Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth?
Why then has he become plunder? …

Do not run until your feet are bare
and your throat is dry.
But you said, ‘It’s no use!
I love foreign gods,
and I must go after them.’ (Jeremiah 2:14, 25 NIV, 10-25-12)

When children are captured by an enemy, they aren’t plunder, they’re captives. Plunder is a totally different category. So why did God refer to His people as plunder? And how did the Israelites move from family members by being viewed as possessions?

The answer is in verse 25. They have forsaken God their Father to chase after false, foreign gods, gods who demean them instead of adopting them.

And we do the same thing whenever we forsake our birthright as children of God for, well, anything. Prestige, possessions, success, power. You name it, those lies move us from children to slaves, from heirs to property.

[Father, help me to stop forsaking my birthright, but to live into being your child.]