Day 717: Jeremiah 8:1-9:1- Grieving God

 “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. 2 And they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. And they shall not be gathered or buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 3 Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.
Sin and Treachery4 “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When men fall, do they not rise again?
    If one turns away, does he not return?
5 Why then has this people turned away
    in perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
6 I have paid attention and listened,
    but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
    saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
    like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7 Even the stork in the heavens
    knows her times,
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane
    keep the time of their coming,
but my people know not
    the rules[b] of the Lord.
8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
    and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
    has made it into a lie.
9 The wise men shall be put to shame;
    they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
    so what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others
    and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
    everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
11 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
    when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
    there are no grapes on the vine,
    nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered,
    and what I gave them has passed away from them.”
14 Why do we sit still?
Gather together; let us go into the fortified cities
    and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
    and has given us poisoned water to drink,
    because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came;
    for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
16 “The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;
    at the sound of the neighing of their stallions
    the whole land quakes.
They come and devour the land and all that fills it,
    the city and those who dwell in it.
17 For behold, I am sending among you serpents,
    adders that cannot be charmed,
    and they shall bite you,”
declares the Lord.
Jeremiah Grieves for His People18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me;
    my heart is sick within me.
19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
    from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
    and with their foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
    and we are not saved.”
21 For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
    I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
    not been restored?
Oh that my head were waters,
    and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
    for the slain of the daughter of my people!
 
Meditation
God is rich in love so He grieves the rebellion of our hearts and the ruin of our world. God’s rich mercy offers resurrection hope when our hearts return home.
 
Jesus wept when Lazarus died because Jesus loved Lazarus (see John 11). Jesus wept over Jerusalem because Jesus loved the city and the rebellion broke His heart (Luke 19:41-44). God weeps in Jeremiah because His people continue to reject Him, choosing death, and they will not return home. God’s tears reveal God’s deep love.
 
Not many places in Scripture reveal the deep grief God carries for His rebellious people and ruined world. God grieves the rebellion of His creatures before the judgement of the flood (see Genesis 6). God carries the grief from our sin and rebellion (Isaiah 53:4), ultimately to the cross to be transformed into glory. Ruin and rebellion are never the end of the story.
 
God’s tears are falling from heaven (9:1), His joy is gone, His heart is sick, and “grief is upon (Him)” 8:18. God grieved because His people were choosing death by rejecting His word (1-7) and the leaders were delusional and deceptive (8-13). Backsliding seemed perpetual (5) and there was no peace (11). The people’s choice to not return was leading to their ruin. God grieved.
 
As the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son, our God does not give up hope. God’s love leads Him to wait for us to come to our senses and return home. In love God grieves. In mercy God offers resurrection hope.
 
Richly Dwelling
-How do you respond to the rich revelation of God’s grief over the rebellion and ruin of the world? What does this reveal about God’s love?
 
-God’s grace transforms grief to glory through the work of the cross. Is your life marked more with groaning and rebellion and ruin leading to grief OR glory in redemption and restoration of what was ruined?
 
-Where do you need to return home to the love of our Father, turning to trust His word again for restoration and renewal? Be specific.
 
Key Verses
18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me…. Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!