Title: Does God Have a Split Personality?/ Topic: Love and Judgment
Today’s Reading: Jeremiah 37; Jeremiah 38; Jeremiah 39; Psalm 79; 2 John 1
Scripture: Jeremiah 38:20-23
20 "They will not hand you over," Jeremiah replied. "Obey the LORD by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has revealed to me: 22 All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you: " 'They misled you and overcame you— those trusted friends of yours. Your feet are sunk in the mud; your friends have deserted you.'
23 "All your wives and children will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself will not escape from their hands but will be captured by the king of Babylon; and this city will be burned down." (emphasis added)
Observation: I've heard many Christians ask, "How can a God who is supposed to be loving and forgiving judge people by killing them?". These verses contain a warning to Zedekiah that lays out this contrast. He is told that if he obeys God it will go well for him and his family but, if he does not, there will be harsh and disastrous consequences. We tend to think in absolutes; that love, forgiveness and mercy cannot coexist with judgment and harsh punishment. But they DO coexist in absolute righteousness in our God. Our heavenly Father disciplines us so that we will not continue in destructive behavior, just as we do with our children. And He always instructs and warns us first of the consequences of our choices.
Application: The balance in God's discipline is this: If I refuse to learn from His grace, then I will have to learn from His judgment. The choice of how I want to learn is mine. Just as Zedekiah's choice had consequences for himself as well as others, so will mine. His family suffered more from his poor choice than he did. Oh, let me learn from Your grace!
Prayer: Father, you are merciful, kind, and loving and you are also just and righteous. May I always learn the easy way instead of the hard way. Thank you for your mercy toward me and all others who accept it.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
1 Comments:
Cynthia,
You bring out two great points:
First, that God will get through to us one way or another. There is the easy way (submission and obedience), and there is the hard way (rebellion and consequences/punishments). But either way, God's message will get through.
The second point is that our choice to go against God has an effect far beyond ourselves, just as Zedekiah's did. When we disobey God, we are sentencing many other people to experience pain, even though they themselves and nothing to do with making the bad choice. That should motivate us to think carefully before walking away from God.
The example that comes to mind on this second point is second-hand smoke. Remember the commercial where the old guy is crying because his wife, who didn't smoke, died of lung cancer from breathing the second hand smoke from his cigarettes.
When we rebel against God, we are taking a host of others down with us. SO STAY CLOSE TO GOD! AMEN!
Good post today.
Michael
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