Hope in God's Character

The final installment in this five-part series on lessons about suffering righteously that we can learn from Jeremiah as we study the book of Lamentations has been a long time coming. The big crunch at the end of last semester prompted me to take a break from the blog in December, and visiting home over the last couple of weeks -- during which time I've had the opportunity to prepare and deliver a sermon -- has monopolized much of my time. I apologize for any of you who have been waiting for this final post. I also hope any of you who have surmised that this blog must just have "gone dark" will come back and continue reading, as I plan to post more regularly again.

That said, now we come to the final, and perhaps most important, lesson that Jeremiah teaches us on suffering well and according to righteousness and faith. In the midst of his intense suffering and deep anguish, Jeremiah does not mourn as one who has no hope (1Th 4:13). Rather, he sets his hope entirely on, and rests in, God's character. He hopes in the restoration of God's people according to His character and His covenant.

Even though there has been broad devastation, Israel was not utterly destroyed. Jeremiah attributes that to Yahweh’s compassion, lovingkindness, and covenant faithfulness. Because his words are so powerful, I simply want to reproduce them here. Please read them thoroughly, and give them much thought. The juxtaposition of "affliction," "wandering," "wormwood" and "bitterness," along with "hope," "lovingkindess," "compassion," and "faithfulness," is so striking and spurs the heart unto much worship.

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Yahweh's lovingkindnesses [His chesedim] indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

"Yahweh is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I have hope in Him." Yahweh is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of Yahweh. It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and be silent since He has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, perhaps there is hope. Let him give his cheek to the smiter, let him be filled with reproach.

For the Lord will not reject forever, for if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness.

I hope you lay hold of the magnitude of those words. They come at the dead center of the book of Lamentations (Lam 3:19-32). Yahweh's great covenant faithfulness and loyal and steadfast love according to His own character and name is the centerpiece of Jeremiah's lamentations in his great suffering.

And that is deliberate. Lamentations has the most deliberate, symmetrical structure of any book in the Bible. In chapters 1 and 2, even in the original Hebrew, there are 22 verses that are composed of 3 lines in each verse, for a total of 66 lines in each of the first two chapters. And each verse begins with the successive letter in the Hebrew alphabet. In chapter 3, there are 66 verses of one line each, again totaling 66 lines in the chapter. And again, each cluster of three verses begins with successive letters in the alphabet. (So, verses 1-3 start with aleph, 4-6 with beth, and so on.) Chapter 4 has 22 verses composed of two lines each, and chapter 5 has 22 verses with one line each.

All of this gives form and shape to Jeremiah's mourning. Because of Yahweh's great faithfulness to His own name, His steadfast, loyal, covenant love expressed in the repeated term chesed (Lam 3:22, 32), Jeremiah's suffering is not just unbridled grief and despair. Yahweh's fresh mercies and abundant lovingkindnesses keep him from losing control and despairing entirely as those who grieve with no hope (1Th 4:13).

Therefore, though Israel has been exceedingly unfaithful to the covenant which God made with them at Sinai, and though God has chastened them greatly because of it, nevertheless their unfaithfulness will never nullify God’s faithfulness to the word which He spoke to Abraham: to give His people the land He promised (Gen 15:17-18). That is why Paul says in Romans 11 that, from the standpoint of God's election, Israel is beloved for the sake of the fathers (Rom 11:28). God will not violate His covenant. Neither will it nullify God's faithfulness to the word which He spoke to David: to send the Messiah to reign over them forever on the throne of David (2Sam 7:10-16; Ps 89:34-35). And so with the New Covenant: "'If this fixed order departs from before Me,' declares Yahweh, 'then the offspring of Israel also will cease from being a nation before Me forever.' Thus says Yahweh, 'If the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done,' declares Yahweh" (Jer 31:36-37; cf. Ps 89:36-37). It is for this reason that Jeremiah can come to the end of his lamentations and declare: "Restore us to You, O Yahweh, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old" (Lam 5:21).

