FBC Morning Light – August 18, 2022

Well, a good Thursday morning to you. Hope your week's going well thus far, more than halfway through the work week, and I trust that things are going well for you. Well, today we're in Jeremiah again in our Bible reading.

The Weight of Jeremiah’s Judgment Oracles

As you read through the book of Jeremiah, you're probably often feeling a little, oh, I don't know, heavy. I mean, it feels heavy. There's a lot of proclamation of judgment against Judah, against God's people.

You see that judgment panning out. You see the way that the Babylonians have come in and destroyed Jerusalem and taken people captive. You read about the remnant taking off to Egypt and God saying, okay, I'm going to send judgment upon you in Egypt for your disobedience.

You read about all of this punishment of God's people and all that they endured. You think about what they went through in enduring that punishment. There were some people who lived and suffered greatly.

There were many people who died in those wars and in those battles. People who were treated terribly when they were taken into captivity. I think of the king, for example, who had his eyes gouged out just after watching as the Babylonians executed his sons before his very eyes, so that the last thing that he saw in this life was the execution of his own children.

That's just horrific. We've been reading that kind of thing all through the book of Jeremiah. It can seem almost hopeless. It can seem like God has just utterly cast off his people and there's no hope for them.

They're just without any remedy whatsoever. But then we come to chapter 46 and the last couple of verses of the chapter, and therein we find hope, because this is what God says. He says, but do not fear, O my servant Jacob, and do not be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from afar and your offspring from the land of their captivity.

Jacob shall return, have rest, and be at ease. None shall make him afraid. Do not fear, O Jacob, my servant, says the Lord, for I am with you, for I will make a complete end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but I will not make a complete end of you.

I will rightly correct you, for I will not leave you wholly unpunished. But, he says, I will not make a complete end of you. The punishment was necessary. There had been pretty severe apostasy, and idolatry was dominant and predominant in the land.

The chastening was definitely necessary to rid the people of that idolatrous heart. But that wasn't the end of the story. The Lord said, I will not make a complete end of you. I will bring you back. You will return and have rest and be at ease, and no one will make you afraid.

That's the other side of the punishment, the chastening that is to come. And I'm reminded of what we read in the New Testament in Hebrews chapter 12, because in Hebrews 12 we're told that New Testament Christians are the children of God, and we can expect, therefore, to endure a measure of discipline.

He says, if you endure chastening or discipline, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not chasten? For if you are without chastening, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

No, we've had human fathers, they chasten us according to their will, and sometimes very imperfectly, but shall we not, the writer asks, therefore much more readily be in subjection to the Father of Spirits and live?

For our human fathers, they chastened us as that seemed best to them for a few days, but the Lord does it for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. No chastening is pleasant while we're going through it, but there's the other end of it.

Verse 11 says, Hebrews 12, now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. And so that experience of Judah in captivity and all of the judgment that came upon Israel, Judah in the Old Testament, was a much more protracted expression of judgment, but it's the same kind of a thing.

It was the way the Lord was chastening his people and refining his people to bring out a remnant that would be faithful to him, and it was painful, a very painful experience to go through. Yes, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful.

Nevertheless, afterward, it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Was that Jeremiah said? After a while, the Lord said, I will restore Jacob, and he will be at peace and rest, and no one will make him afraid.

That's the other side of chastening. None of us like it. None of us like chastening. We don't. It's painful, but when it's chastening from the Lord, it's not an end in itself. There's the other side of it.

It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. Let's thank the Lord for the fruit of his chastening when it comes. Our Father and our God, admittedly, we don't like the pain of chastening. I pray that we would appreciate the effect of it, the peaceable fruits of righteousness that come as a result of your loving, chastening hand.

We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Well, all right. Have a good rest of your Thursday, and I trust the Lord will bless you in it. Good day.