Undistracted

Sunday 9^th August

Read Jeremiah 3:1-5

“‘If a man divorces his wife
    and she leaves him and marries another man,
should he return to her again?
    Would not the land be completely defiled?
But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers –
    would you now return to me?’
declares the Lord.
² ‘Look up to the barren heights and see.
    Is there any place where you have not been ravished?
By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers,
    sat like a nomad in the desert.
You have defiled the land
    with your prostitution and wickedness.
³ Therefore the showers have been withheld,
    and no spring rains have fallen.
Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute;
    you refuse to blush with shame.
⁴ Have you not just called to me:
    “My Father, my friend from my youth,
⁵ will you always be angry?
    Will your wrath continue for ever?”
This is how you talk,
    but you do all the evil you can.’” (NIVUK)

Jeremiah began the second chapter outlining the clear case for divorce. He finishes the poetic description of Israel forsaking God with a rhetorical question – based off the law itself – asking how they can return to the marriage given their behaviour. The mixed metaphors may be difficult to grasp if we are not paying attention to the promises God made. Consider the beginning of the narrative again…

“They did not ask, “Where is the Lord,
    who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
    through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
    a land where no one travels and no one lives?”
⁷ I brought you into a fertile land
    to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
    and made my inheritance detestable.” (Jeremiah 2:6-7) (NIVUK)

By the end of the passage (Jeremiah 3:1-5), not only has Israel defiled the land, they have deliberately abandoned it and wandered back into the wilderness! Look where they are amongst the ‘barren heights’ (v2a) ‘like a nomad in the desert’ (v2c). Therefore even the showers are withheld (v3). How can they return when they have abandoned the fertile land and promises of God to wander back into the wilderness?

My mind is drawn, painfully, to the same picture presented to the Hebrew Christians (Hebrews 6:4-8). The same question is asked. The same metaphors adapted. The same challenge put before them. How humble are you before the challenge? How diligent in the doing of good? How undistracted?