And so in our trials of suffering, we also, as God's people, should faithfully turn to trust in His own faithfulness to His promises. He has sworn by the greatest thing by which there is to swear: Himself. God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb 6:17-20).

We must locate our hope entirely in the covenant faithfulness of God, specifically in His promise of the blessings of the New Covenant: that the Spirit guarantees our inheritance of dwelling with God in His presence forever – that nothing will separate us from the love of God in Christ (Rom 8:38-39).

Our hope, just as Jeremiah's, is in the Lord’s grace, His ceaseless lovingkindnesses, His never-failing and always-new compassions, for God will always be faithful to Himself (2 Tim 2:13).


Jeremiah's Five Lessons

1. He identifies with, and suffers alongside, his people.
2. He acknowledges that sin is at the root of suffering (even though not all suffering is a direct result of personal sin).
3. He acknowledges God’s absolute sovereignty in his suffering.
4. He recognizes that although God is sovereign, He is not the enemy.
5. He sets his hope entirely on, and rests in, God’s character.

Recognize the Enemy

After a brief, yet hopefully beneficial, interruption from John Piper and Jonathan Edwards on the God's glory as it relates to His ordaining of evil, we come to the fourth lesson we can learn from Jeremiah about how to righteously respond to suffering.

The third lesson was to acknowledge God's absolute sovereignty in the suffering that we experience, and we noted how active a role God assigns to Himself in the most wicked actions of men. And yet, though Jeremiah attributes the destruction of Israel to God’s sovereign judgment, he neither blames Yahweh nor holds Him morally responsible for the evil inflicted on His people. Quite simply, a Bible-believing Christian has no choice but to admit that God sovereignly and actively brings about the evil events described in Lamentations. But if our understanding of God’s absolute sovereignty leads us to conclude that He is morally culpable, blameworthy, or in any way unrighteous, we’re wrong. The Scripture writers never seek to save God from His sovereignty in evil and sinful events, yet they also never attribute evil to Him directly. Apparently, there is a way for God to ordain that bad things come about without being the immediate, efficient cause for those things; i.e., without being at fault for them.

Rather, Jeremiah spoke about the arrogance of Israel’s enemies (Lam 2:15-16; 3:60-62), and called on Yahweh to judge them for the great wickedness that they had done to God’s people (Lam 1:21-22; 3:63-66; 4:21-22). Though Jeremiah explicitly states that Yahweh employed the Babylonians to accomplish His purpose, he also makes it clear that God’s absolute sovereignty in and over evil does not mitigate human responsibility for that evil.

How is this analogous to our situation when we suffer? Well, the point is: We must recognize who the enemy is in suffering. It is not God. The previous two posts taught us that He brings these events about to conform us more into the image of His Son, and thus to make us fit to see and know and enjoy more of Him, which is our highest happiness. So He is not the enemy. Rather, the enemy in suffering is (1) our own sin, (2) the Enemy, Satan, and (3) the last enemy: death (1Cor 15:26). And so when we go through suffering we can and should pray along with Jeremiah for the destruction of all of these enemies.

Hebrews 2:14-15 tells us that the Son of God became man in order to render Satan powerless. And how did He do that? He freed us who were enslaved to the fear of death so that the Enemy, who had the power of death, had no power over us any longer.

And how did He free us from the fear of death? Answer: by conquering death itself. Because Christ has suffered, died, and yet rose again, demonstrating His triumph over sin and death, we too also will be raised with Him. That's what the entire glorious chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 is about! And it concludes like this:

But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O Death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That victory taunt, "O Death, where is your victory?..." is a quote from Hosea 13:14. What's so interesting about that is in its original context, it wasn't a cry of victory for God's people. Instead, it was God pronouncing a curse upon His people. He was calling upon the thorns and the sting of death to rouse them against adulterous, idolatrous Ephraim, that unwise son whose iniquity was bound up upon him (Hos 13:12-14). Indeed, Yahweh arouses the sting of death against His people, declaring, "Compassion will be hidden from My sight."

