Jeremiah is nicknamed the “weeping prophet” because of the amount of suffering he went through in his life. Some of it was personal—people trying to kill him, people kidnapping him and taking him to a foreign country. Some of it came from the ministry God gave him—to try one last time to turn the hearts of the people God loved so that He wouldn’t be forced to send them into exile.
Of course it failed. And after years of caring for people in a small church, I can start to see how deep Jeremiah’s heartbreak must have been. Because you can’t care for God’s people at His command without starting to share the same love for them that God has. Stubborn and sinful and unlistening as they may be, you still love them. God loves them infinitely more. And when they destroy themselves, you grieve.
But deep as Jeremiah’s sadness was, he still had hope. He tells us why when he says, “For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though He cause grief, He will have compassion according to the abundance of His steadfast love; for He does not afflict from His heart or grieve the children of men.” Our hope is in the Lord, because He does love us, even when we have gone far away from Him, even when we have made a complete wreck of our lives and we can see no possibility of resurrection. God hates having to discipline us, and His heart longs to have compassion on us. That’s why He came to be our Savior.
Jesus, too, has a nickname. “Man of Sorrows” is what Isaiah calls Him, because He came to suffer—to take up all of our sin and guilt and shame on Himself, so that He could set us free from it. He came to die for us, because that was how He could set us free from evil and give us clean, new hearts. And then He rose from the dead to give us life forever.
If you happen to be far away from the Lord right now, He’s calling you. He loves you. And He wants you home.
WE PRAY: Dear Lord, bring me close to You and set me free from evil. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Reflection Questions:
1. Have you ever had to enforce consequences on someone you loved?
2. If so, why couldn’t you just let their behavior go? What evil would that lead to?
3. Why did Jesus arrange to have the worst consequences for human evil fall on Himself?