What Did I Do to You? (Jeremiah 2:5)

Thus says the Lord: “What injustice have your fathers found in Me,
That they have gone far from Me, Have followed idols, And have become idolaters?
Jeremiah 2:5

What did I do to you?

We hear this cry from school playgrounds to workplaces to heated discussions around the dinner table. The cry issues forth as a defense and a cry for help. At the heart of this cry is the conviction that nothing you did could ever possibly justify how you are now being treated by the perpetrator. You are right, they are wrong. When we say this, we are convinced we are being unjustly treated.

God, through the prophet Jeremiah, asked His people the same question, “What sins, injustices, or wrongs have I done to you that would cause you to reject me and follow after false gods?”

For thousands of years, God continued to extend His infinite love to man, His greatest creation. But man chose to reject God’s overwhelming kindness, love, and mercy substituting their own idea of what goodness should be. God is right to ask this of all of us, “What did I do to you that you would treat Me like this?”

And yet, even after we treat God like this, He returns to us and offers us redemption and peace by sacrificing His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the Cross to accept the penalty of our sins. And it is through the power and promise of His resurrection that we are able to have peace with God.

What did God do to you? Ask yourself this question the next time you stray from God and reject His blessings. Ask yourself the next time you feel unjustly treated.

Love and respect the Lord; seek His will in your life.