JESUS WEPT
Opening Prayer
Lord, reveal to me how much You love me.
Read Jeremiah 8:18—9:9
18 You who are my Comforter in sorrow,
my heart is faint within me.
19 Listen to the cry of my people
from a land far away:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King no longer there?”
“Why have they aroused my anger with their images,
with their worthless foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past,
the summer has ended,
and we are not saved.”
21 Since my people are crushed, I am crushed;
I mourn, and horror grips me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no healing
for the wound of my people?
9 1 Oh, that my head were a spring of water
and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
for the slain of my people.
2 Oh, that I had in the desert
a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
a crowd of unfaithful people.
3 “They make ready their tongue
like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
that they triumph in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
they do not acknowledge me,”
declares the Lord.
4 “Beware of your friends;
do not trust anyone in your clan.
For every one of them is a deceiver,
and every friend a slanderer.
5 Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.
6 You live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,”
declares the Lord.
7 Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says:
“See, I will refine and test them,
for what else can I do
because of the sin of my people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks deceitfully.
With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors,
but in their hearts they set traps for them.
9 Should I not punish them for this?”
declares the Lord.
“Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How does God see your sin?Do you tend to see God as aloof, as dispassionate and, in the face of your sin, stern? This passage suggests a very different view of God! Which words are Jeremiah’s and which are the Lord’s is not easy to distinguish. As elsewhere in the book, we see Jeremiah embodying God’s response to Judah’s sin. (The whole section may be God speaking—“Comforter” in verse 18 may be better translated “grimace of pain.”) That means that God is in the depth of sorrow (8:18); God is crushed, mourns and is horrified by the judgment on his people (8:21); God wishes they were healed (8:22); God weeps for them (9:1). Yet it is God who brings the judgment on them (9:7–9). Nevertheless, they are still “my people”—a phrase repeated over again through these verses, almost as if God is weeping for his “poor, poor people.”
In his holiness, God must punish sin (9:9), but there is no pleasure for him in it (Ezek. 18:23; 33:11). God is not subject to emotions like we are, but he is not unfeeling—far from it—our emotions are like a glimpse into God’s infinitely deeper character. We see this in Jesus who wept at the grave of a friend (John 11:35) and lamented over the judgment that was coming on Jerusalem (Matt. 23:37).
Apply
Reflect on God’s grief at your sin; how might that change your attitude toward sin?
Closing prayer
Jesus, I am sorry to cause You pain by my selfish sin. Open my heart to truly understand the impact of sin and the wonder of grace.
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