Reading for today:  Jeremiah 30-31
Original post:  August 22, 2014


Chapter 31 is the brightest point in the prophecy given to Jeremiah.  However, before we glimpse that good news, I want to call to our attention a verse from Chapter 30.  Verse 11 says "I will discipline you but only with justice; I will not let you go entirely unpunished."

Sometimes as you are reading your Bible something jumps off the page and catches your eye.  The wonderful thing about God's Word is that it could be something different in the same paragraph each time you read it.   Of course, as we are reading through Jeremiah, we fail to comment on hundreds, or perhaps thousands of noteworthy events or phrases.   Even if we were to make a life study of the book, we would still be finding inspiration and caution at the end of our lives.

Anyway, today verse 11 stood out.   I marvel at God's restraint in dealing with His people.  Surely they have committed enough atrocious acts to incur His full wrath.  In fact, He tells them they are going to drink the cup of His wrath, full strength.   This verse tempers God's anger by reassuring the people that He isn't punishing them only because He is angry.   If that were the case, God's punishment could be severe enough to wipe the nation (or all nations) from the face of the earth.   Instead, the Lord acknowledges that they should be punished, but tells them He will be fair.

Who wants to go before an angry Judge?   The punishment could be too extreme.   You would be right to day "they  (and we) deserve judgment without mercy because of our great sins" and you would be right.  But this is how we learn how merciful and just God is....He limits His punishment and extends grace and mercy.

Anyone who has ever been angry with and punished a child for doing wrong understands what it is to love and punish at the same time.   I was instructed to remind my children of how much I loved them before and after I punished them. so they would understand both love and punishment.   I rarely if ever did it, probably because I was too immature myself to realize the value of it.

Some people say that a loving God could not devise a place such as hell.  Others say that they will never serve a God who would be so cruel as to punish people with eternal torment.   I say that if you agree with them, you are seeing only part of the picture.  "a penny looks like a thin line from one perspective"    When viewed from the edge, you miss the detailed engraving and the fact that it is round.   No one ever describes a penny from the side view....it's always the front.

God's mercy and His love are the front view.  Justice tempered by love for His people,  grace extended time and time again in an effort to avoid the eternal suffering that is hell.   This is the front view.   Is hell a real place?  Yes.   Will people be there for eternity?  Yes, I believe so.   But it's the side view of the penny.   In fact, for the Christian talking about hell is spending time considering a place that we will never visit or experience.

Anyway,   Chapter 31 deserves more of our time and consideration than a discussion of hell.  God promises to restore the people, to make sure they aren't completely destroyed, and to once again bring them back to the homeland.  He speaks of the days in the future when children will play, young girls will sing, and mothers will give birth.   All of this will happen while those who have persecuted Israel (at God's command) will be punished.

You might ask "why would God punish the people that He sent"?  (speaking of Nebuchadnezzer).   It's because of the brutal manner in which they treated the Israelites.   Had they overthrown the city and treated those who were there with any compassion at all, it might have been different.   They did not.  They ripped open the pregnant women, tortured and killed the men, and abused the young women.   Brutal and inhumane doesn't describe completely how they behaved.   Even worse, they will speak proudly of how powerful they are, and will give not credit to God for the victory.    Both of these sins will be called to account.

PR