Old Sandals

O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself.  It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. O Lord, correct me, but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.    Jeremiah 10:23-24

The penitent is here acknowledging that he has walked a crooked path; his steps have not been directed by the Lord.  He is pleading for mercy—for otherwise, who can stand before a holy God?

Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty  man  glory in his might, nor let the rich  man glory in his riches.  But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I  am  the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, says the Lord.   Jeremiah 9:23-24

His character is sterling.  His judgements are inscrutable.  His love and mercy endures forever.

The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved! For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I am mourning.  Astonishment has taken hold of me.  Is there  no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?   Jeremiah 8:20-22

The Lord desires that all men be saved.  All. If it were up to Him absolutely, that would surely be the case. But men, made in the image of God, retain their ability to choose God or reject God. Even in our fallen, corrupted state this is so. Our ability to reject God comes naturally. Our choice for God, although unnatural, is possible because of God’s prevenient grace. Faith is a gift that must be actively received.

But this is what I commanded them, saying, “Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels  and  the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending  them.”   Jeremiah 7:23-25

He uses the phrase, “daily rising up early, and sending them.”  What a metaphor! The Lord neither slumbers nor sleeps, and yet here we have a picture of one rising up early to complete a task, without delay, wholeheartedly.  It is a picture, but it represents an eternal reality. Our God is infinite, and altogether past understanding. But He is also personal, and intensely so.

As for me, here I am, in your hand. Do with me as seems good and proper to you. But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will surely bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its inhabitants, for truly the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.   Jeremiah 26:14-15

Jeremiah, who had at first doubted he could serve as God’s spokesman, being just a young man, now was emboldened to look death, as it were, in the face.

Lord, give us grace that we…

If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?   Jeremiah 12:5

None of us can know what lies ahead for us.  We would all agree it is a good thing that we don’t.  Life lived, day by day, brings enough anxiety.  If we had also to deal today with tomorrow’s problems, or next year’s problems, it would be crushing.

And yet, we all do that to some extent.  It’s called worry.  Someone has said that worry is really low-grade fear. Fear of the  future.  Insecurity.

God gives us grace for today—right now.  He does not give us grace to face what might be tomorrow.  Anything might be.  Our security is in God, in His providence and provision, whether we are called upon to skip across the brook Kidron, or wade into the floodplain of the mighty Jordan river.

For I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, Obey My voice. Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done.   Jeremiah 11:7-8

It is inconceivable that the infinite God of the universe would desire—strongly desire—a vital personal relationship with human beings.  Inconceivable to us earth-bound creatures because it is a truth revealed from heaven. The relationship is not like one might have were he to find a genie in a bottle.  God doesn’t want to amaze you with tricks, but He does want to fill your life, my life, even as He fills heaven and earth.

Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness.  And from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.    Jeremiah 6:13-14

If God is a delusion, then so is life.  Life is a conflict, a spiritual conflict.  We live in two worlds at once.  One is unseen, but lasts forever.  One is seen, but passing away.

“Do you not fear Me?” says the Lord. “Will you not tremble at My presence, who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail. Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart. They have revolted and departed. They do not say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the Lord our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’ Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withheld good from you.”   Jeremiah 5:22-25

As sinful people, we find it all too easy to live without the fear of the Lord, even though death and destruction is just ahead for each of us.  Death is the elephant in the room, but nobody pays it much attention.  The fear of Lord is life—eternal life.

For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.” Jeremiah 4:3-4

Fallow ground is ground that in years past brought forth a crop, but now is standing idle, unplanted. Jeremiah uses the metaphor to call the people back to the way they once lived, to the commitment they once made.