O LOVE, THAT WILL NOT LET ME GO ~ A study in Jeremiah

Many believers who profess to follow Christ shy away from studying the Old Testament prophets as much as the people shied away from the actual prophet in his day. Why? Even inside churches that profess to be beacons of light to a lost and dying world, their light is intended only to be one of hope without any mention of judgment. Many hold to a wrong view of the “God of the Old Testament”. When they think of the Old Testament prophets, they think of hail, fire, brimstone, and judgment from a harsh and even unloving God. In contrast, their “God of the New Testament” is only a God of love who would never judge them for their sin; He is the God of the Law while the God of the New Testament is the God of grace. Nothing could be further from the truth. God never changes.

 

Like many women, I am intent on every detail of a good love story. I am not talking about vulgar, sensualities passed off as ‘love’ today. I am not talking about cheap imitations. Modern definitions of love focus on what I can get out of a relationship, what pleases me. I am talking about the real deal. I am talking about love that originated in the heart of God. I am talking about pure love from a sincere heart that sacrificially gives—love that only wants the highest joy for the object of its affections. Many women today are heard to say, “I want my fairy-tale ending,” but they will never get what they are searching for because they are looking for love in all the wrong places!

 

I heard a great sermon this weekend by Voddie Baucham. He gave a biblical definition of love: Love is an act of the will accompanied by emotion that leads to action on behalf of its object. But our culture, he said, has adopted the Greco-Roman myth of love: Love is a random, uncontrollable, overwhelming, sensual force.

 

“You can’t judge me; only God can judge me!” How many times do we hear this today? Israel believed because she was chosen by God, that she could live any way she wanted to live. What did it mean to be a chosen people? What was God’s goal in choosing them? What did God’s covenant with them mean? Covenant involved mutual commitment and faithful devotion. Marriage, an institution as defined by God, is a picture of what a covenant is to look like. When God chooses people, the standard to which they are held is a high one. To whom much is given, much is required. Judgment would always begin with them because of that high standard. Amos 3:2—You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for all your sins. Israel was to keep and preserve the Law as “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:6) Having chosen them out of all the nations of the earth, they were to give God praise and honor, making Him known throughout the world. But when they forgot their calling and their God, they walked after false gods and worshipped at the altar of self—which always leads to idolatry. When Jeremiah and other prophets gave God’s message to God’s people, they did not even recognize it as having come from God. They would NOT be judged by anyone!

There is something about a great love story that tears us apart when one party is found to be unfaithful to the other. Our hearts grieve with the injured spouse. God’s love story with Israel should break our hearts as it broke His. We know that it broke the faithful heart of the prophet Jeremiah. It should cause us to search our own hearts and cause us to wholly commit ourselves with full abandonment of self to the God whose very definition is love.

 

Israel was God’s wife as the church is the bride of Christ. God is the perfect husband. Everything any woman could ever want in a godly husband is found in Him. Yet, for most, He is not enough. Because His is an everlasting love, He continues to call those who vainly seek after ‘something better or more satisfying’ and continues to pursue them in love. How important is love to God?

 

The greatest commandments that sum up the whole Law can be reduced to: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ And, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ After Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus pursued Peter and had a question for him that He asked three times: Peter, do you love Me? In Revelation 2, Jesus pointed out to the church at Ephesus all the goods things to which she was holding fast. Then, He said this: But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. In Jeremiah 31, God tells Israel that He has loved her with an everlasting love and has drawn her with lovingkindness. Everyone knows John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have eternal life. Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While His enemies, God saves His own. Then Ephesians 1 tells us of how God set His love on His beloved before the foundation of the world—and everlasting love that would love His own and keep them for Himself to the end. Who would ever turn from pure love? Only sinners.

 

Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD, “I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth, the love of your betrothals, your following after Me in the wilderness, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD, the first of His harvest. All who ate of it became guilty; evil came upon them,” declares the LORD.’” (Jeremiah 2:1-3)

 

Ezekiel 16 lays out the story of how God took Israel from birth and made her His own. It is a beautiful story of how Israel, portrayed as an unwanted, discarded baby on the day of her birth was tossed into an open field, abhorred like refuge thrown into a dumpster in the alley. Naked, unwashed, and squirming in her own blood, her navel cord had not even been cut. No one looked upon her with pity to do any of these normal things done to children who were born. No one had compassion on her. God came along and took compassion upon her. Wanting her to live, He raised her and gave her everything a lady could ever want, meeting her soul’s every deepest need. When it is time for her to marry, He takes her as His own bride. Fairy-tale ending, right? They lived happily ever after, right? Wrong.

 

God had made her truly magnificent in beauty. “Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you.” Declares the Lord God. (verse 14) The world stops here and says, “Wow! This is great!” The next word, however, is BUT… She was to make Him famous among the nations because of His beauty and perfection! She attempted to steal God’s glory!

