What God is Saying

Sing to the LORD; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves. Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does. — Psalm 96:2-3

Thursday, August 27, 2020

America in Jeremiah


As I look at all that is happening in America, I can't help but see a picture of her in Judah/Israel of Jeremiah's time. When a nation turns from God, what steps does He take: 

If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,  if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,  then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever... (Jeremiah 7:5-7) 

but if they do not repent -  

Hear, you earth:

    I am bringing disaster on this people,

    the fruit of their schemes,

because they have not listened to my words

    and have rejected my law.  (Jeremiah 6:19) 

The first thing God does when a nation begins to drift is to warn of what the consequences are going to be. He is faithful to tell us that if you "sow to the flesh you will of the flesh reap corruption". Sin will leave its scars even though the wound is healed. God warns that there is going to be hurt in your life. But then he says,

"'How gladly would I treat you like my children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’

I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me... “Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding.” (Jeremiah 3:19, 22)

The call of God is a picture of love seeking a response, reminding you of who he is, and how much he loves you, trying in various ways to awaken a response of love and gratitude, to call you back. He is like the father in the story of the prodigal son, watching the horizon for that son to return, longing for him to come back. This is the picture of God, looking after men and women, boys and girls, being faithful to them, longing to have them back, calling them again and again. This is a picture of the patience of God. This may go on for years in the case of an individual or nation. 

But when that does not work, he has one step left in the program: judgment. 

Hear, you earth: I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their schemes, because they have not listened to my words and have rejected my law. (Jeremiah 6:19)

You see, judgment is not God's way of saying, "I'm through with you." It is not a mark of the abandonment of God; it is the last loving act of God to bring you back. It is the last resort of love. C. S. Lewis put it very beautifully when he said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures; he speaks to us in our work; he shouts at us in our pain." Every one of us knows that there have been times when we would not listen to God, would not pay any attention to what his Word was saying until one day God put us flat on our backs or allowed us to be hurt badly. Then we began to listen. That is what Jeremiah had to learn. He did not understand that this nation had reached the place where the only thing that would heal it, the only chance it had left, was the judgment of God -- the hurt and the pain of invasion, and the loss of its national place. God's love was insisting that that happen.

Is America at that point?

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