The Very Flame of the LORD

Posted on October 23, 2025 by Pete

Am I hovering over the 1Corinthians 13 of the Old Testament? Hmm . . . could be.

Guess it shouldn’t be surprising that a song written to tell a grand love story will eventually try and define love. While love for sure is better felt than tell’t, it makes sense, at some point, to try to paint a picture of the prevailing dynamic between a beloved and his bride. Think I came to that point this morning as I continue reading in the Song of Solomon. And I guess I also shouldn’t be surprised that when it comes to trying to connect to the nature of love the LORD’s name is invoked — after all, “God is love” (1Jn. 4:8, 16).

. . . for love is strong as death,
       jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
       the very flame of the LORD.
Many waters cannot quench love,
       neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love all the wealth of his house,
       he would be utterly despised.

(Song of Solomon 8:6b-7 ESV)

The very flame of the LORD . . . a flame of YAH . . . that’s the phrase that caught my attention this morning. Stands out because it’s the first and only mention of God in this song, and that only if you’re reading in the ESV or NASB (in other translations it will be found in the margin as an alternate reading).

So, to chew on the preoccupation, passion, and pursuit of love which is presented in the Song is to appreciate in some measure the very flame of the LORD. When God says to His people, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3), Solomon’s song can give us a picture of what everlasting love looks like.

The very flame of the LORD is as mighty and fierce and unrelenting as death which cannot be denied. It’s ardency, zeal, and passion are like the grave which won’t take no for an answer. Its pursuit is not to be denied, its target surely to be taken.

The very flame of the LORD is unquenchable. Oceans cannot extinguish it. Mighty streams and raging rivers cannot wash it away. It burns not only intensely, but it also burns forever. Its fire is always and never less than “a most vehement flame” (NKJV). Love never ends (1Cor. 13:8). It never fails (NKJV).

The worth of the very flame of the LORD? Inestimable! Any price tendered in hopes of purchasing it is an insulting offer. The only way to attain it is to be gifted it.

Who can adequately describe the very flame of the LORD?

Could we with ink the ocean fill
and were the skies of parchment made,
were ev’ry stalk on earth a quill
and ev’ry man a scribe by trade,
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry;
nor could the scroll contain the whole,
tho’ stretched from sky to sky.
~ The Love of God, Frederick M. Lehman (1917) ~

The very flame of the LORD . . .

Known only through His grace. Delighted in always for His glory.

Posted in Song of Solomon | Tagged | Leave a comment

His Desire

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Pete

I’ve said it before, gonna say it again: when it comes to the Scriptures, repetition is roaring, the same thing in succession is shouting, an echo is an exclamation point. Get the idea?

And even more so, I think, when the repetition is picked up over multiple days of the reading plan. It’s one thing to see something repeated three times in a single passage, but to pick up on the same reiteration over multiple days? Well, I’m thinking that’s some serious Spirit-fueled illumination happening through some heart-targeted reverberation — the Spirit’s whisper a shout as I read again, “I am my beloved’s.”

My beloved is mine, and I am his;
       he grazes among the lilies.

(Song of Solomon 2:16 ESV, Last Tuesday’s Reading)

I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;
       he grazes among the lilies.

(Song of Solomon 6:3 ESV, Yesterday’s Reading)

I am my beloved’s,
       and his desire is for me.

(Song of Solomon 7:10 ESV, Today’s Reading)

In this song of love desired, love lost, love pursued, and love found, the “beloved” has to be a foreshadowing of Christ and His bride a picture, to some degree, of the church. And so, hear the church’s echo of assurance, “I am my Beloved’s.”

Want to re-calibrate on identity? I am His.

Need to know you’re not alone. He grazes among the lilies, the places where His flock is found. The Lord is my Shepherd . . . He makes me lie down in green pastures . . . He leads me beside still waters (Ps. 23:1-2).

Want to know what the Beloved thinks of me on my best day? On my worst day? On every day in between? His desire is for me.

Literally, He stretches out after me. While I might know in measure a longing for Him, it pales in comparison to His longing for me. He wants me! He likes me! My Beloved loves me!

Just getting “mushy” over an ancient love song? Don’t think so. In fresh awe of the reality of a divine union and the jaw-dropping truth that I am His and He is mine and His desire is for me.

