How to Get Exiled #13

Jeremiah 5: 

23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
24 They do not say in their hearts,
    ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
    the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
25 Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
26 For wicked men are found among my people;
    they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.
They set a trap;
    they catch men.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
28     they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
    they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29 Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the Lord,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”

Jeremiah, giving one last call for repentance, seeks to explain to His people why things are falling apart: They have been disobedient, ungrateful, and wicked.  They have sought riches through dishonesty and by taking advantage of the fatherless and needy.  Rather than seeing their world as falling apart through no sin of their own, they try by their own sinful methods to maintain their lavish lifestyle. That sounds much like our society today.  Those who suffer most are those most in need: the fatherless and the poor. God will avenge such behavior.