Year 6, Day 59: Jeremiah 6

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Father

• Father: This is the pinnacle of the Covenant Triangle.  God is the Father.  He is the creator.  He is love.  Our relationship with the Father is rooted in His love for us.  We get our identity through Him.  When the Father is in our life, obedience becomes clear.

When I read through Jeremiah 6, it is clear that this chapter is a verse spoken out of frustration.  God complains that Judah – His own people – will not listen.  They won’t respond.  They won’t heed His words.  They won’t take note of the people that He sends among them.  God mourns their disobedience and He mourns their closed ears.

In many respects, I feel like God is the parent and Israel is the teenager.  If you read through this chapter, don’t you feel like God’s people are teenagers?  They are old enough to know pleasure and want pleasure, but nowhere near mature enough to put any limits on their life.  They are old enough to be taught wisdom, but they are nowhere near wise enough to actually heed any of it.  God’s people are flexing their own identity and their own interests and casting aside the teachings of their youth.  As I read through this chapter, I truly feel for God as He speaks through Jeremiah.

Every parent knows what it feels like to love their children unconditionally.  But every parent knows what it feels like to have a teenager turn away from what they’ve been taught and pursue their own interests to their own peril!  But that doesn’t mean that the parent stops loving.  That is God here in this chapter as well.  He is still the Father.  Even though they have uncircumcised ears and cannot listen, even though they scorn the very words of their Father, even though they don’t know to be ashamed when they make a transgression, even through all of these things, God still loves.  We know from a historical perspective that these people that the judgment that God brings down upon His people is not permanent. 

God truly is like a Father.  He loves us unconditionally.  He blesses us when we listen and obey.  But he also punishes us when we deserve it and require it. 

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