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"The Everlasting Love Part2" June 6, 2008 Jer 31:3 The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you." NKJV In the life of the Jews things have gone from bad to worse in the life of the nation, and now the enemy, the Chaldeans, was at the gates. Jerusalem was already imprisoned within the might of Babylon and the prophet of Jehovah was held captive. Chapters 30 through 33 of Jeremiah are words different from the other prophecies contained in this great book. In them is the heart cry of Jehovah for His people. Chapters 30 and 31 contain the song of a coming deliverance. The Divine purpose is always that of restoration. The city is to be built, the people to be gathered back again to their homeland, and sorrow is to pass away. And a new covenant will be established with Israel. "I have loved you with an everlasting love." And the relation of that love is that of God dealing with His people in love: "Therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you." One of the great attributes of Jehovah is that of love. God is love. The Bible declares it; it sings of it; it celebrates it; it illustrates it; but nothing more. God's love is not explained. We cannot understand the immensity of God's love, but we can experience His love because the Bible declares that the love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. It was the Lord God speaking to Judah. Jehovah, to the Hebrews, meant the Becoming One, the One who was for evermore becoming what man needed. And this Becoming One the Elohim, of Israel. Elohim, the Strengths, the Powers, the All-Sufficient One, He is the God of Israel. I, Jehovah, the Elohim of Israel, the All-sufficient one Who becomes what man needs in order to perfect man, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." It is amazing to me how the Jehovah Elohim can see anything in us to love. However, in spite of what I am, in spite of what humanity is, in spite of what Israel was, God can do no other but love. Declare it, sing it, shout it, illustrate it; Yes! "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us." Therefore! Therefore what? Because I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I have drawn you. I have led you. I have guided you. In spite of your will to leave me, to have other gods before me, to bow down and serve other gods, in spite of your rebellious spirit and idolatry and sins, I have drawn you to myself with loving-kindness. I have watched the process of your development and I have been at work to draw you to myself. When I put my arms around you and your fathers before you and drew you into my bosom with tender mercies that never fail, with bonds of love that can never be broken I have done so with loving-kindness. Yet also with that same loving-kindness when, in your rebellion and idolatry, I thrust you from Myself, kept you at arm's length, and put you through trouble and agony and pain and captivity, I have drawn you. I have been leading, guiding, marching, and developing, but always with loving-kindness. With loving-kindness! The basic meaning of the word has to do with a bending down which we have talked about before. I have drawn you to myself by bending down towards you, says Jehovah. Once, the word is translated 'reproach' in the passage found in Proverbs 14:34 where we read: "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Not for a minute are we to believe that sin is loving-kindness or merciful to people. Sin causes the neck to bow to the yoke of bondage. Righteousness exalts a nation, a people, a man, a woman. However, sin is a reproach to any nation. That is, sin will cause the neck to bow. The neck of a nation in sin will be bowed. Sin is the bending of the neck to any people; it puts them beneath the yoke of bondage. That however is the most unusual use of the word. It is most often translated mercy, kindness, loving-kindness, and goodness or favor. Mercy-lovingkindness can be found in the NT and illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan. He showed the mercy. That is lovingkindness. It is the bending over toward need, with intention of blessing. This is the declaration of the Becoming One, Jehovah. This is the declaration of the Strengths the Powers of Israel. This is the One who accommodates himself to you so as to meet the necessities to bring you into His kingdom. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness, with mercy, with persistent bending over in goodness and in favor, I have drawn you after Me. Destruction of Judah by the sword, by famine, by pestilence, or by captivity is imminent. And Jehovah declares that it is He that has a love so powerful, so deep, so lasting, so extensive, so eternal, and it is with that love He is bending His neck to these doomed people to draw them to Himself. The question may be asked then, the question is often asked today: "If God loves me so much how can a loving, good God allow my enemy, or in the case of Judah, cause an enemy to come in and bring me into captivity? If God deals with us in lovingkindness how can He allow bad things to happen to His people? Does God's goodness permit the difficulties through which I am going through? I, unlike most people, not only believe that God allows it, I believe that at times God is the one causing the difficulties, causing the chastisement, causing the troubles, but always with the heart's desire to draw men unto Himself. Jer 30:14-15 14 All your lovers have forgotten you; They do not seek you; For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, With the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquities, Because your sins have increased. 15 Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. < Because of the multitude of your iniquities, Because your sins have increased , I have done these things to you. NKJV Thus God declares quite clearly that when he says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you," He includes the very pain, sorrow, and suffering through which His people are passing, and claims that tribulations is by His own activity. The claim is made with infinite sweetness and strength that it is by His activity that they will at last be restored, and will find their triumph. Two things are brought together, "Hear the word of Jehovah, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather them." God has scattered! God will gather! These are forever interrelated. God will tear down! God will build! God will uproot! God will plant! God will uproot the evil in the land and in the home! God will plant a new vine to bear good fruit! The everlasting love leads through defeat as well as in triumph, and that all pain and suffering are somehow or other within the compass of His love, and are intended as ministers for the making of life and the purifying of high and noble purpose. "With lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Why have you afflicted us, O God, and why are we left so sore and broken? With lovingkindness I have drawn thee. Why has the song of hope been silent for so long? With lovingkindness I have drawn thee. I will not surely let thee go unpunished, because I love thee! His chastisements are not joyous, but grievous; but afterward, afterward! Let us never forget that God has never left Himself without witness. God has always a band of faithful souls, maintaining allegiance to Himself; and to them He speaks; and if there be at last but one man, if there was but a prophet-priest of Anathoth in the court of the guard, well then God will say to that man, and through him to the whole nation, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." One man standing true to God against widespread deflection is God's vantage ground; and through that one man God will move toward the ultimate accomplishment of His purpose. Shut up in the dungeon, men of faith sing. And why do they sing? Because they know, that though all else may fail, though the king be weak and vacillating, though the rulers be mere politicians trying to traffic with their own wit and wisdom, though the people are ground under the heel of false civil and spiritual authority, though everything human has failed; God's love has not failed, and in that they rest, and in that they hope. In the life of faith, darkness is the place of songs. Those were wonderful men who talked to Job. Everything they said was true, only that they did not understand him, and so their applications were at fault. Elihu speaking of God said, "Who gives songs in the night." That is true! Songs in the night! I'm not saying that we are to make ourselves sing in the troubled times if we do not feel like singing. I am saying that when we find ourselves in such situations of difficulty, if we will patiently wait for Him, suddenly we will sing; for it is there that He unveils His heart. On that day, when the thing happened that put out the light of hope, and you were face to face with the blankness of despair; when long-cherished dreams suddenly went out in the night, and you sat in the prison-house. It is there and then that He will give you a song. The place of song is the place of darkness. What ails thee, O my soul? I am afraid of the heights that I am called to climb. Have no fear! Higher than any height that you have ever seen is Love enabling you to climb! What ails thee, O my soul? I am afraid of the depth and darkness beneath me into which I fear I may fall, into which I am already falling. Have no fear my soul! For when you fall you will discover underneath are the everlasting arms of the everlasting love! What ails thee, O my soul? I am afraid of the length that lies before me, and which I have to travel; the breadth that stretches away on every side in which unknown foes are lurking. Have no fear my soul! He is your shield and high tower, the place of your refuge. What ails thee, O my soul? It is not the height and depth; it is not the length and breadth! These things do not cause me to be fearful and tremble. What then? It is the things of today. It is the enemy who is at the gate. It is those things that are near that fills my heart with dread. The thing of the hour, the fretful thing, the restless thing, the disappointing thing, is in the Divine. Let us, trusting in His everlasting love, sing the songs of the coming triumph. |