But the stinging reality of the phrase's original context only makes Paul's use of it that much sweeter. Because at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, because of what Christ has accomplished, going before us as our Deliverer, the people of God can take what was once a taunt of victory against them and shout it out as a taunt of victory against their enemy!

And in the midst of suffering, such a taunt can be our cry. "O Death, where is your victory? Where is your sting? Arouse them! Bring your worst! You will nevertheless remain defeated. Your power over me is entirely broken, and your sting is scarcely felt because of the sweet balm of the truth that anoints and salves my soul! Would you remind me of my indwelling sin? I would remind you of His indwelling Spirit, sent to me by my Savior, who bled and died to cancel out the the debt I owed because of the hostile Law. He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross (Col 2:13)! Get behind me, Satan!"

And therefore, my beloved brethren, we may be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our struggle against the flesh and the fight for joy in the midst of suffering is not in vain in the Lord (1Cor 15:58).

In the midst of suffering, as we recognize our enemy, we can look back to celebrate the demise both of our sin and of Satan that took place at the cross. And we can look forward to celebrate their final and consummate destruction, when we will have put on the imperishable (1Cor 15:54) and when death and Hades will have been thrown into the lake of fire (Rev 20:14).

It is right for Jeremiah to call for Yahweh's judgment upon the Babylonians for their responsibility in causing the intense suffering of an entire nation. In the same way, it is right for us to call for God's judgment upon and eradication of our own sin, upon the Enemy himself, and upon death, the last enemy (1Cor 15:26).


Jeremiah's Five Lessons

1. He identifies with, and suffers alongside, his people.
2. He acknowledges that sin is at the root of suffering (even though not all suffering is a direct result of personal sin).
3. He acknowledges God’s absolute sovereignty in his suffering.
4. He recognizes that although God is sovereign, He is not the enemy.
5. He sets his hope entirely on, and rests in, God’s character.

The Glory of God in Ordaining Evil

Before posting the next post in the series on learning from Jeremiah about suffering righteously, as a complement to Monday's post about God's sovereignty in suffering, I thought I'd reproduce a piece of a conference message given by John Piper, entitled: "Is God Less Glorious Because He Ordained that Evil Be?" In this message, he enlists the help of Jonathan Edwards in explaining how God's sovereign ordination of the existence of evil serves His glory, rather than denigrates from it. That is mainly answered by a long quote from Edwards towards the end of this post. At the beginning I give some of Piper's presentation on how God can ordain or decree what seems contrary to His will (e.g., God desires that all men be saved, 1Tim 2:4, and yet has decreed that not all men be saved, because not all men are saved).

I hope you'll be benefited by this. These are deep waters. Tread humbly, but drink deeply.

Two Aspects or Senses of the Will of God

In one sense God wills that what he hates come to pass, as well as what he loves. Edwards says,

God may hate a thing as it is in itself, and considered simply as evil, and yet . . . it may be his will it should come to pass, considering all consequences. . . . God doesn't will sin as sin or for the sake of anything evil; though it be his pleasure so to order things, that he permitting [I would push back here, and say "ordaining"], sin will come to pass; for the sake of the great good that by his disposal shall be the consequence. His willing to order things so that evil should come to pass, for the sake of the contrary good, is no argument that he doesn't hate evil, as evil: and if so, then it is no reason why he may not reasonably forbid evil as evil, and punish it as such.

This is a fundamental truth that helps explain some perplexing things in the Bible, namely, that God often expresses his will to be one way, and then acts to bring about another state of affairs. God opposes hatred toward his people, yet ordained that his people be hated in Egypt (Genesis 12:3; Psalm 105:25 – "He turned their hearts to hate his people."). He hardens Pharaoh's heart, but commands him to let his people go (Exodus 4:21; 5:1; 8:1). He makes plain that it is sin for David to take a military census of his people, but he ordains that he do it (2 Samuel 24:1; 24:10). He opposes adultery, but ordains that Absalom should lie with his father's wives (Exodus 20:14; 2 Samuel 12:11). He forbids rebellion and insubordination against the king, but ordained that Jeroboam and the ten tribes should rebel against Rehoboam (Romans 13:1; 1 Samuel 15:23; 1 Kings 12:15-16). He opposes murder, but ordains the murder of his Son (Exodus 20:13; Acts 4:28). He desires all men to be saved, but effectually calls only some (1 Timothy 2:4; 1 Corinthians 1:26-30; 2 Timothy 2:26).