Jesus says so . . .

“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, may be with Me where I am . . . that the love with which You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

(John 17:24a, 26b ESV)

I desire that they . . . may be with Me . . .

I am my Beloved’s . . . His desire is for me.

What grace! To God be the glory.

Posted in Song of Solomon | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Where Would I Go? (2016 Remix)

Posted on October 21, 2025 by Pete

The going was getting tough. And so, many got going . . . as in, “I’m outta’ here!” For them, it just seemed to be getting weirder and weirder.

What started out as talk on the crowd’s motivation for following Jesus (answer: not because they were intrigued by His signs but because they wanted to eat some more of His free food), quickly shifted to a treatise about bread from heaven. And not the manna stuff that Moses gave, but “man stuff”, Jesus Himself claiming to the bread from heaven.

“I am the bread of life,” Jesus tells them. Come to Me, He says, and you’ll never hunger. Believe in Me, and you’ll never thirst. Not only did it not make sense to the crowds, it ticked off the religious leaders. Any claim Jesus made about coming down from heaven, no matter how nonsensical it seemed, was enough to get their backs up. They understood the connection to Jesus’ “Messiah complex” even if they didn’t get His “bread of life” shtick.

And then, it gets a little more bizarre. Jesus tells the crowd that they actually need to eat the bread of heaven. And their minds are spinning, “I need to eat Jesus?” Yup. To avoid any misunderstanding as to the implication of what He was saying, Jesus clearly declares, “Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life” (John 6:44). Like I said, weirder and weirder.

Following Jesus was already starting to come with a cost. And it’s not like He was an exact fit for what they imagined Messiah to be. But then throw in this eat My flesh and drink My blood stuff? For many, it was too much. It was time to tap out.

When many of His disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” . . . After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.

(John 6:60, 66 ESV)

And so Jesus turns to the Twelve and asks them, “Do you want to go away as well?” (6:67).

And I’m thinking that’s a question that most of us disciples have heard the Lord ask at least once or twice as we have followed Him. Not just when we may have wavered under a struggle with some hard teachings, but more likely when we have become weary as we’ve struggled with some hard times.

Times in our life when our reality doesn’t align with our dreams. When what we thought would be, isn’t. When what we couldn’t have imagined has come to be. When life just seems hard. When it doesn’t make sense. When following Jesus hasn’t resulted in the storyline we had written for ourselves in our own minds. When things just seem to get weirder and weirder. When others might very well say, “Enough. This isn’t working like I want it to. I’m outta’ here!”

Then that still small voice breaks through and, in some form, we hear Jesus ask the question, “Do you want to go away as well?” It’s then the Spirit works in us to answer as Peter answered:

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

(John 6:68-69 ESV)

To whom would we go? Where would we turn?

No matter how turbulent the ride gets, no safer place to be than in His arms. Regardless of how crazy the situation is yet to get, no wisdom I’d rather have than His wisdom. Whatever comes, no one I’d rather encounter it with than with the Holy One of God . . . the Creator and Sustainer of all things . . . the One who loved me and gave Himself for Me . . . the One who intercedes for me at the very throne of heaven . . . the One who has promised that, one day, where He is I will be also.

Where would I go? Where would I flee? Where would I shelter?

Only to the refuge found in the Rock of my salvation!

Where would I go but to the Lord?

By His grace. For His glory.

Posted in John | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Altogether Desirable

Posted on October 20, 2025 by Pete

As I wrap up Jeremiah this morning, it’s God’s anger and God’s kindness that leaves an after taste. His anger poured out as He directs Babylon to raze Jerusalem because of the depths of Judah’s rebellion. And yet His kindness foreshadowed as a defeated monarch is “graciously freed”, kindly spoken to, and given “a seat above the seats” of other conquered kings (Jer. 52:31-34) — a type of “firstfruits” of those in captivity according to Jeremiah’s prophetic promise of restoration and blessing.

My reading in John left another after taste — the after taste of feeding on the flesh and of drinking the blood of the Son of Man (Jn. 6:53-56). At first, not the most appetizing meal to imagine, but for those who know what it is to abide in Him and He in us, a sweet feast of love divine. A forever feast. Manna beyond measure, “the true bread from heaven” (Jn. 6:32b).

