"To Him be glory forever": Jeremiah

Showing posts with label Jeremiah. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The Word of God for the People of God

One of the bits of trivia I learned today was that the English Bible has a bit more than 783,000 words in it. More precisely the King James version has 783,137 words, but I think the first number mentioned is roughly representative of any English translation you may be fond of.

And the reason I sought this bit of trivia out was because of something I had read in Jeremiah. In chapter 37 Jeremiah is imprisoned by King Zedekiah. The king is going through a fairly tumultuous time and so he seeks Jeremiah out and in verse 17 asks him,

"Is there any word from the Lord?"

The same verse holds Jeremiah's reply,

""There is." Then he said, "You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.""

This was not the message King Zedekiah was hoping to hear.

The basic message of the entire book of Jeremiah to this point could be summed up as a warning for God's people to repent and turn back towards Him, or else some really bad things are going to happen to them. And after repeatedly, and blatantly, ignoring this warning Zedekiah asks God's prophet if he has heard anything from God. To put Jeremiah's answer into more modern words he could have said, "Yup. Same old, same old."

I don't know how much of the Old Testament was completed at the time of Zedekiah's question but there had clearly been enough of it revealed to Zedekiah that, if he really listened to it, he could have easily understood what God desired of him and his people.

Zedekiah had God's revealed word and was without excuse. I believe that is also true for us today and even more so than it was for him, because in the Old and New Testaments we have the full and complete revelation of God. We may not everything we want to know, but we have everything we need to know.[1] 783,000 words worth. And every one of them is a good and precious word from God.

It is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!

[1] See Articles 2,3,4,5 & 7 of the Belgic Confession: https://www.crcna.org/welcome/beliefs/confessions/belgic-confession

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

None like You

As part of my devotional reading this morning I read Jeremiah 10. Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet of doom and gloom. The prophet we get the word 'jeremiad' from, or "a prolonged lamentation or mournful complaint," although in all fairness that is due to his being the author of Lamentations, and not the book bearing his own name.

There is a lot in the book of Jeremiah that sounds harsh, particularly the repeated prophecy of judgment against God's people for their lack of faithfulness and their unwillingness to repent.

But there is also a lot of God's goodness to be found in Jeremiah, and chapter 10 is a prime example. Chapter 10 contrasts the Living God with false gods, with idols. Here is the example from this morning that just seems to stay with me today.

In verse 5 Jeremiah says this about the idols of the people:

"Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it in them to do any good."

Verse 5 gives us a picture of something that is completely without any power or ability of its own. At best, it is made to do whatever we might make it to do. Carry it over here. Pose it like this. Give it our undivided attention.

And in return it gives us…what?

Nothing. That's what.

Then verses 6 and 7 say this:

"There is none like you, O Lord; you are great, and your name is great in might. Who would not fear you, O King of the nations? For this is your due, for among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is none like you."

Jeremiah reminds us that there absolutely no equals to God. He reminds us that no one, nowhere, comes even close.

In contrast to a scarecrow in a cucumber field we have One who is totally unique and without equal. One who is great in every possible way. One who is the only One deserving of our worship.

I have never bowed down to a scarecrow in a cucumber field, but many are the times that I have pursued something with the attention, the devotion, that I should have given to God. Some of those things have been things that were very clearly wrong. In others it wasn't the thing itself that was wrong but the devotion I had towards it.

God is gracious and merciful. And today I thank him for the way He speaks through Jeremiah, reminding me to look out for the idols of my life and to turn again to the only One who deserves my worship.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

"It's what my mom said to do"

The picture on the right is the floor of our daughter's closet. This is not the way it usually looks. While things are often scattered on it there is not usually this much stuff. And shortly before I took this picture it was much worse. When I asked her why she replied, "It's what my mom said to do."

I had to ask a few questions before I understood what was going on in the closet. The closet was a mess, particularly the shelves. As a part of the instructions to straighten things out my wife told our daughter to "clean off the shelves," which the little one understood to mean "put everything on the floor and start from there."

While the way our daughter understood and applied her mom's directions may not have been the best way to reorganize her closet, she did understand and obey the instructions when they were given to her. This is not always the case. Sometimes things need to be said a number of times, in a number of different ways, for a number of reasons, some more valid than others.

I have been reading Jeremiah lately, one chapter at a time. I read Jeremiah 35 on the day of this incident with our daughter. Jeremiah spends a lot of time carrying the same basic message to the people of God. He repeatedly calls them to repentance, with the warning that they will suffer greatly if they don't.

In Jeremiah 35 he tells of a group of people called the Rechabites who have been faithful to the instructions of their father, even in the face of adversity. Jeremiah uses them as an example as he then tells the people of Judah this message from God in verses 14-15:

"The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father's command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me."

The people of Judah have been disobedient to God over and over and over. But God has been gracious and held out His mercy to them time after time after time. God called the people to turn from their sin and to turn towards Him. It is a call He is still making today.

My daughter had a number of methods available to her when it was time to clean her closet. But it all began with listening and then obeying the basic command.

And so it is with us. We each have many things we need to abandon when we follow God. Each of us who follow will do so in a way that is faithful to God but different from others around us.

But it all begins with hearing His voice, turning towards Him, and turning away from those things that lead us in other directions. Through Jeremiah and the other prophets God called His people repeatedly. And He is still calling people to Himself today.

Is He calling you? What will you do when you hear His voice?

Monday, August 5, 2013

Everlasting Love

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”

Those words of Jeremiah 31:3 stood out for me when I read Jeremiah 31:1-30 this morning. Jeremiah is telling the Hebrew exiles to Babylon that God will one day redeem them. In spite of the sin that led to their exile, and the fact that their exile is a punishment for their ongoing sin and disbelief, God has continued to love them. They are a suffering people, taken from their homeland and forced to serve a foreign people, and yet Jeremiah’s words remind them of the central fact of their identity. Even in exile they remain God’s chosen people. Their faithlessness has not had any effect on His faithfulness.

As a Christian these words have rich meaning to me today. They are not just old words from an old prophecy, spoken to a people and set of circumstances thousands of years ago and with no relevance to my daily life. These words are quite the opposite. They are not just meaningful to me now, to my daily life, but they point me to the future of eternal life.

Much like Jeremiah’s original audience, I stray from God’s ways, and I know full well that I am doing so. But in His mercy He grants forgiveness without limit. I don’t have license, or “freedom to sin,” because I know that God will forgive. In truth, misery is often the companion of awareness of my sin.

This morning God’s word reminds me of the truth as clearly as Jeremiah spoke it to the Hebrews. God’s love is everlasting. God’s faithfulness endures my wayward heart.

Everlasting love isn’t just a phrase, or an idea. Everlasting love is a person, the person of Christ Jesus, who laid down His life and was raised from the dead.

Because of the everlasting love and the faithfulness of Christ we can believe the promise written in Romans 10:13,

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

May you know, today, the mercy and everlasting love, of Christ.