Jeremiah 3:3

I was doing my daily Bible reading this morning when I read this verse: "Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been on spring rain. Yet you had a harlot's forehead; you refused to be ashamed" (Jer 3:3).

God judged His people for their sins (especially idolatry), and in the original covenant He said one of the ways He'd judge them is by making "your sky like iron and your earth like bronze" (Lev 26:19). By withholding rain, it was a clear sign that their sins had brought them under God's judgment. And, the second half of Jer 3:3 strongly implies this was a sign they understood.

However, in spite of understanding and receiving God's judgment, God says they "refused to be ashamed." Why? Because they "had a harlot's forehead." What a stunning word picture!

The first time a prostitute works, there is guilt (we feel guilty because we are guilty) for the kind of business she's in. She strongly and deeply feels the pangs of conscience, but as time goes by, and she continues working, the judgment her conscience brings to bear upon her gets softer and softer. In the end, the same actions that brought mountains of shame bring no shame at all.

This is the danger every Christian faces when it comes to their sin. When God disciplines us we don't want Him to say of us what He said of them "In vain I have struck your sons; they accepted no chastening" (Jer 2:30). Be ashamed of your sin, accept His discipline. Don't develop the forehead of a harlot.