Then, wrapped up the third chapter of Peter’s first letter. The command to “honor Christ as holy” (1Pet. 3:15) pretty much a gimme as I’m reminded that, not only has “Christ also suffered once for sins, the Righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God” (3:18), but also that He “has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him” (3:22). Noodle on that a bit! Behold the Lamb and the Lion!

And so, my readings in Jeremiah, John, and Peter end up becoming a kind of three-course meal, serving up thoughts of my Redeemer and adding a wonderful flavor to the “appetizer” provided this morning in Solomon’s Song.

His mouth is most sweet,
       and he is altogether desirable.
This is my beloved and this is my friend,
       O daughters of Jerusalem.

(Song of Solomon 5:16 ESV)

He is altogether desirable . . . He is altogether lovely (NKJV) . . . that’s the thought which set the table for me this morning.

How ever you want to approach the Song, tell me that the bride’s declaration concerning her beloved isn’t a fitting way for the saved to describe their Savior. He is altogether desirable . . .

The Lamb who died for me, the Shepherd who sought me . . . altogether desirable.

The Master who called me, the Friend who enfolds me . . . altogether lovely.

The Lord who sends me, the Vine who sustains me . . . altogether lovely.

The Son who loved me, the Bridegroom who is coming for me . . .

This is my Beloved and this is my Friend . . . He is altogether desirable.

How’s that for something to chew on?

All because of His amazing grace.

Only for His all-deserving glory.

Posted in Song of Solomon | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A God of Recompense

Posted on October 17, 2025 by Pete

This is the second morning reading Jeremiah’s prophecy of Babylon’s demise. I read Jeremiah 51, the second of two chapters — two LONG chapters — detailing God’s determined vengeance against a nation which had perpetually and “proudly defied the LORD” (Jer. 50:31). Though used of God to chastise His people, Babylon herself would be judged because she too had “sinned against the LORD” (Jer. 50:14). For our God is a God of recompense.

For the LORD is laying Babylon waste
       and stilling her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like many waters;
       the noise of their voice is raised,
for a destroyer has come upon her,
       upon Babylon;
her warriors are taken;
       their bows are broken in pieces,
for the LORD is a God of recompense;
       He will surely repay.

(Jeremiah 51:56-56 ESV)

A God of recompense . . . That’s the phrase which arrested my attention, that’s what I’m chewing on this morning. He is the God who will surely repay.

He will judge . . . vengeance is His (Rom. 12:19). Though Babylon may seem to prevail, though the “nations rage” and “the people growl”; though “the kings of the earth set themselves against the LORD and against His Anointed” (Ps. 2:1-2), “Behold,” says the King of kings and the Lord of lords , “I am coming soon, bringing My recompense with Me, to repay each one for what he has done” (Rev. 22:12). He will surely repay.

And while there is a certain rest to be found in knowing that justice will one day prevail, there is also a joy which wells up as I can’t help but consider afresh that the recompense for my sin was born by the King, that the price demanded for the debt I could never repay was paid in full by the Lord. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

A God of recompense . . . a reason to rejoice. For, to all who have faith in Jesus, He is the “just and the justifier” (Rom. 3:26).

Again . . . Hallelujah! What a Savior!

By His grace. For His glory.

Posted in Jeremiah | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

A Soul Connection

Posted on October 15, 2025 by Pete

While they tell a lot of stories about a lot of things, though they provide a ton of information about how things are supposed to work, I believe the Scriptures ultimately testify of Christ. That, though Jesus “began” with Moses and the Prophets as He gave His Messiah 101 class to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24:27), when it says that “He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” it really does mean that the “things concerning Himself” where found in all the Scriptures. That, when Jesus said the Scriptures “bear witness about Me” (Jn. 5:39), that He was saying all the Scriptures bear witness of Him. So, it makes sense then that, as I work through my reading plan in the morning, I’m always on the lookout for Jesus.

Sometimes it’s a bit tricky, though. Like when I’m reading through The Song of Solomon.

How much of this book is meant as sort of a primer on true love and where’s it to be a picture of the One who loved in truth? Don’t want to miss Christ in it. Also don’t want to project Christ where it’s not appropriate.

But this morning, I think I “found Him” in Solomon’s song. And my reading in 1Peter confirmed it. Because of a soul connection.