 

Listen to God’s heart in verses 15-22: “But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing. You took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places of various colors and played the harlot on them, which should never come about nor happen. You also took your beautiful jewels made of My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them. Then you took your embroidered cloth and covered them and offered My oil and My incense before them. Also, My bread which I gave you, fine flour, oil and honey with which I fed you, you would offer before them for a soothing aroma; so it happened,” declares the Lord God. “Moreover, you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to Me and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter? You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire. Besides all your abominations and harlotries, you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare and squirming in your blood.”

 

Those who oppose any type of judgment gasp and click their tongues at Israel. Offering a quick prayer of, “I thank God we’re not like…,” both husband and wife walk out the door, briefcases in hand, leaving their impressionable babes in the hands of a 19-year-old who has been raised by pagans. Having forgotten their Bible verse of the day in their morning “devotions,” they meet up with friends after work at the local watering hole to de-stress and relax. Dropping the kids at Grandma’s house, they head out on the weekend due to their great need to “get away” from the kids and the work that has piled up around the house, taking some much-needed time for themselves. Having been raised in the church, they feel they know what they need to know about God. They say, “We’re good”. “We will hit church next weekend,” they lie to themselves. “Hey, we’ll only be young once in our lives. We’ll follow hard after God when we get older!” Living their lives in this way, they would never dream they have forsaken God or believe that judgment is coming for them. Why? They are Christians! They have been saved. They know because someone told them long ago that they were ‘right with God’. Idolatry? No way! Idolatry was worshipping dead statues and things that hold no value. They give to the church, attend often, and try to be good people. They just want to be happy and enjoy this life, giving their children more than they ever had.

 

The love of your betrothals, your following after Me in the wilderness, through a land not sown. While Israel had forgotten all the Lord had done in His love for her since the days of her youth, He remembered her love. She was once devoted to following Him as He led her through the wilderness of Egypt to the Promised Land. Though Israel had not been completely faithful to the Lord in the wilderness, having had a weak and immature faith at the time, at this point in Jeremiah’s day, they had turned from Him in full-blown apostasy.

 

Israel was holy to the LORD, the first of His harvest. In her youth, she knew that she had been set apart for God and was the recipient of His choice blessings. God made a covenant with Abraham whose son of the covenant was Isaac. Isaac bore Jacob (a.k.a. Israel), who bore twelve sons; and the nation of Israel was born. Israel was the first of His harvest or the firstfruits of the covenant which included blessing all those born of the Seed who was to come through Israel’s line. That Seed was Christ.

 

All who ate of it became guilty. Evil came upon them. In the nation of Israel, we see God as Savior/Rescuer/Deliverer, and Provider. We also see Him as her Protector. Throughout the Old Testament, we see God defending Israel from her enemies. Anyone who wanted to hurt Israel was going to have to go through God to get to her. Zechariah 2:8—For thus says the LORD of hosts, “After glory He has sent me against the nations which plunder you, for he who touches you, touches the apple of His eye.” Go after Israel, and it is like you’ve just poked God in the eye. You had better watch out!

 

God remembered the time before they were married; Israel was devoted to her Betrothed. It means a steadfast love commitment of fidelity and adoration. It is lovingkindness, a covenant word we are not familiar with in our day (which speaks volumes in and of itself). Israel adored God, not out of a sense of duty to keep His Law, but from the heart. Ryken has said: Christians sometimes get the idea that being faithful to God’s covenant is simply a matter of obeying God’s Law. This is because we are legalists at heart. But God never intended our relationship with Him to be mere obedience of the will. God wants our hearts as well as our wills. Redemption is a romance.

 

What was the proof that she had given her heart to God? She followed Him wherever He led her. She was the picture for each of us to model as a bride who submits to the guidance of her husband. This young bride in love only wanted to be near her husband always. And it was not one-sided. Her husband was the ever-faithful husband. His were the original vows written of what it means to love and to cherish. We throw around the word love a lot in wedding ceremonies today, but the word cherish is special. It means bosom, to enclose, midst, or within. It is embracing, to bring to the breast with your arms. It is a beautiful picture of security and sheltering in the arms of love. God was passionate towards His bride. He treated her with honor and respect, setting her apart as ‘holy’. She was His most valuable possession, and the apple of His eye.

 

God, the ultimate husband, defined the role and took it seriously. An address is made to husbands in 1 Peter 3:7—You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. Honor means value, esteem to the highest degree, precious. I heard a teaching on this decades ago that I never forgot. Why? Because it is what we all want as godly women. The teacher said that honor here means how we would treat a rare, precious, costly vase. I liked that.

 

We, too, need to remember. Some may hear the distant calls to return to your first love. You have tuned God out with all the other distractions in life. The Lord remembers your first love for Him—every detail. He remembers when He saved you, what you were before that time. He remembers how much you adored Him and proved your love for Him. You could not get enough of His Word. You could not stop telling other people of your newfound love. You told Him you would follow Him wherever He led you, no matter what. You made a heartfelt commitment to live your life for His glory. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, the faithful prophet, felt the very aches of God’s own heart. We need to hear God’s heart beating in the words of this prophecy of Jeremiah. Return, My love, or judgment is coming!