"The Prophet Jeremiah" by Marc Chagall, 1968
There are some who would connect current events in this country with these passages about the Israel of Jeremiah’s day. Both nations chosen by God forsake the tried and true Jehovah for false (little g) gods and subsequently pay the price as (big G) God stews in silence and then vents in violence. I don’t buy it and Lord forgive me if I’m wrong but I don’t think the God who goes to the cross rejects, loathes, spurns or dishonors anyone, let alone those who actually believe in (big G) God. On the other hand there are times in our individual and collective lives when our apostasies are many and loving to wander we do not restrain our feet from places that corrupt. When our wandering leads us into lost and lonely places it seems to us as it did to Jeremiah; God is a stranger in the land, a traveler turning aside for the night, a mighty warrior who cannot give help. Looking for peace we find no good, yearning for healing we find terror instead until at last we come to our senses and stop rejecting, loathing, spurning and dishonoring God returning to the One who is our hope and our Savior in times of trouble, especially when the trouble is trouble we have created for ourselves.
Natural consequences! Even though we are saved by grace, God doesn't necessarily spare us from suffering the consequences for our actions. The decades leading up to the fall of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile were obviously difficult and disruptive times for the nation of Israel. The point is, though, that they were difficult and disruptive because of choices Israel had made - not because of anything God had done. It seems to me that they were holding on to an illusionary view of God, thinking that God would somehow spare them the immediate consequences of their choices simply because he had chosen and named them. There's no repentant spirit in this text. The tone is gimme, gimme, gimme. Lord, I deserve to have you save my ass because your name will be dragged through the mud if you don't. They had not only taken God for granted, but had created a self-promoting, mechanical religion. Sometimes it takes hard times for us to both appreciate God and truly know Him. You're right, though, the redemptive remnant is here as well. Hard times can force us to come to our senses, to turn around and head for home. As Henri Nouwen asked in "The Return of the Prodigal Son", "Do we accept the rejection of the world that imprisons us, or do we claim the freedom of children of God? We must choose." Hard times can help us make better choices.
ReplyDeleteThey have a long history of saying save us for your namesake. Moses in the desert for instance. Does God have a need to forgive for God's own sake? As God says in Amos 11 - how can I hand you over.., all my compassion is aroused... I will not carry out my fierce anger because I am God and not a man.
ReplyDeleteAmos pointed to the heart of the problem by exposing the existence and ultimate failure of self-serving, mechanical, self-satisfied, wealth-producing religion. But, Amos also predicted that Israel would be destroyed, and it was. God did not hand them over, but he did not prevent defeat and exile. God allowed all of this to take place.
ReplyDeleteBut what is never lost is God's desire for relationship. God keeps coming back to faithless and fickle people because God like a parent is stuck with the children God created who in a real sense are connected to God's own being even as my children are in some ways more important than my own life. And if we "who are evil" will give away everything to rescue or protect or save our children, how much more will God....
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