"God's Impossible Grace" June 3 Readings: Jeremiah 29-34

Today's Reading - Jeremiah 29-34

Background

Today's reading deals with the promised restoration of Israel and it combines prophecies of the historic return after the Babylonian Captivity and the millennial return when Israel will not only be physically restored but also spiritually restored and fully devoted to God and to the Messiah God sent.

There are two familiar passages in this reading, one of which is among the most misread passages in Bible. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." This is misused as a general promise that only good things will happen to us. Read verse 5. This is a promise that God was going to restore Israel and give them a future. Of course, God does give us a hopeful future, but it is not without hardship. 

The second passage is 31:31 in which God promises a New Covenant with Israel, written on their hearts, which is the basis of the New Covenant in the blood of Jesus that binds the church together. There are many other powerful and familiar promises. 

Devotional - God's Impossible Grace

God draws a stark contrast in Jeremiah 30:12-17. The prophet has been lobbing judgment after judgment from the mouth of God on his people and they were beginning to come true. And through Jeremiah, God pronounced the position of his chosen people untenable and hopeless. Look at verses 12-14

Your injury is incurable;your wound most severe.You have no defender for your case.There is no remedy for your sores,and no healing for you.All your lovers have forgotten you;they no longer look for you,for I have struck you as an enemy would,with the discipline of someone cruel,because of your enormous guiltand your innumerable sins.

Their severe wounds are incurable and no one is coming to help them. All the allies (lovers) they had turned to for help had now abandoned them and there was no one to stand with them. God's discipline had fallen on them in a powerful and seemingly irreversible way because of their "enormous guilt" and "innumerable sins."

But in verse 16 things begin to turn around and God promises to deal with those who had come against them. All of their enemies were going to be dealt with by God and then God would restore them. The incurable wounds would be restored and their enormous, innumerable sins would be forgiven. Verse 17 makes it plain.

But I will bring you healthand will heal you of your wounds—this is the Lord’s declaration—for they call you Outcast,Zion whom no one cares about.

God will heal and restore what the world calls hopeless.

Is there anything in your life that seems hopeless? Have people ever told you that you are useless, that your faults are incurable? Have you made mistakes that you feel negate your usefulness in the cause of Christ? Remember that the love of God overcomes the power of sin. You are not hopeless because of Jesus Christ. What sin has broken God can fix.

Father, I thank you for a love that is not rendered helpless by my failings, for a grace that is greater than my sins. 

Think and Pray