A Family Reunion

 Jeremiah 31:7-14

How I looked forward to our family reunions as a child, it was our big trip of the year going to Lake Worth, Texas, and sleeping on a blanket on the floor with all my cousins.   We cared not that there was only one bathroom, or that our parents were doing the same thing in a home that was designed for five people, and our number was many times that for once again we were together.  

Can you grasp the magnitude, the joy of what God is revealing to the people of Judah?  They are not just having a family reunion; they are returning home after years of being dispersed all over the world.  And this is the kicker, the God who loved them too much to allow them to ignore the covenants they entered into is the same God who loved them too much to enable them to stay in captivity.

I would be willing to bet the farm that they were even more excited about their family reunion than my cousins and I were.  They came back with rejoicing but also with a desire to please Yahweh and they did this but also with weeping over the sins that lead them into captivity. 

It was evident at this time, and yes they had years to come to an understanding of what they had done, and the grace that was being shown by the Lord to restore what God took from them.  I’m not sure we who go by the title Christian have any understanding of the covenants we have broken, or of the grace extended from our Lord to us.

I read this in HCSB page1286 in verse 6; “The assumption is that the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem.  Ephraim, standing for the ten northern tribes of Israel will again go up to Zion to worship.”  The book of Jeremiah covers a timeline of about 140 years, roughly from 640 to 580 B.C.  But the timetable for Cyrus allowing the people to return to Judah is around 538, and New Temple is dedicated about 515 B.C.

The pagan world has seen our attempt, our many talented programs to draw them to Christ, but they are looking for something more than our skillful act.  What they are missing is what Jesus has promised, that we can do greater action than He.  We can enter into His power, but that will never happen to people who do not hunger and do not thirst for righteousness.  We are much like an alcoholic who cannot get well until he admits he is an alcoholic.  

Likewise, the Christian will never hunger or thirst for the Father, until we understand our need.  We are a mess, and we act more as a Pharisee than a follower of Christ.  Is it not time to own up to our inability to be the hands and feet of Jesus without being needed, without having as our deepest desire to thirst and hunger for a deeper relationship with Jesus?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice