Hope Shouts

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Hope shouts to me when I read Jeremiah, and I think it is for this reason that the book resonates with me. This hope is so vibrant that it resounds even in the midst of God calling the blackest sin by name and issuing the harsh discipline required to bring his own back to him. Every child has probably heard the phrase, “This hurts me worse than it does you” as they receive discipline from a parent, but I don’t think we’ve ever experienced the extreme anguish God experiences as he has to go to such drastic measures to save some of his own from destroying themselves. Jeremiah 31:20 shows God yearning for his children regardless of the sin that he has so vocally condemned in Ephraim; God looks forward to the time he can rain down his mercy upon him and restore fellowship. He even says, “Indeed as often as I have spoken against him, I certainly still remember him” (vs. 20, NASB). I imagine that no matter what kind of trouble my children could possibly find to get into or how angry or indignant I would possibly be at the actions that led them to that point, I would not be able to just wash my hands of them or destroy them and pretend they never existed. It is being a mother that helps me understand this expression of God’s longing for his children and the closeness of their covenant relationship. While the parent/child analogy helps me to understand a little better how God loves, this hope he has for his children is overwhelming and reaches far beyond anything I can comprehend. It is this hope that sustains me when I cannot see what he is doing in my life. It is this hope that refreshes me when I allow the world to weigh me down. It is this hope that propels me forward to share the same with others who need it so desperately. The shouts of hope coming from Jeremiah are a good thing because sometimes I am particularly dense and need the volume before I can hear the message.

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