His favor withdrawn
This week is on Jeremiah 16:5-7:
When I read these verses I was struck by how dreary they are. God was telling his friend Jeremiah to act out what things would be like when his favor is withdrawn from Israel. He was like a Jewish "Ghost of Christmas Future" who had come to show people what things would be like if they didn't change their ways. It's a horrible thought to consider what the world would be like absent God's favor.
God's act via Jeremiah was an act of love though. He acted it out before he did it for real. He gave them a taste of what things would be like if they didn't wake up. Through people writing it down, God also gives us a taste, and his act through Jeremiah is also an act of love to us.
Consider a society where our modern conveniences are gone. And not only that but there is disease and famine. Imagine something like Ebola tearing through, with no sanitation, no medical miracles, no public gatherings, and no words of encouragement from friends and family. Imagine death and suffering everywhere, with no rhyme or reason to it. Families are torn apart. Our cherished elders and children taken from us, and the rest cut down in their prime. You're in the store buying food, wondering if the person who touched it before you left a death sentence behind. There's nobody to bury the dead. No funerals. People are afraid to even gather to say goodbye to loved ones. Take a minute to imagine living in that world.
Now consider how blessed we are to have God's favor. If you were in the world I just described, how desperately would you work to get to the world we live in now? I would do almost anything to escape the world Jeremiah was sent to warn people about! Yet Jeremiah wasn't sent to put people into that world. He was sent to warn them so they could avoid it. How loving our God is! Imagine telling a kid you're going to spank to go find something else to do while you're getting the stick, making a deal with them to avoid punishment even while you're on the way to get the instrument of their suffering! Who does that? Who is that patient?
And God's wrath against the people of Jeremiah's time was no fickle thing either. This was generations of evil he was addressing. The ancestors of the people in Jeremiah's time had already made a habit of doing horrible things. The people in Jeremiah's time just amped up the evil and made a point of being worse. But who of us is patient enough to wait generations to deal with something? If we're angry about welfare fraud, for instance, are we going to patiently tolerate it and leave a note for our great grandkids to do something about it? If someone is stealing our things and badmouthing us in the process, do we say "No big deal, I'll worry about it when I'm retired."
God's favor defies explanation. We have nothing to offer that matches it. Just as living in darkness without electricity allows us to appreciate it all the more, seeing what things look like when God's favor has been withdrawn allows us to feel his blessing that much more richly. Look at the world this holiday season as if we're escaped recently from the world of suffering Jeremiah describes. That place is the place we deserve to be as creatures of sin. Yet here we are in this place of luxury even kings couldn't attain in Jeremiah's time! Be thankful for what Jesus has done, and cling to God as if you just discovered his favor today. His blessing is like nothing else the world has seen.
For this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,” declares the Lord. “Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead. No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.
When I read these verses I was struck by how dreary they are. God was telling his friend Jeremiah to act out what things would be like when his favor is withdrawn from Israel. He was like a Jewish "Ghost of Christmas Future" who had come to show people what things would be like if they didn't change their ways. It's a horrible thought to consider what the world would be like absent God's favor.
God's act via Jeremiah was an act of love though. He acted it out before he did it for real. He gave them a taste of what things would be like if they didn't wake up. Through people writing it down, God also gives us a taste, and his act through Jeremiah is also an act of love to us.
Consider a society where our modern conveniences are gone. And not only that but there is disease and famine. Imagine something like Ebola tearing through, with no sanitation, no medical miracles, no public gatherings, and no words of encouragement from friends and family. Imagine death and suffering everywhere, with no rhyme or reason to it. Families are torn apart. Our cherished elders and children taken from us, and the rest cut down in their prime. You're in the store buying food, wondering if the person who touched it before you left a death sentence behind. There's nobody to bury the dead. No funerals. People are afraid to even gather to say goodbye to loved ones. Take a minute to imagine living in that world.
Now consider how blessed we are to have God's favor. If you were in the world I just described, how desperately would you work to get to the world we live in now? I would do almost anything to escape the world Jeremiah was sent to warn people about! Yet Jeremiah wasn't sent to put people into that world. He was sent to warn them so they could avoid it. How loving our God is! Imagine telling a kid you're going to spank to go find something else to do while you're getting the stick, making a deal with them to avoid punishment even while you're on the way to get the instrument of their suffering! Who does that? Who is that patient?
And God's wrath against the people of Jeremiah's time was no fickle thing either. This was generations of evil he was addressing. The ancestors of the people in Jeremiah's time had already made a habit of doing horrible things. The people in Jeremiah's time just amped up the evil and made a point of being worse. But who of us is patient enough to wait generations to deal with something? If we're angry about welfare fraud, for instance, are we going to patiently tolerate it and leave a note for our great grandkids to do something about it? If someone is stealing our things and badmouthing us in the process, do we say "No big deal, I'll worry about it when I'm retired."
God's favor defies explanation. We have nothing to offer that matches it. Just as living in darkness without electricity allows us to appreciate it all the more, seeing what things look like when God's favor has been withdrawn allows us to feel his blessing that much more richly. Look at the world this holiday season as if we're escaped recently from the world of suffering Jeremiah describes. That place is the place we deserve to be as creatures of sin. Yet here we are in this place of luxury even kings couldn't attain in Jeremiah's time! Be thankful for what Jesus has done, and cling to God as if you just discovered his favor today. His blessing is like nothing else the world has seen.
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