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.
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January 2019
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