Today's Bible Reading: JEREMIAH 25:15-38, 36:1-32, 45:1-46:28
Jeremiah 36:3
It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that everyone may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
Often we give up on those who have given up on God. We cancel the friendship and leave them to their own devices and desires. Oh we may have tried to create in them an interest for the things of God, but they simply are not interested. We invest in them, but they are not vested in the things that we are, so we drift apart. We eventually give up on them.
But God doesn’t give up. He continues in countless ways to try to connect with His wayward creators. There are multiple means that He uses to get their attention and get them to turn to and trust Him. We may give up on these wandering souls, but God doesn’t. Our persistence and patience with them may run its course, but God’s longsuffering lasts! Peter agrees when he writes: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). He doesn’t give up on those who have given up on Him.
Our text is a clear example of this. God tells Jeremiah to pen His words on a scroll to read in the presence of His wayward people. (Jer 36:2). So Jeremiah obeyed the Lord. Banded from the house of God (Jer 36:5), Jeremiah sends his companion, Baruch, to read all that God had commanded Him to write to all the people gathered there. The scroll that he read announced God’s anger against all the evil His people had done and all the disaster that I (God) intend to do to them. Granted this was not good news on a day of national fasting.
But we need to understand the intent of God’s words. It may be are some of the most encouraging and exciting words in our text. They express the heart of our Heavenly Father. Here is His love for His people send by the pen of the prophet. It was a statement of His extended and enduring longsuffering toward them. He hadn’t given up on them. He was reaching out to them like a parent would warn a child of punishment if they did not change their behavior. The hope of the Lord was that when they heard what He was intending to do that every one may turn from his evil way.
It may be, is the hope that we all need when we choose to go our own way and give up on God. This three word phrase cries out to us that God hasn’t given up on us. He offers hope for all who will repent and return to Him. He promises here to forgive their iniquity and their sin.”. The announcement of punishment was to point them to the Lord. He is the one who willingly took their punishment and ours upon Himself on the cross and freely offers the forgiveness of sins through faith in Him. This is Good News for all.
Today let these three words help you to have hope for you and your wayward friends. Believe that God has not given up on us, but is longsuffering toward us. Trust that “it may be” that we will again hear the hope of the gospel and come to Jesus.
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