The human heart instinctively yearns for paradise, for a place of peace and tranquility. We were made for peace and tranquility, but
we don’t seem to get it on this earth. And so we spend money
to get away to places where we hope to get away from the great rat race. On a far larger scale,
and for thousands of years, mankind has
migrated and separated to get away from each other. Abraham and Lot separated. Listen to these
words: “Then Abram said to Lot, “let
there be no strife between you and me,
and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen…. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me…” [Gen. 13:8,9].
The history of the
world is the history of a people on the move. People are
forever seeking to escape political, religious, social and economic conflicts. People are forever in search for a place
where they can build their idealistic futures. This is the origin of the
American dream and I suppose everyone else’s dream. But
there is no safe place on the face of
this earth. As long as there is a
devil and as long as
there are sinners on the face of this earth this will not happen. Peace
and tranquility will continue to elude us.
I have always been fascinated by the story of the mutiny
on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Bounty which occurred in the south Pacific on 28 April
1789. Led by Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, disaffected crewmen seized
control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh, and set him
and 18 loyalists adrift in the ship's rowing boat. Some of the mutineers
settled on Tahiti and others on Pitcairn Island, one of the most isolated islands in the South Pacific.
Bligh completed a voyage of more than
3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km) in the little boat to reach safety, and began the
process of bringing the mutineers to justice. Fletcher Christian's group, undiscovered on Pitcairn until 1808, could
have carved out a life of bliss for themselves, far away from that civilization from which they came, where
there was always war. When they were eventually found, only one mutineer, John
Adams, had remained alive. All his
fellow mutineers, including Fletcher Christian,
had been killed, either by each other or
by their Polynesian companions.
The
human race is simply not able to live in peace with one another – nowhere! Our
manner is like that of Cain, who not
only murdered his brother, but who
became a fugitive and a restless wanderer upon the earth (Gen. 4:12). Only the Prince of peace by His word, the gospel of peace, can bring about peace with God and with one
another. When He is not at the centre we
are ready to murder one another.
And so it was in Israel. Though Israel was endowed
with the unique favour
of the God of all Creation, and although she was so favoured with
God’s presence and God’s good law
to govern her society, her people could not manage to live under God and in submission to one another.
As soon as they forgot the law of God within a generation Israelite society
was inundated with murder,
intrigue, idolatry and idol worship,
lawlessness, poor relationships and the
like in all levels of society.
Now the nature of the God of all creation is holy and just and loving. In this spirit He entered into a covenant relationship with Abraham and
then with Israel. But, the people
of the covenant weren’t always committed to the terms of the Covenant. And so God, being
holy and righteous and loving and merciful needed to be what He is. As a holy and righteous God, He needed to
punish the sin of His
people. But as a loving and merciful covenant keeping God, He needed
to preserve them. And so, at this
time of Israel’s history in about 589 BC,
He did both. He handed them and their
city over to be destroyed by
their enemies, and He preserved
a good portion of them from destruction by taking them out of
Jerusalem and into Babylon for their own good (!) promising to bring them
back from there in 70 years.
And so, as we pick up at v.36
we read: "Now therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning
this city of which you say, 'It is given into the hand of the king of
Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence'.
Notice
the emphasis in v. 36 .. “you say…” PERIOD! Although it is all true, that Jerusalem will be sacked, and true that Israel
must go into captivity, because she has violated God’s covenant they
and we must remember that this is
not the end of the story. In His
wrath towards His sinning people
God does not forget to exercise
mercy. Often, when we experience the chastising
hand of our Good Father in Heaven, we
only tend to see the dark side of things and not the end of things. In reality it is never “You say…”, but “God says”, and He isn’t
finished yet.
Listen to the next verse, vv. 37,38: “Behold, I will
gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my
wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I
will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people and I will be their
God.” The bad news suddenly turns into good news.
That is the essence of the gospel in Isaiah 9:2 [quoted in Matt 4:16] a Messianic text : “The people who walked in darkness have seen
a great light.; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light
shined.” After many years of spiritual darkness and the absence of the Word of the Lord, the messenger
has suddenly come to His temple [Mal
3:1]. That will be true of the second coming at the end of all times. Suddenly,
the Lord Jesus will be here. [Matt.
24,25 ; 1 Thess. 5: 1-6; 2 Pet. 3:10].
A recent article published by Christianity Today says
that “for the third year in a row, the
modern persecution of Christians worldwide has hit another record high in 2016." [Research from Open Doors]. So, yes, Syrian and Iraqi Christians
have been driven from their land , but yes, the present fate of
the Christian people in Syria and
Iraq is not the last word. God has the
last word. And in this context, it is a
word of grace.
