Chance after chance after chance...

So at the beginning of the summer, or maybe a bit earlier, I'd realized that I hadn't really read any of the prophetic books of the Bible, so I decided to start, in the book of Isaiah and make my way through. Up to this time I've made it through Lamentations, and thus far Jeremiah has really stuck out to me. Not to say in the least that Isaiah and Lamentations are not worth reading, but the thing that stuck out to me in Jeremiah was the patience in God's character.

If you have read the book, you probably know what it's about, and if not, I'd recommend it. But basically, the Israelites, once again have turned their backs on God. But it seems that this time, they were refusing to repent, and instead of coming back to God, they seemed to just get further and further away. They worshiped false gods, and listened to false prophets, and continued to offend their creator. And so Jeremiah is sent to warn them to repent or their enemies would overtake them. And they ignore him. Now you'd think that since Jeremiah does his job pretty early on, that the book of Jeremiah would be fairly short, and yet it turns out (by word count) to be the second longest book in the Bible. So what's the reason that God doesn't just remove His protecting hand from His people? Because He loves them so much. And His nature of patience is so evident to me in this book. In this book that seems to be so dark and gloomy, it's here that God says He has loved his people with an everlasting love (31:3). For nearly fifty chapters God continues to give the Israelites chance after chance after chance to repent, to turn from their wicked ways, and He continues to withhold His judgment. And the extent of His patience amazes me.

So I get a few things from the book of Jeremiah. The first is obviously a deeper understanding of God's character of love and patience. The second is that as I think about it, the book of Jeremiah is somewhat of a mirror of today where it seems that people are running further and further away from God, and yet He's withholding His judgment to give us time to repent and turn back to Him. Fortunately, although people are turning away from God, unlike in Jeremiah, many are turning to Him. The last thing that I take away is an example of how I am to behave. In the book of Ephesians, we are called to "be imitators of God" (5:1). He's perfect and yet He is patient and still loves us in our imperfection. That means that I need to imitate Him in that patience and and love others with an everlasting love.

May the patience of the Lord our God be with you. Until next time, signing off with the other LOL