8:17
