Thursday 13th August
Read Jeremiah 3:14-18
“‘Return, faithless people,’ declares the Lord, ‘for I am your husband. I will choose you – one from a town and two from a clan – and bring you to Zion. 15 Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. 16 In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,’ declares the Lord, ‘people will no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honour the name of the Lord. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18 In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.” (NIVUK)
Although Jeremiah’s call to repent and return to Yahweh, surrender the love of idols and the yearning for disgrace, makes for bleak reading (and even more bleak listening if one was the recipient!), there is hope rippling through his message. That hope reveals itself in three ways in these words.
First there is hope that God is not faithless – he chooses a remnant from amongst the faithless and brings them home. It may not be many (v14), but it is not none.
Second there is hope that He will provide the means by which to ‘stick’ at that repentance – pastors and ministers who love Him and His people (v15). Unlike those in Jerusalem who were leading the people astray now, and those who led Israel astray earlier, God will provide His people with those who handle His word well, those with knowledge and understanding, and who will care for them deeply.
Finally there is hope that He will bring people together (v18). No longer will Israel and Judah be suspicious of one another and mistrustful. They will worship together before the throne of God, brought back into the land and the city of God’s choosing. They will multiply in numbers around God Himself, built up together and joining with all nations!
The promise to those who return is a warm and welcoming and secure home.
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:11-13) (NIVUK)
