Way Back to God
TEXT: JEREMIAH 24:1-10
KEY VERSE: “Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good” (Jeremiah 24:5)
God’s thoughts are higher than man’s and His ways beyond comprehension by man. They can only be known by those to whom He chooses to show them. Those who were left behind after others from Judah had been taken captives might have been thinking that those taken captive were most unfortunate. But verse 5 of our text would reveal just the reverse.
The vision of Jeremiah was to raise the spirits of those gone into captivity, by assuring them of a happy return and to humble and awaken the proud and secure spirits of those yet in Jerusalem, by assuring them of a miserable captivity. We thus cannot always determine as to God’s love or hatred by what is immediately before us.
The sooner a child is corrected, the better the effects of the correction is likely to be. Even for those captives, the captivity was for their good; and God’s intentions are never in vain. By affliction they were convinced of sin, humbled under God’s hand, weaned from the world and taught to pray. They turned from their sins, particularly idolatry. God promised He will own them in captivity.
Believers today will need the right attitude and disposition to whatever they are going through. A backslider will need to repent and return to the Lord as it is not God’s pleasure that such individuals end up in such miserable conditions. Afflictions may come the way of a backslider, but these are not meant to foreclose their opportunities to come to God. Rather they are to achieve the opposite – drive them back to their maker and redeemer. So, instead of perceiving tribulations as grueling punishment from God, such should be seen as refining fire that is meant to remove all impurities in a sinner’s or a backslider’s life and turn him back to his creator. If he does return, there is room for him in God’s court, as the Lord takes no pleasure in a sinner or a backslider that remains permanently estranged from Him.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: There is joy in heaven over a sinner that repents.