Skip to main content

Grounded by God

The Jews didn’t think God loved them anymore. It certainly didn’t look like He did.

The nation split into two, and both North and South had been defeated. Not only were they decimated by their enemies, the survivors were rounded up and marched out of their land. No, it certainly didn’t look like God still loved them. 

That is why His message through the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31 were welcomed words. In the third verse we read, “The LORD appeared to him from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.”

“From far away” reminds us they were in Babylon, far away from the Promised Land, and far away from the temple where they went to meet with the Lord. That He would appear to them at all, and especially from far away, was in itself wonderful news. 

But notice what He said when He appeared. He loved them with an everlasting love. Their idolatry was not enough to break the love of the Lord. Their being conquered and displaced was not enough to break the love of the Lord. If He loved them in spite of that, His love must surely be everlasting. 

Because of that everlasting love (“therefore”) God continued His faithfulness. Continued is an interesting word choice. Since the next verse is future tense (“Again I will build you, and you shall be built”), it seems as if God’s kindness was stopped, but that it would continue again when their time in exile was over. 

We have to remember Israel was being punished. This was long warned, and it finally happened. God’s kindness could not continue in exile—to them this meant abundance of crops, victory over their enemies, peace in the land, and a strong economy. Those things would be paused, but the promise was the kindness would continue in due time. 

Think about when you discipline your kids. You don’t love them any less when they are in trouble, but you probably don’t take them out for ice cream while they are grounded. Israel was being grounded by God. He still loved them, but they weren’t going out for ice cream. 

When the punishment was over, God’s kindness would be continued. Maybe you don’t feel God’s kindness right now because He is trying to get your attention. If you are being grounded by God, He still loves you, but what lesson is He trying to teach you? 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Save a Life

(Like my blog about the peace symbol, this blog was written as a default response to all the parents, students, and other people who are asking my opinion of To Save a Life.) By now you have probably heard of the movie To Save a Life, which opened nation-wide in theaters on January 22nd. The movie deals with so many issues that teens face today, like suicide, cutting, drinking, drugs, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, and abortion. At first glance this movie looks like an awesome resource that we should recommend for our teens, parents, youth pastors, and youth workers. But a closer look at the movie reveals a few disturbing things. For starters, according to pluggedin.com, there are 2 uses of the “A” word, 5 uses of hell (used as a curse word), and once the “D” word is used. There are other crude terms used to describe a girl, and crude terms for referring to sexual activity. There is also a bedroom scene that shows a girl removing a boy’s shirt, then afterwards the girl putting he...
38 comments
Read more

Catechism #15

Q. By what sin did our first parents fall from their original condition? 
A. Our first parents’ sin was eating the forbidden fruit. The first sin we see in the Bible was in the eating of the forbidden fruit by Adam and Eve. But as we saw last week, there are sins of commission and omission. The eating of the fruit was an act of commission—a sin that was committed in the Garden of Eden. But before Eve ever took her first bite, a few sins of omission occurred that led up to the sin of commission. First, notice that it was Eve, not Adam, that did all the talking with the serpent in Genesis 3. Yet it was Adam, not Eve, who was created as the spiritual leader of the family. For whatever reason Adam abdicated his role as the spiritual leader and stood silently by as Eve ate the fruit. After Eve’s bite, she gave it to Adam, and he ate it too. Not only did Adam omit his role as leader, Eve omitted her trust in the goodness of God. Not only did she misquote God ...
Post a Comment
Read more

All Things To All Men

One of our favorite verses to use in our evangelism methods is where Paul said that he “becomes all things to all men” so that he might “by all means save some (I Corinthians 9:22).” This is certainly a good idea if we keep it in its proper context and application. For example, I remember a time in high school where I knew a kid that loved skateboarding. Being the chicken that I am, I was never a skateboarder. All he would talk about was skating, and I knew none of his lingo. But to help develop a relationship with him (he was new to our church and didn’t know many people), I brushed up on my skating lingo so I could ask if he had done any sick ollies lately (impressed?). This would be like Paul saying “to the skateboarder, I became a skateboarder.” This is effective and necessary. But then there are the people that use this verse to justify doing sinful things in the name of evangelism. The first one that comes to mind is about drinking. Some people will go into the bars to evan...
23 comments
Read more