Jeremiah 2

Has it ever happened to you that a good friend “got in your face” about some aspect of your conduct and, much as you may not have liked the experience, you had to (eventually) agree that your friend was on to something?

Welcome to Jeremiah 2.

Here the “friend” is the Lord God Almighty, and the faces being gotten into belong to the people of Israel. It’s a tough chapter to read, as the Lord confronts his people with their ingratitude (verses 1-8), idolatry (9-19), immorality (20-28) and irrationality (29-37).

Think back to when that friend confronted you.  What were some of the indicators that, much as you disliked the experience, at a deeper level, you knew your friend was on to something?  Indicators like defensiveness, denial, self-pity, self-condemnation, rationalization, rage, blaming others.  And maybe a deep desire that you could be changed … and a trembling hope that somehow such change is possible?

We’re looking this week at our theme Restart! And focusing in particular on unhooking.  It’s impossible to restart if we’re still chained to various immovable objects.  Like our own sin habits and patterns.  Like the unresolved wounds we have suffered from others.  Like bitterness and unforgiveness.  Like aspects of our family history that may function more as curses than blessings.

This kind of confrontation is rarely pleasant, never easy.  But we need to be honest with ourselves and with one another: sometimes, it’s necessary.   Thank God if we have friends who love us enough to push through our walls of defense and denial.  And God have mercy on us if we have turned a deaf ear and a hardened heart to such friends.

This is the situation of Jeremiah 2.  God is not a mere “friend,” he is the Lord in whom perfect love and perfect justice meet in perfect harmony and without any tension or contradiction.  God loves his people enough to confront them with the truth about themselves.  What motivates God’s justice is God’s love.

And so with us.  God has faithfully loved us enough to confront us when needed—and we will greatly help ourselves by simply confessing that we need this kind of confronting far more often than we think or would like!  He has given us Scripture.  He may well have provided us with the kind of faithful friends mentioned at the start of this piece. He gives us those “warning lights” on the dashboards of our souls to flash their warnings—may we not tape over them!

And God has given us—in Christ, God himself is—our Savior.  There is no, “You’re a terrible person; now, do something about it, while I stand apart, waiting to see if you’ll make it.”  

Instead, there is this, “Come to me, all you who are burdened by the evil done to you, the evil you have done, all who are weary of running in the same ever-deepening ruts, weary of spinning your wheels but going nowhere good; I will give you rest.  I have not come to condemn you, but to rescue and redeem you.  Come to me, and even though your sins are deep-dyed red, I will make you white as snow!”

What has been the good fruit of loving confrontations you have experienced?

Do you sense that God has been saying something to you, but you have been ignoring or denying it?  Who could help you sort through this?