Chapter 15

“I’m tired of letting you off the hook!” says God in verse 6 of Jeremiah 15. “I made sure you’ll lose everything, since nothing makes you change!”

God has a problem. And it’s a problem that goes on to this very day.

The problem is that simply, God hates sin. Really hates it. It is repulsive to Him, to the degree that He cannot look at it. To Him it is worse than seeing blood, vomit, dead bodies. It is simply something He cannot abide.

On the other hand, there is something God regards as very precious, and that is the freedom of people to choose to love Him or not. Many people find it hard to understand this, but for me it’s easy – I could simply program my computer to say that it loves me, but I’d rather spend time with my kids than my computer! Why is this?

Because my kids have a CHOICE to love me. Whilst they do, the fact is that they could choose to hate me instead – they have that freedom – and yet they love me anyway.

Now I could be facetious and say that that’s because I’m such a lovable guy – but really, I’m far from perfect, and they know that. Both my kids, young as they are, have been on the receiving end of my imperfection! Yet knowing that they still choose to love me! The computer has no such choice. It will reliably say “I love you”, every time I issue the command for it to do so. If this particular computer exists after I die (I sincerely doubt it, but you never know!), it could go on saying “I love you” long after I’m dead and gone. It wouldn’t know that I’m not there to read it, and frankly it has no way of caring. It will faithfully follow its instructions day in, day out, until it can’t function any longer.

So here’s the issue – God’s love and God’s holiness are in conflict.

People often get the wrong idea of Jeremiah. They think God is getting really vengeful. In some respects He is, but it’s important to note that He hasn’t rejected His people – they have rejected Him!

God is sovereign, and even now He could rescue His people. In fact, in similar situations throughout history, He has even done so. So why doesn’t He do this here?

It’s because God has His limits – and He’s not about to continue getting His people out of situations when it’s expensive and difficult if they don’t appreciate His help! For God to give help in such situations, people have to repent. As we saw yesterday, real repentance is a long way from the minds of these people!

God is hoping that the people will repent. But He knows all, and He is well aware that they are very stubborn.

Poor Jeremiah is at his wits end here, and he screams out to God to help him – he has to bring this message to the people of Judah, who not surprisingly will be most unimpressed!

In his moment of despair, Jeremiah says something that I have sometimes said myself (and I believe many other Christians have said too) – “You’re nothing, God, but a mirage; a lovely oasis in the distance – and then nothing!”

There are many times in life, especially when things are going wrong, when you feel like God is far away. The infuriating thing is that other Christians will (well-meaningly) mouth platitudes like “Just pray about it!” or “You’ll feel better tomorrow.” Some may even go as far as accusing you of being the problem – “If you feel like God is far away, guess who moved?”

It’s all very well to say that, but often there’s more to it than that. And what I read from here is simple – That even heroes of the faith, like Jeremiah, got to those moments of critical doubt!

Now, there’s no question that Jeremiah is in the wrong here. God’s not going to turn to him and apologise – for in fact it is God, not Jeremiah, who actually understands what is going on. And indeed, God DOES demand an apology – but compare the gentleness of God’s rebuke to Jeremiah with the pronouncement of doom upon the people of Israel!

There is a world of difference in God’s mind between the faithful person with honest doubts and the faithless people who have never had even a thought for repentance. One is to be judged – the other to be gently restored. If you are ever worrying about whether God is angry at you for doubting Him, set your mind at ease. You may owe Him an apology – but “Take back those words, and I’ll take you back; then you’ll stand tall before me.”