Scripture: Jeremiah 33:1-9
Focus on the Word
At the time of Jeremiah, and at other times, too, God refused to bless sin and its action. God is holy, and He is calling forth a holy people. When sin reigns, it steals, kills, and destroys, so God will bring judgment to call His people away for sin and back into relationship with Him.
God is just, not simply with His people, but with all His creation. He will come against sin wherever it exists. He will never cease calling His creation out of the folly and dead-end of sin so that He can pour into His creation His righteousness and love and mercy and grace.
Judah was in a time of great sin and separation from God. Soon they would be taken into captivity by Babylon, and there they would live outside their homeland, dealing with what it means to mock God and throw His holiness away as if it meant nothing. However, God is not about judgment. He is about mercy. So, even before His people were taken off into Babylon He says to them, "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know" (Jeremiah 33:3, NASB). His words flourish with hope and help. He says, "I will heal them…I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel…I will cleanse them from all their iniquity…It will be to Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which will hear of all the good that I do for them" (Jeremiah 33:6-9, NASB).
Lent is a time to examine our hearts, to see if there is anything in us that needs to go, to be jettisoned out of our lives. It isn't a time to beat up on ourselves but a time to get real before God, and to own our lives. In our relationship with God we have a standing promise, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteousness to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9, NASB). What a mighty God we serve.
God has no desire to write off anybody. Instead, He stands here with us crying out to us, "Call to Me, and I will answer you."
Today’s Prayer
Almighty, eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Creator of heaven and earth and man, together with thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Word and Image, and with thy Holy Spirit: Have mercy upon us and forgive us our sins for thy Son's sake, whom thou has made our Mediator according to thy wonderful counsels, and do thou guide and sanctify us by thy Holy Spirit, who has poured out upon the apostles. Grant that we may truly know and praise thee throughout eternity! Amen.
(Philip Melanchthon, Reformer, 16th century)
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