What this means is that we must learn that God wills things in two different senses. The Bible demands this by the way it speaks of God's will in different ways. Edwards uses the terms "will of decree" and "will of command." Edwards explains:

[God's] will of decree [or sovereign will] is not his will in the same sense as his will of command [or moral will] is. Therefore it is not difficult at all to suppose that the one may be otherwise than the other: his will in both senses is his inclination. But when we say he wills virtue, or loves virtue or the happiness of his creature; thereby is intended that virtue or the creature's happiness, absolutely and simply considered, is agreeable to the inclination of his nature. His will of decree is his inclination to a thing not as to that thing absolutely and simply, but with reference to the universality of things. So God, though he hates a things as it is simply, may incline to it with reference to the universality of things.

So Why Does God Ordain that there Be Evil?

It is evident from what has been said that it is not because he delights in evil as evil. Rather he "wills that evil come to pass . . . that good may come of it." What good? And how does the existence of evil serve this good end? Here is Edwards' stunning answer:

It is a proper and excellent thing for infinite glory to shine forth; and for the same reason, it is proper that the shining forth of God's glory should be complete; that is, that all parts of his glory should shine forth, that every beauty should be proportionably effulgent, that the beholder may have a proper notion of God. It is not proper that one glory should be exceedingly manifested, and another not at all. . . .

Thus it is necessary, that God's awful majesty, his authority and dreadful greatness, justice, and holiness, should be manifested. But this could not be, unless sin and punishment had been decreed; so that the shining forth of God's glory would be very imperfect, both because these parts of divine glory would not shine forth as the others do, and also the glory of his goodness, love, and holiness would be faint without them; nay, they could scarcely shine forth at all.

If it were not right that God should decree and permit and punish sin, there could be no manifestation of God's holiness in hatred of sin, or in showing any preference, in his providence, of godliness before it. There would be no manifestation of God's grace or true goodness, if there was no sin to be pardoned, no misery to be saved from. How much happiness soever he bestowed, his goodness would not be so much prized and admired. . . .

So evil is necessary, in order to the highest happiness of the creature, and the completeness of that communication of God, for which he made the world; because the creature's happiness consists in the knowledge of God, and the sense of his love. And if the knowledge of him be imperfect, the happiness of the creature must be proportionably imperfect.

So the answer to the question in the title of this message, "Is God less glorious because he ordained that evil be?" is no, just the opposite. God is more glorious for having conceived and created and governed a world like this with all its evil. The effort to absolve him by denying his foreknowledge of sin (as we saw this afternoon) or by denying his control of sin (which we have seen this evening) is fatal, and a great dishonor to his word and his wisdom. Evangelicals who are seeking the glory of God, look well to the teaching of your churches and your schools. But most of all, look well to your souls.

If you would see God's glory and savor his glory and magnify his glory in this world, do not remain wavering before the sovereignty of God in the face of great evil. Take his book in your hand, plead for his Spirit of illumination and humility and trust, and settle this matter, that you might be unshakable in the day of your own calamity. My prayer is that what I have said will sharpen and deepen your God-entranced world view, and that in the day of your loss you will be like Job who, when he lost all his children, fell down and worshiped, and said, "Yahweh gave and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be the name of Yahweh."

Acknowledge God's Absolute Sovereignty in Suffering

The first two lessons we've learned from Jeremiah are that (1) we ought to suffer along with our brothers and sisters who suffer and (2) we must acknowledge the role of sin in our suffering. The third lesson we can learn form Jeremiah's righteous response to suffering is that we must acknowledge God's absolute sovereignty even in the unpleasant and painful circumstances.

