A Word in Season: God’s Salvation (Jeremiah 3:23)

Media Gratiae

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

Jeremiah writes to a backsliding people, calling them to return to the

00:06

Lord. In chapter 3, return you backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings, says the

00:13

Lord God in verse 22. And Jeremiah warns, exhorts, entreats

00:20

God's people in verse 23, Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains.

00:29

Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. The people of Jeremiah's day may well have built their high places up on the hills and on the mountains, places where they would have worshipped false gods and celebrated and pursued their idols.

00:49

It may be a reference to the fact that some of the ancient gods were the gods of the hills and the mountains, and perhaps

00:56

Israel was looking to them for help. There may also be something of a military metaphor almost, a beleaguered group of people who are hoping that help will come from on high.

01:09

But Jeremiah reminds them that in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains.

01:18

When we are seeking help we often look up to various hills and mountains in the hope that we will find some kind of help from them.

01:29

It may be the mountain of human effort. If we just work hard enough, do more, do better, then surely we'll be able to drag ourselves out of our trouble.

01:40

Perhaps it's the mountain of family connection. My father or my mother or both were

01:45

Christians, and that's where I have my hope that perhaps there'll be some sort of trickle -down effect and that I'll be okay because of Dad and Mum.

01:55

It may be our church rituals or our religious affiliations, that I belong to the right kind of congregation,

02:02

I've been through the right kind of religious observances, I've perhaps been sprinkled as a child,

02:10

I've walked the aisle, I've been confirmed, I've been baptised, whatever it may be, but that's what

02:16

I'm resting upon for my security and my hope. Some people just like to think of themselves as a spiritual person and that gives them some kind of warm and fuzzy glow inside.

02:29

For others it's their well -meaning morality. That will help me in the day of my trouble.

02:35

The tragedy is that even Christians can start thinking like this, not necessarily with regard to salvation in its initial phase and experience, but with regard to our ongoing needs.

02:50

When trouble comes, when there's difficulty or confusion, when the church seems to be at a low ebb or on the back foot, we look to the hills and the mountains, we still find our expectations and pursue our securities in someone or something that is other than and therefore by definition always less than the

03:12

God of our salvation. Our tendency to expect for help from the things of this world is so hard to overcome, but truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains.

03:30

There is nothing in this world, there is no saving army, there is no saving strength, there is no blessing might in the things that this world has to offer, but our help is in God, truly in the

03:47

Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. Our hope is truly in God, our help comes from Him.

03:57

Salvation belongs to the Lord, it is truly in Him, it is only in Him, it is graciously from Him, it is surely in Him, it is effectively from Him and it is perpetually in Him.

04:14

All the help that we will ever need is there in our infinite, eternal and unchangeable

04:21

God. We cannot look anywhere else, for there is no other help, but in God our help and hope is sure, it is fixed and certain in accordance with His word,

04:33

His promise, His acts in Christ Jesus. It is gracious, it comes unbidden, flowing freely from His loving heart and therefore it is sure because it doesn't rest upon our highs or our lows, it is always effective for He is a

04:51

God of might as well as mercy and it is a perpetual salvation, as lasting and as solid as God Himself.

05:01

Look not then to the hills or the mountains, truly our hope and help is in the