So, yes, God has driven
His people into these foreign
lands, but yes, that is not the final
word on the matter. God sent His people into Babylon for a while to
preserve them there. The same has
happened when God sent His people to Egypt for a little while. The Lord Jesus
and His parents needed to hide there for a little while from the wrath of Herod,
so that the Scripture says, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son.” [Matt.2:15] Suddenly, the LORD
brings His people back. God promises here
that He will gather them and
bring them back to their land and to Himself. In a moment we shall see that this promise is
connected to an eternal covenant, and applicable to us.
And
so, by way of application I want to ask a question: If God is a God of eternal holiness and justice, who can hand sinning Israel over to the Babylonians and
also send them into exile, far away from home, then how do we
know that this will not happen to God's chosen people today - the church, the bride of Christ, the true sons and daughters of Abraham? And following that question comes the next question. Can God
see us through our sinful
neglect of Him? Can He bring us into a
place of peace and tranquility? The
answer is a resounding “yes!”,
and that is what the rest of the text is essentially about - the
amazing grace of God to undeserving sinners.
This grace is our only sure confidence for the future. You and
I, are utterly unreliable. If we were left to our own powers
to keep the faith and to be holy
and to persevere, we wouldn’t make it. Grace is all of God. “Grace
has led me safe thus far, and
grace will lead me home” wrote
John Newton. Another hymn, “Come Thou Fount of every Blessing”, written
by a 22 year old pastor, Robert
Robinson in 1758 confesses the same truth :
O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be!
Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart
to thee:
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the
God I love;
Here's my heart, O, take and seal it; seal it for thy
courts above.
Now the gracious promise
of God towards His true people rests on the foundation of His covenant:
"And I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from
doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me into their hearts, that they
may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them
in this land in faithfulness, with all
my heart and all my soul.”
This is one of several Old Testament promises of the new
covenant that Jesus said He sealed with his own blood for all who are in him.
This promise is not just for the believing Jews, but for those who are true Jews, true
sons and daughters of Abraham by virtue
of union with Jesus, who is the seed of Abraham (Gal.3:7,16).
Four Promises For Faithful Believers
As They Negotiate Difficult Times
1. God Will Be Our God
: V. 38:
"And they shall be my people and I
will be their God. ”God is for us,
even when we have to experience calamity.
God sees to it that we remain His people. All that He is as
God, He exerts for their good.
2. God Promises to
Change Our Hearts : V. 39 & 40b "I
will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever … that they
may not turn from me… (v. 40b) . Under the everlasting covenant sealed in the
blood of Jesus, God will not simply stand by to see if we, by our own powers,
will fear him. No ! He will sovereignly
and mercifully give us the heart that we
need to have, by which we will be led
safely home to heaven.
3. God Promises to give us the ability to remain faithful to
Him : V. 40: "I will make an everlasting covenant
with them…”. This is what is different
about the new covenant, when compared with the Old Covenant. The New
covenant promises that God’s people will be
given the ability, the power, to trust
God , fear God by the indwelling Spirit through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who has kept the
law of the Old Covenant, that we could never
keep. Under the New Covenant we are
enabled by sovereign Grace.
4. God Promises to Do
This with All His heart and Soul: V. 41 Although the eternal , infinite God is not a man like
us, He has attributes of personality,
just like us, and here He is saying
through Jeremiah that He intensely desires
our good with His entire heart and soul. And oh, how infinitely
big God’s heart and souls is… not like
mine and yours.
God will keep His promises as surely as He will exercise His wrath.
That is what we are called to learn today, and that is how Chapter 32
ends. As He has brought disaster upon His people, so will He bring
all the good that He has promised. He will
do this notwithstanding their present
despair (v. 42).
The true church of the Lord Jesus Christ in these very
difficult days almost appears to be obscure. She is persecuted
from without and within. The enemy is not only out there, but He is in
here, and sometimes I think that the latter is the more insidious problem that we have. But this we may know: The
church shall have rest after these days of adversity. We may look forward to it. In history and from
time to time God has given us revivals,
short periods of respite just so
that we would not grow unduly discouraged . But a time is coming when God will restore
peace in the earth … when metaphorically
speaking houses and lands and fields shall be bought. This is the fulfillment of a promise made to Jeremiah by God in the earlier part of Chapter 32. All this points forward to our heavenly Canaan, reserved for all
those who have God's fear in their hearts and do not depart from him. Keep
the eternal city in sight as
you continue your pilgrimage.
Heaven is
our ultimate goal!
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