Our only hope . . .

 

READ Jeremiah 13–17

Just as Jeremiah was told to hide a garment in the cleft of a rock until it was spoiled and good for nothing, the Spirit of God hides me in Christ, my Rock, that I fully realize my pride and efforts are good for nothing. Instead, I must cling to Him that I might be a praise and glory for Him. Just as God filled His people with wine so they clashed with one another, God allows me to see my fumbling and uselessness without Him. (13:1–14)

Hear and give ear; be not proud, for the Lord has spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness. But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive. (Jeremiah 13:15–17)

And if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things come upon me?’ it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil. (Jeremiah 13:22–23)

This is why we need a Savior. It isn’t that all of us are murderers and thieves. It isn’t that all of us are ruining lives with gross sin — for sin is not defined so much by degrees, even though some sins seem more deadly than others. Sin is as the Bible defines it: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way” and for that, God sent Jesus and “laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) As the NT declares:

The righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith . . . . (Romans 3:21–25)

We cannot change our spots. This is why Jeremiah cried, “Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you. O you hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night? Why should you be like a man confused, like a mighty warrior who cannot save? Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us.” (Jeremiah 14:7–9)

This passage says God will remember their iniquity and punish their sins; He would send destroyers and have no pity on them because they rejected Him. He was “weary of relenting” so He turned them over to their enemies, took His peace from them. Sickness and death ruled. When they asked what they had done to deserve this, God said:

Because your fathers have forsaken me . . . and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them . . . and have not kept my law, and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor. (11–13)

God saw their ways. Nothing is hidden from Him. He doubly repaid their iniquity and sin of idolatry and yet He also promised He would deliver them “out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.” (15:21) Such is the grace of God. We can agree:

O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!” “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.” (19–21)

Even though the human heart is “deceitful and desperately sick,” God says, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord.” (17:7) He made that possible by sending Jesus who died for all sin. And we can cry with the prophet: “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.” (17:14)

Thank You, Jesus. Praise to Your Name! Amen.