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In Jeremiah 13 God asked an interesting question through His prophet: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots (v.23)?” This question is rhetorical because we know the answer to both halves of that question is no. The Ethiopian cannot change the color of his skin, nor can the leopard get rid of his trademark pattern. But why did God ask such an obvious question? He was making a point, as the second half of the verse tells us: “Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.” The things about the Ethiopian and the leopard is not that they do not have the ability to change, but that they have no desire to change. Why would the Ethiopian want to change his dark skin? Why would the leopard want to remove his spots? They are proud of the way they look; that is part of their distinguishing characteristic. The point was the stubborn people of Israel’s Southern Kingdom had even less desire to change their behavior. Their identifying mark was their idolat...