On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves;
       I sought him, but found him not.
I will rise now and go about the city,
       in the streets and in the squares;
I will seek him whom my soul loves.
       I sought him, but found him not.
The watchmen found me
       as they went about in the city.
“Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
Scarcely had I passed them
       when I found him whom my soul loves.

(Song of Solomon 3:1-4a ESV)

Whole lotta’ repetition going on there. The Spirit is laying down something that I’m supposed to be picking up. Could it be that the “alias” used by Solomon’s bride for her betrothed might just be an appropriate way for the church to respond to her Bridegroom? I’m thinkin’ . . .

Him whom my soul loves . . . that’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

Meditating on the One who should capture the affections of not just my heart, but of my whole being. Affections so stirring the inner man that I can’t help but be spurred on to a love-fueled pursuit of the One who has loved me “with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3). “That I might know Him” (Php. 3:10) — Him whom my soul loves.

And then Peter adds some color as to why there’s this soul connection.

He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

(1Peter 2:24-25 ESV)

The Beloved is loved at a soul level because He is the Shepherd and Overseer of my soul. The connection not something I could ever make happen, but only a reality because He bore my sin in His body on the tree so I might live to righteousness. And in that righteousness, I know a soul enlivened to its Savior, its Shepherd, its Sovereign. So that having my soul healed by His wounds He becomes Him whom my soul loves. And that’s the soul connection.

Though you have not seen Him, you love Him.

(1Peter 1:7a ESV)

By His grace. For His glory.

Posted in 1Peter, Song of Solomon | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

God’s People (2018 Remix)

Posted on October 14, 2025 by Pete

Never been a nomad, always had a place to hang my hat, a fixed address to go home to every night. Can’t really say I understand what it’s like to be an exile, a stranger in a foreign land–not even if you count my move to the U.S. (not that strange a land . . . most times . . . but recently, increasingly) from Canada 22 years ago. But I’m thinking that for those Peter was writing to, being “strangers and sojourners” (YLT) in an increasingly hostile environment might have been enough to fill one’s plate.

But instead of Peter spurring on these weary and targeted travelers with gentle encouragements to “keep on keepin’ on” as they sojourn, and to “hang in there” through each day’s pilgrimage, he instead lays on them a list of commands to obey.

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

(1Peter 2:11-14, 17 ESV)

Not enough that they would have to wander around in some strange world with all its strange customs, but they were to keep in check the desire to embrace a worldly culture which falsely promised to satisfy their sensual desires and physical needs. Not enough to endure the hostility of those with a drastically different worldview, but they were to accept the challenge of living in such a way that, while they might be opposed, there’d be no grounds to be accused. When it came to the crazy big kahuna in Rome who was increasingly targeting them for persecution, they weren’t told to do everything they could to oppose him but instead to be subject to him. And to honor his people. While they committed to actively loving one another.

That’s a lot to take on!

Like I said, you’d think it’d be enough just trying to be a sojourner and an exile without having to say, “No” to the flesh, “Watch me” to the world, and “I yield” to the government.

So how come Peter adds these commands to obey onto a journey that’s already pretty demanding to embrace?

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

(1Peter 2:9-10 ESV)

They were more than just pilgrims in a foreign land. More than just wanderers trying to find the next place to wander to. More than just a nomadic band with no flag to pitch and nowhere to pitch it. Though once they were not a people, now they were God’s people.

And that’s what I’m chewing on this morning. Our identity. You are God’s people.

Called out of darkness. Translated into light. Given heavenly citizenship, but for now left to travel in a world not our home, we are God’s people. A chosen race. A royal priesthood. His very own, blood-bought possession. That’s who we are. So that’s how we should act.

Our circumstance doesn’t define us. The prevailing culture around us can’t label us. The darkness no longer has any claim on us. Rather, we are God’s people.

Thus, says Peter, by God’s enabling, live like it. By God’s power, be who you are. For God’s kingdom, be ambassadors during your sometimes barren wandering.

Lot of things I don’t know, but this I do know, I’m a child of the King. A living stone in His spiritual house. A member of His holy priesthood.

I am God’s people.

By His grace. For His glory.