One of the things that is striking throughout the book of Lamentations is that Jeremiah finds no solace in attributing the destruction of Yahweh's covenant people to second causes. Rather, he attributes the agonizing desolation of Israel to Yahweh Himself. He declares that "Yahweh has caused her grief" (Lam 1:5) and has "inflicted" this pain "in His fierce anger" (Lam 1:12); it is He who has knit together this yoke, who has given her into the hands of her enemies, who has rejected her, and has trodden her as in a winepress (Lam 1:14-15). You'll notice that he does not speak of God merely "allowing" such devastation. Instead, he speaks of God actively accomplishing that which He had purposed to do:

• Lamentations 2:17 – Yahweh has done what He purposed; He has accomplished His word Which He commanded from days of old. He has thrown down without sparing, And He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the might of your adversaries.
• Lamentations 4:11 – Yahweh has accomplished His wrath, He has poured out His fierce anger; And He has kindled a fire in Zion Which has consumed its foundations (cf. Lam 2:1-7).
  
• Lamentations 3:37-38, 43-44 – Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth? … You have covered Yourself with anger And pursued us; You have slain and have not spared. You have covered Yourself with a cloud So that no prayer can pass through.

And again, as we did with the discussion on acknowledging sin, we have to be careful not to draw a direct parallel in this situation, and perhaps in many other situations. In Jeremiah's case, God is explicitly inflicting punishment. This may or may not be so when we suffer. But even if He's not explicitly punishing or disciplining, it is still wrong to locate the origin of these unpleasant events somewhere outside of God.

Job's case makes that clear. He did not attribute His suffering to second causes, but always recognized that God was sovereign in his afflictions (Job 1:21; 2:10; 12:9-10). And God commended him for that (Job 2:3; 42:7). And lest you think Job was somehow confused about who caused his sufferings since he was never privy to the opening interaction between God and Satan, the inspired text of the narrator of the book of Job agrees at the end of the book: "...and they consoled [Job] and comforted him for all the adversities that Yahweh had brought on him." Get that. Not, "...all the adversities that Satan had brought," and not even "...all the adversities that Yahweh allowed." These were adversities that Yahweh himself had brought upon Job.

The lesson for us, then, is that when we suffer, we should not seek to save God from His sovereignty. If we do that, we cut the legs out from under the solid, robust theology of God's absolute sovereignty that we depend on and cherish so much in those very times of suffering. To try to soften God's involvement with sin by reducing it to a mere permission rather than a definite ordinance is to weaken the spine-strengthening power that is supplied by Romans 8:28. To insist by our word choice that God merely allows evil and suffering rather than intentionally and wisely brings it about in order to glorify Himself and thus most greatly bless the creature destroys the very theology of sovereign grace that is (1) such a comfort to our souls in such troubling times and is (2) precisely that for which God means to receive glory and honor.

God means to be glorified in being recognized as the ultimate Mover and Determiner of all things. Let us not seek to rob Him of that.

I am Yahweh, and there is no other,
The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating calamity;
I am Yahweh who does all these.
- Isaiah 45:7 -

Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
that both good and ill go forth?
- Lamentations 3:37-38 -

Jeremiah's Five Lessons

1. He identifies with, and suffers alongside, his people.
2. He acknowledges that sin is at the root of suffering (even though not all suffering is a direct result of personal sin).
3. He acknowledges God’s absolute sovereignty in his suffering.
4. He recognizes that although God is sovereign, He is not the enemy.
5. He sets his hope entirely on, and rests in, God’s character.

Acknowledging Sin's Role in Suffering

After learning from Jeremiah that one way to suffer righteously is to identify with and suffer along with those who are suffering, we come to this next lesson: we are to acknowledge sin to be at the root of suffering.

