Part 3: Hope
Day 16: Hope and Satisfaction
Jeremiah 16:14-21
I have a friend who used to do something when his kids were younger. When his kids where younger and would misbehave, he would sometimes take them through a 3-step process. He would first ground them and send them to their room. He would remind them that sending them to their room for misbehaving was justice. There had to be a satisfactory punishment for their acting out. Sometimes he would cut the punishment short and remind them that it was mercy. Mercy is avoiding the just punishment for your poor behavior. Finally on some occasions he would take them out for ice cream and remind them that it was Grace. They experience the blessing of ice cream even though they deserve the punishment of the original crime. All three parts of the Gospel where present for them in that act of parenting; justice, mercy and Grace.
All three things are present in today’s reading. The people of God are restored to the blessing of the promise land, and God even sends people out to find them and bring them home. This is a restoration of the promise God had given the people starting with the covenant to Abraham. At the same time the reading reminds them that God will also have satisfaction for the previous sins of the people. Restoration to the land is both God’s mercy and grace and the punishment for sin is God’s justice, and all three will be cosmically possible because of Jesus’ work on the cross. We must always search the text for the shadows of Calvary lest we fail to see the who arch of redemption history in these Old Testament passages.
A Prayer for the Mission of the Church: Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to yourself: We praise and bless you for those whom you have sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labors, and that in every place your servants call upon your Name; for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours, for ever and ever. Amen.
All three things are present in today’s reading. The people of God are restored to the blessing of the promise land, and God even sends people out to find them and bring them home. This is a restoration of the promise God had given the people starting with the covenant to Abraham. At the same time the reading reminds them that God will also have satisfaction for the previous sins of the people. Restoration to the land is both God’s mercy and grace and the punishment for sin is God’s justice, and all three will be cosmically possible because of Jesus’ work on the cross. We must always search the text for the shadows of Calvary lest we fail to see the who arch of redemption history in these Old Testament passages.
- What was the longest punishment you have ever had to endure…either as a punished child or a punishing parent?
- What is a time you were spared a punishment you justly deserved?
- What things in your life do you look at to remind yourself of the blessings of Jesus? Blessings you know you do not deserve.
- God says to Jeremiah he will send out hunters to find his own. Do you feel a sense that God went hunting for you?
A Prayer for the Mission of the Church: Almighty God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to reconcile the world to yourself: We praise and bless you for those whom you have sent in the power of the Spirit to preach the Gospel to all nations. We thank you that in all parts of the earth a community of love has been gathered together by their prayers and labors, and that in every place your servants call upon your Name; for the kingdom and the power and the glory are yours, for ever and ever. Amen.