Posted in 1Peter | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Taste (2008 Rerun)

Posted on October 13, 2025 by Pete

Nothin’ coming together after my readings this morning, so I went back to the beginning of my online journal, to the early days of capturing these morning thoughts to see what popped then from today’s readings. This one resonated. Thought I’d put it out there again.

“Betcha can’t eat just one!” Remember that ad? I think it was a Frito Lay advertisement for their potato chips. But I can think of any number of foods which, for me, it’s hard just to have one. You get that first bite . . . or finish that first piece . . . and the taste buds have come alive . . . and the pleasure sensors are screaming, “More! More!” So, what’s this got to do with my morning readings? Well . . . in a way . . . Peter says the same thing . . .

“Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.”

(1Peter 2:2-3 ESV)

Far from being a chore . . . or a discipline . . . pursuing the things of Christ should be a craving . . . a craving driven by having tasted of the Lord’s goodness.

The NKJV translates ” you have tasted that the Lord is good” as “if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious” and the NASB says, “if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.” Regardless of whether we talk about the Lord’s goodness, His graciousness, or His kindness, the thought is the same . . . if we’ve tasted of the Lord . . . then, betcha’ can’t eat just one . . . you will crave more of Him . . . and He will provide all you’re able to consume . . . and much, much more. His table is full . . . the feast is eternal . . . all that’s required is we come with bibs tucked under our chin ready to “chow down!”

So why is it a chore sometimes? Why can there be periods where we never go to the table . . . or, if we do, it feels like so much work? I think because, at times, we’ve lost the taste.

That taste we had when we were first saved . . . or, that taste we sampled when we saw God’s hand on our lives through an answered prayer . . . or, that bit of flavor we experienced when God graced us with an unexpected blessing . . . or, that taste on our lips from that portion of God’s Word that seemed to just burn in our hearts . . . or, that indescribable sensation when we actually knew we had heard the Holy Spirit’s voice or were keenly aware of Him prompting our spirits. All believers can think back to those times when they “perceived the flavor” of the living Lord . . . those times when they experienced God . . . when they partook of His presence . . . when they enjoyed sweet communion inside the veil with the gracious God of eternity. That’s the taste . . . the flavor . . . the reality . . . that propels us to seek Him more. Those are the experiences that constitute that “first bite” and so drives us to heaven’s door with our dishes in our hands crying, “Please Sir, can I have some more!”

But sometimes we lose the taste. The flavor is bland as we go through the routine . . . do the Christian thing ’cause that’s what we do . . . same old, same old. We open our Bibles . . . stare at them . . . maybe quickly read our devotional reading for the day . . . but we don’t really savor the food . . . we don’t linger over it to catch it’s subtle aroma . . . to taste the nuances that are detected only through the teaching ministry of the Spirit inside of us.

Or, we go to church . . . we don’t go to meet with the body of Christ, we just go to church. We walk in . . . take a seat . . . watch the show . . . gag at the worship team’s song selection or delivery of the songs . . . critique the preacher . . . throw in a couple of bucks . . . eat a cookie . . . and walk out. We really have no expectation of meeting the One who said that He would be in the presence of His people and amid their praises. We’re not looking to “love on” one another . . . or for that fact, to be “loved on” by anyone else. No expectation that we’ll hear the voice of God from the pulpit. So . . . we don’t taste . . . and the craving subsides.

Oh, how we need to taste that the Lord is good. How we need to be still and know that He is God. How we need to count our every blessings, count them one by one. How we need to savor our salvation. And when we do . . . betcha’ can’t eat just one! We will crave the things of God just like a newborn craves milk. Recapturing a little bit of the taste will result in a whole lot of desire for the Bible — “Word of God speak!!!” Sampling again that flavor of heaven will ignite our spiritual senses to earnestly seek and to know and to experience our God at the “next level.” No fast food meals here, it’s a lifetime of eating and savoring and digesting and growing . . . but, all the time, there is a tasting that the Lord is good . . . and that craving for more.

Father, help me not to lose “the taste.” Lord Jesus, You are so good! I want to know You more! I can’t eat just one . . . by Your grace keep me feasting at Your table . . . for Your glory . . . Amen!!!

Posted in 1Peter | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Bring It!

Posted on October 10, 2025 by Pete

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

That’s what I hear the Spirit whisper to me as I take in what Peter is writing to the exiles.