Just as it is significant that Jeremiah identifies with the suffering of his people even though he had little to no part in bringing it about, it is also significant that in his deep mourning Jeremiah acknowledges Israel’s sin. Unlike Job, Jeremiah’s lamentations in response to suffering contain no protest of innocence. He confesses that this judgment is due to “the multitude of her transgressions” (Lam 1:5) and that she “sinned greatly” (Lam 1:8-9) and “rebelled against His command” (Lam 1:18). He goes on to say that Israel’s iniquity had exceeded even that of Sodom (Lam 4:6), and that even the prophets and the priests worked unrighteousness (Lam 4:13). He makes no excuses for the people, but accepts their responsibility for the suffering they are experiencing.

Now, it’s important that we make the point that not everyone who suffers suffers as a direct result of particular sin. That’s an error that Job’s counselors made, and they were severely rebuked for it when God showed up at the end of the book. It's also an error Paul's opponents made against him in 2 Corinthians, and throughout that letter he presents his suffering as evidence for the authenticity of his apostleship, not as evidence for its falsehood.

However, we do need to acknowledge that on a general level, all suffering is a result of the condition of sin that we find ourselves in as children of Adam. Had we not sinned in Adam, and had the human race never fallen into sin, we would never have known suffering (Gen 3:7-24; Rom 5:12; Rom 8:19-25).

And because of our sin, we all deserve to suffer infinitely and eternally, to a horrifying degree and all the time. The comfort that we do receive when we suffer from the “Father of mercies” (2Cor 1:3) is just that: mercy. And that the comfort is mercy implies that we do not deserve it, for mercy is the withholding of deserved punishment. Part of our problem in responding to suffering righteously is thinking that we are entitled to something other than suffering. Yet really, we deserve much worse than we even experience.

2 Peter 2:4 – …God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.

That we are all not suffering eternally in hell at this very moment is a sheer gift of God. The only difference between our sin and the sin of the angels who were damned without mercy is that our sin was graciously paid for by the perfect sacrifice of Christ (cf. Heb 2:16).

And so when we undergo intense suffering, we should not act surprised as if we deserved something better (cf. 1Pet 4:12). We should acknowledge what Jeremiah says in Lamentations 3:39-40: “Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins? Let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to Yahweh.” When in our times of suffering we are tempted to complain, we should be reminded that we are but dust, are entitled to nothing good at all, and thus -- because in ourselves we are hopelessly sinful -- even in intense suffering we get better than we deserve.

Jeremiah's Five Lessons

1. He identifies with, and suffers alongside, his people.
2. He acknowledges that sin is at the root of suffering (even though not all suffering is a direct result of personal sin).
3. He acknowledges God’s absolute sovereignty in his suffering.
4. He recognizes that although God is sovereign, He is not the enemy.
5. He sets his hope entirely on, and rests in, God’s character.

If One Member Suffers, All the Members Suffer With It

As I mentioned some time ago, I want to take a look at how Jeremiah responded to the suffering of Judah at the time of the Babylonian exile, in the hope that we can glean some principles or lessons on how we can righteously respond to suffering. I mentioned that in the coming posts I'd like to explore five lessons that Jeremiah can teach us on how to suffer well. We'll consider the first of those today: Jeremiah identifies with, and suffers alongside, his people.

What is immediately identifiable at the opening of Jeremiah’s lamentations is that he himself laments and mourns over the destruction of his people. He shares in Israel’s pain, by identifying himself with her. He even personifies Israel and speaks for her in the first person. Notice, in 1:2 he says, “She weeps bitterly in the night and her tears are on her cheeks…” But then he switches to the first person: “For these things I weep; my eyes run down with water; because far from me is a comforter,” and so on (Lam 1:16, 18, 20-21). Later he identifies himself with Israel by referring to them and himself collectively in the first person plural (Lam 3:40-47). He also speaks as himself and tells of his own tears and trouble (Lam 2:11; 3:48-50), his own affliction and brokenness (Lam 3:1-4), and his own shame and despair (Lam 3:14-18). Though he has spent forty years telling them that this destruction would come unless they repented, he did not celebrate their destruction in spiteful vengeance, as if to say, “I told you so!” Rather, their misery moves him to compassion and to prayer.

