grateful He does not change

Have you ever, as a parent
struggled to enforce the punishment
you threatened to give as consequence
once the rule was actually broken?

I mean especially when
my children were younger...
like toddlers too cute
they made me laugh.

Or when the punishment I spoke
ahead of time, turned out
to be more punitive to me
than it would have been for them.

Now I know God certainly
has greater wisdom than I
in speaking thus,
but I wonder if He doesn't delay
sometimes...
because we are just too cute,
or it's more painful for Him
than it is to us.

But this I do know...
that He does in fact punish His own
like a parent
because He loves us.

And the consequences of our
disobedience to God
often take longer to live with
than a simple spanking or time out.

As I read the book of Lamentations,
I am eager to find an uplifting verse,
a note of hope or goodness.

But all this lament of Jeremiah
is difficult for the heart to take.

And if a person has never read through
any of the Old Testament, they just may not
understand this God.

They may just think to themselves...
This God certainly does not seem
like one who will ever listen
or turn His ear again toward His people.
And whatever could they have done so wrong
as to have this misery?
Couldn't He have been a little more
merciful?

So let us take a journey back
to the book of Deuteronomy.
This is the time when God
had just delivered His people
out of slavery in Egypt.

And after Moses had given them
the Ten Commandments,
he had told them several times
how to follow them...
Now it shall come to pass,
if you diligently obey
the voice of the Lord your God,
to observe carefully
all His commandments
which I command you today,
that the Lord your God
will set you high above
all nations of the earth.
And all these blessings
shall come upon you and
overtake you, because
you obey the voice of
the Lord your God
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 NKJV

And then he proceeded to list
a multitude of blessings.

But it was also important
that Moses include
the consequences which the Lord
had established in case
the people chose to disobey.

Just as we as parents tell our children
the consequences if they
stay out past curfew,
don't do their required chores,
tell us a lie, or
any multitude of rules established.

So Moses told the people
what God had said...
But it shall come to pass,
if you do not obey
the voice of the Lord your God,
to observe carefully all
His commandments and His statutes
which I command you today,
that all these curses will come upon you
and overtake you...
Deuteronomy 28:15

And then an even longer list
of curses.

All these consequences...
regarding Ten Commandments,
half of which people don't
even consider breaking.

But time passed.
And after the people of God
settled into the Promised Land
they began to live and act like
the pagan idol worshippers
who were allowed to remain;
even though God commanded
that the Israelites disposses them of it.

And their hearts were far from God.
And time passed.

So God sent prophets
to warn the people to return to Him.
But the people of God mocked them
and continued to worship idols.
And time passed.

And prosperity settled in.
and their hearts were far from God.
They continued to worship idols,
even in their prosperity and pride.

And time passed.

But God did not change
as time passed.
People changed.
Cultures changed.
We pride ourselves as being
people of developing nations.

But God does not change.
Nor do His laws, nor His consequences.

And their hearts remained far from Him.
So the consequences began...

Because you did not serve
the Lord your God with
​joy and gladness of heart,
for the abundance of everything,
therefore you shall serve
your enemies,
whom the Lord will send
against you, in hunger,
in thirst, in nakedness, and
in need of everything;
and He will put a yoke of iron
on your neck until
He has destroyed you.

The Lord will bring a nation
against you from afar,
from the end of the earth,
as swift as the eagle flies,
a nation whose language
you will not understand,
a nation of fierce countenance,
which does not respect the elderly
nor show favor to the young.
And they shall eat the increase
of your livestock and the produce
of your land, until you are destroyed;
they shall not leave you grain or
new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle
or the offspring of your flocks,
until they have destroyed you.
Deuteronomy 28:47-51

Enter Babylon...
lead in King Nebuchadnezzar, and
the Chief of the Guard
who will burn down Jerusalem;
the Chaldeans
who will tear down it's walls.

All that was promised...
the consequences of
NOT obeying, happened.

Yes, the child gets angry
and upset when they are punished.

Yes, the parent has a hard time
inflicting the punishment.

And yes, sometimes the parent
even delays in the punishment
and give the child a second,
and third chance.

I think in this case...
God was actually pretty darn patient,
considering.

It's just very hard for us to understand
His viewpoint.
That is why I have to point out
the parent perspective.

But He is also the Creator,
the Protector, the Judge,
and at Jeremiah's point in history...
the awaited Messiah and Savior.

So Jeremiah laments...
The Lord has purposed to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn
His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused
the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.
Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes
are among the nations;
The Law is no more,
And her prophets find no vision
from the Lord.

The Lord has done what He purposed;
He has fulfilled His word
Which He commanded in days of old.
He has thrown down and has not pitied,
And He has caused an enemy
to rejoice over you;
He has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
Lamentations 2:8-9, 17

And yet, as a prophet,
He knew that God had rescued him before.
He knew that God was still the same.
He knew somewhere deep down
he could find hope.

My soul still remembers
And sinks within me.
This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.

Through the Lord’s mercies
we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”

The Lord is good
to those who wait for Him,
To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one
should hope and wait quietly
For the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear
The yoke in his youth.

Let him sit alone and keep silent,
Because God has laid it on him;
​Lamentations 3:20-29

All parents have that moment...
after their child has gone to sleep,
even on the worst of days,
when they pray to the Lord for mercy.

And sometimes they will wander
into their child's room
and watch over them
as they sleep.
No matter what that child did
earlier that day...
it has never been enough
to change the love
which the parent feels inside.

Sometimes in fact,
it only stirs it, churns it deeper still,
to long for that child more;
to pray for, and ache for
that child more.

Let us not lament
in the time of consequences.
But rather find the hope
in sitting still
and waiting quietly on
the salvation of the Lord.

Word of God
train me today...
To still my heart for my child,
ever waiting upon You
for their salvation.

To only lament my sin with open hands,
letting go as You forgive,
​and receiving the hope
​that You will change me.