Peter, though writing to a dispersed people, longs for them to be anything but a depressed, or a disillusioned people. He reminds them of their deliverance in the past, that they’ve been born again to a living hope (1Peter 1:3). And he reassures them of the divine dynamic of their present, that “by God’s power” they are being “guarded through faith” (1Peter 1:5). And that all this is the stuff “into which angels long to look” (1Peter 1:12), the things prophesied by the prophets — the “grace to be yours” (1Peter 1:10).

But wait, there’s more . . .

He reminds them also of their future and of the inheritance that awaits, of “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven” (1Peter 1:4). And, if I’m picking up what’s being laid down, that’s the grace that will be brought.

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

(1Peter 1:13 ESV)

The grace that will be brought . . . That’s what puts the gears in motion this morning.

As much grace as I’ve known, I ain’t seen nothin’ yet! For there is a grace yet to be brought. A gift yet to be received (MSG).

Sure, noodle on the wonders of the cross and the grace bestowed through Christ’s finished work — that where sin abounds, grace does more abound (Rom. 5:20-21). Marvel at the fact of an empty tomb and the grace of resurrection power, an all-sufficient grace that makes available divine power in our weakness so that we’re actually inclined to “boast” of our infirmities (2Cor. 12:9) as we know from experience that our weakness is actually our “superpower”. Yeah, try and wrap your head around the abundant grace we’ve already known. And then, try to envision the grace that will be brought.

The grace that will be brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The unmerited favor we’ll know when we are face-to-Face. The undeserved joy, pleasure, delight, and sweetness we’ll experience when faith gives way to sight. The unimaginable grace we’ll experience when (if) we are able to divert our gaze from the glorious face of our Savior and peer over His shoulder to see our inheritance, “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.” Talk about grace overflowing!

And what else can you say but “Bring it!”

By His grace. For His glory.

Posted in 1Peter | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Satisfied With His Goodness

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Pete

Oh, what it would have been for those in exile to hear the words of God’s promise through Jeremiah?

For those who remembered Zion from afar as they sat and wept by the rivers of Babylon (Ps. 137:1), what hope must have been theirs as they heard the prophet declare God’s intention to gather to Himself “scattered Israel” and that God Himself would keep them “as a shepherd keeps his flock” (Jer. 31:10). What strength would have been found in in the promise that their redemption was coming and that they would be brought home to “sing aloud on the height of Zion”, their joy radiating over the abundance of the land they had been promised. To anticipate, though currently in the thirst-inducing land of their enemies, being brought to a place where they would “languish no more”, where “their life would be like a watered garden” (Jer. 31:12).

Seems to me there’s some connection there for us current day exiles — for us who are in the world but not of the world and are looking forward to a city whose designer and builder is God (Heb. 11:10).

And yet, while we wait for a kingdom to come, we know that the kingdom has come. We live in the “now but not yet” reality of not just longing for home but of also experiencing home as, through our union with Christ, we are seated with Him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). Thus, we find ourselves not only singing the blues by the waters of Babylon but also singing with joy on the height of Zion. And that because, even now, we have known the goodness of God.

I will turn their mourning into joy;
       I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
       and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness.

(Jeremiah 31:13b-14 ESV)

In the day of their return, the ancient exiles of the clans of Israel would declare the goodness of God “over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd” (Jer. 31:12). They would sing over the abundance of God’s physical provision. But for us as today’s exiles, for us as God’s holy and royal priesthood (1Peter 2:5, 9), there is a feasting of the soul by which our mourning is turned, even now, to joy. A saturating of the inner being which comforts and displaces sorrow with gladness. So that, even in a foreign land, even though we are not home yet, My people shall be satisfied with My goodness.

My people shall be satisfied with My goodness . . . that’s what I’m chewing on this morning.

The goodness of God. Not found in our stuff but experienced in our soul. Not because we’ve never sinned, but because He is the forever Savior. Not because we’ve never known the collateral damage of sin, but because we’ve also known a grace greater than sin. Not because we have been faithful, but because God is faithful.

And so, I will sing of the goodness of God. (You can too by clicking here)

By His grace. For His glory.

Posted in Jeremiah | Tagged , | Leave a comment