In a similar way, this godly compassion and love-for-God’s-people-because-they're-His ought to cause in us the same sentiment. We are to identify with the sufferings of our brothers and sisters, suffer with them, weep with them (Rom 12:15), and comfort each other out of that genuine compassion.

This principle is carried through into the New Covenant ministry of the Church. 1 Corinthians 12 says that the Church collectively is Christ’s body, and that those who make up the body are its individual members. And so, Paul reasons, if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it (1Cor 12:27, 26). Because we belong to the Lord, not one of us lives or dies to ourselves (Rom 14:7), for we are united to Him as His body (Rom 6:3-7). And if we are united to Him, we are united to one another (1Cor 12:12-14).

When Lazarus had died, and Jesus had finally arrived at Bethany, Mary was so grieved that she didn’t even leave the house as Jesus was approaching (Jn 11:20). When she did get up to meet Jesus, those around her thought that she was simply going to weep further at Lazarus’ tomb (Jn 11:31). Then, in her grief, she falls at Jesus’ feet and almost blames Him for her brother’s death. You can almost see her incredulous, tear-filled gaze at Jesus as she says through the sobs, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died” (Jn 11:32). She was heartbroken.

Then the text says, “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled” (Jn 11:33), and then in verse 35: “Jesus wept.” Though the Jews interpreted His weeping as love for Lazarus – which of course had something to do with it – notice that the text says that it was Mary’s weeping in grief that moved Jesus in spirit. Jesus is grieved not only out of compassion for Lazarus (whom, by the way, Jesus knew He was going to raise from the dead within minutes), but because He identified with the suffering of Mary, who was dealing with the pain of losing her brother.

In the same way, then, friends, if the love of Christ is in us, the compassion of Christ must be in us. This compassion was in Jeremiah for Jerusalem at the time of the exile. And the man who wept with them for 40 years, warning them of the coming judgment that had now taken place – the only man who did not deserve the punishment brought upon Israel – did not stand self-righteously aloof with his arms folded and a smirk on his face, saying, “I bet you wish you would have listened to me!” Nothing could have been further from the truth. Instead, he identified with his people and suffered along with them.

And so should we.

My eyes fail because of tears,
My spirit is greatly troubled;
My heart is poured out on the earth
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- Lamentations 2:11 -

Jeremiah's Five Lessons

1. He identifies with, and suffers alongside, his people.
   
2. He acknowledges that sin is at the root of suffering (even though not all suffering is a direct result of personal sin).
3. He acknowledges God’s absolute sovereignty in his suffering.
4. He recognizes that although God is sovereign, He is not the enemy.
5. He sets his hope entirely on, and rests in, God’s character.

Jesus Came Not to be Useful, but to be Precious

"No amount of working will make Me precious to you."

Amen.

Be benefited by this.

The Abrahamic Covenant in the Book of Joshua

Don't forget to mouse over the verse references.

The Abrahamic Covenant enters as a theme in the book of Joshua early in chapter 1, when Yahweh encourages Joshua by reminding them that he is going to lead God’s people into the land that He swore He would give to their fathers (Josh 1:6). Also, before the sons of Israel go into battle against Jericho, Yahweh commands that they be circumcised (Josh 5:2-3); that is, that they be given the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 17:10-14). In the book of Joshua, we see the prospect of the fulfillment of the long-awaited promise to Abraham: “To your descendants I will give this land” (Gen 12:7).

And in Joshua, the Israelites do go into the land that Yahweh promised to give them in covenant with Abraham. It even seems to suggest that they conquered all of the land (Josh 10:40; 11:16). Indeed, “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, Thus the land had rest from war” (Josh 11:23).

Though God spoke in this way, we also see that He says, “…very much of the land remains to be possessed” (Josh 13:1). Further, Israel’s failure to conquer all of the land does not remain morally neutral. In fact, an emphasis in Joshua – which will become an even greater emphasis in the book of Judges (cf. Jdg 1-2) – is that failure to conquer the land is disobedience to Yahweh. For though He commanded Israel to utterly destroy the nations that they might completely possess the land (cf. Josh 6:17-24; 7:11-15; 8:8, 26-28; 10:28-40; 11:8-15, 21-22), we are told repeatedly that they do not do so (Josh 15:63; 16:10; 17:12-13). Exasperated, Joshua chastises Israel in 18:3: “How long will you put off entering to take possession of the land which Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you?” So, notwithstanding Joshua 11:23, Israel did not take possession of the whole land.

And yet, in 21:43-45, it seems to suggest that the Abrahamic promise is fulfilled: "So Yahweh gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it. And Yahweh gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; Yahweh gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which Yahweh had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass."

Joshua says that Yahweh gave the land to Israel as He had sworn to their fathers (thus emphasizing the covenant promise), gave them rest, and not one of the promises failed but came to pass. However, after that declaration, in 23:4-5, as Joshua is addressing Israel before his death he says, “Yahweh your God, He will thrust [these nations] out from before you and drive them from before you; and you will possess their land, just as Yahweh your God promised you.” After saying that Yahweh gave them all the land and rest of every side according to the promise to the fathers, Joshua then speaks of the complete possession of the land according to the promise of Yahweh as an event that is yet future.

So what are we to conclude from this? Well, what we see in Joshua does indeed relate to the Abrahamic Covenant. Yahweh’s covenant faithfulness is put on display in how He constantly works and fights for Israel (Josh 1:9; 6:16; 8:7; 10:10-14; 11:20; 23:3; 24:1-13, 17-18) to fulfill His promise to give them the land (cf. Gen 12:7; 15:7, 18). However, the disobedience of Israel (cf. Deut 19:8-10) despite even the steadfast faithfulness of Yahweh also is the theme of the Sinaitic/Mosaic Covenant, the administration of which is also present in Joshua (Josh 1:7-8; 8:31-35; 22:2-5; 23:6, 11, 15-16; 24:26).

Therefore, we should understand that Yahweh gave Israel the land, demonstrating His unwavering faithfulness to His word. But Israel failed to completely possess the land, demonstrating their typical disobedience. The Abrahamic promise that His descendants would be given the land as an everlasting possession (Gen 17:8; cf. Gen 13:14) is not fulfilled in Joshua. As promised (cf. Num 33:55-56), this disobedience brought further disobedience until finally Israel and Judah were themselves dispossessed from the land in acts of Yahweh’s judgment (2Ki 17:6; 25:8-11).

Thus the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant remains a future event when Israel will be restored from captivity, gathered from where they are scattered, and brought back to the land with circumcised hearts (cf. Deut 30:1-6; Jer 30-33; Ezek 20:33-44; 36:22-38), where they will possess it as an everlasting possession (Gen 17:8; cf. Gen 13:14).

"As for you, O house of Israel," thus says the Lord Yahweh,
"Go, serve everyone his idols; but later you will surely listen to Me,
and My holy name you will profane no longer with your gifts and with your idols.
For on My holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel," declares the Lord Yahweh,
"there the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land;
there I will accept them
and there I will seek your contributions and the choicest of your gifts,
with all your holy things.

As a soothing aroma I will accept you when I bring you out from the peoples
and gather you from the lands where you are scattered;
and I will prove Myself holy among you in the sight of the nations.

And you will know that I am Yahweh, when I bring you into the land of Israel,
into the land which I swore to give to your forefathers.
There you will remember your ways and all your deeds
with which you have defiled yourselves;
and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight
for all the evil things that you have done.

Then you will know that I am Yahweh
when I have dealt with you for My name's sake,
not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds,
O house of Israel," declares the Lord Yahweh.'"

- Ezekiel 20:39-44 -