“Our Father”
[Jeremiah 31:7-9]
October 28, 2012 Second Reformed Church
Today is Reformation Sunday – the
first holiday of the season – the Sunday in which we remember what is
considered the official separation of the Protestant Church from the Roman
Catholic Church – the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, which is dated
at October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the church door
of Wittenberg for debate on the subject of indulgences. The end result of that
act was the declaration that salvation is by faith alone and that our doctrine
is to be founded on the Word of God alone.
This morning, we're looking at a
passage from prophecy of Jeremiah. Jeremiah began prophesying during the reign
of the good king, Josiah, in about 627 B.C. and preached until the fall of
Jerusalem in 586 B.C. when the Babylonian armies destroyed Jerusalem and the
Temple and carried off the last of the people of Judah – except for the very
poorest of the poor – into captivity in Babylon.
Our Scripture takes place close to
the fall of Jerusalem, after Jeremiah had prophesied to the remnant of Israel,
condemning them for their whoring with idols – being an unfaithful bride to God
Almighty – and for having no shame in their sin. Not only did they claim to
worship God while they fooled around with idols, but they did so proudly,
openly, in the sunlight, before all nations – without shame and without
repentance.
The nation of Judah was not exempt:
she followed the example of her sister – and despite the fact that the
Assyrians had come and taken Israel into captivity – despite the fact that the
Babylonians had already come once and taken the upper class of Judah into
captivity – they still had the audacity to turn their backs on God and worship
false gods.
Jeremiah went through the land
contradicting the hundreds of false prophets – giving terrible and dire
prophecies of what God was going to do if they did not repent and turn back to God
– and the result was that Jeremiah was persecuted for telling the truth. He was
thrown in stocks, he was beaten, he was thrown in a cistern, he was threatened
with death – and he cried out in anguish to God and asked not to be the one who
would give these prophecies. Jeremiah was sick of the abuse, sick of the people
of Judah turning their backs on God, sick of crying and weeping and mourning
with no one caring – Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet for good reason – but
God told Jeremiah to continue to prophesy, to continue to denounce Judah, to
continue to warn Judah, and Jeremiah found himself compelled to tell the truth
– to speak the Word of God in a hostile land.
Shortly before this morning's text,
Jeremiah told the people of Judah that Babylon was coming again, and they would
conquer Judah and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, and they would be in
captivity for 70 years. Jeremiah even sent a letter to the captives who are
already there in Babylon and told them not to think about coming home, but to
buy houses and start businesses and have families and be faithful to God in the
foreign land, because they were not going to come home.
The false prophets responded by
sending their own letters – and by telling the people that Jeremiah was lying,
and that they would not be in Babylon for long but God would bring them back
quickly. And Jeremiah responded by telling the false prophets that God would
take His vengeance against them – that the Word of God stood – the captivity
would be 70 years and Jerusalem and the Temple would fall.
However, as we reach Chapter 31 of
Jeremiah, God assures the people of Israel and Judah that although they had
sinned and sinned proudly against God – breaking the Covenant – God had not
forgotten the Covenant that He made with Abraham swearing by His Own Self – by His
Own Existence – that God would make Abraham's seed – a blessing to all nations.
God reminded them that God will never break His Promises and that God will
always bring His Plan to the end for which He has intended it – and God
intended to use descendent of Abraham to bless all nations of the world. So the
day would come – some 70 years later – that God would rescue a remnant from
Babylon and bring them back to the land and carry out the plan, just as He
intended – Israel and Judah would suffer for their sin, but God in His Faithfulness,
would bless the world and bring the Savior through Abraham.
“For thus says the LORD:”
Again and again, Jeremiah and the
true prophets of the Lord began speaking the Word of the Lord by saying, “thus
says the Lord.” Jeremiah wanted to make it absolutely clear that he was
speaking what God told him to speak – this was not wishful thinking on
Jeremiah's part – this was not false prophecy – but this was the Word of the
Almighty God – this was God's Intention – what God was going to do. Jeremiah, put his life on the line in speaking
this way – by directly asserting that this is the Word of the Lord – for the Law
says that a person who prophesies falsely is to be put to death.
Similarly, James warns those who are
going into the Ordained Ministry of Word and Sacrament – he warns the preachers
– it is a very serious thing to stand up before people and say, “thus says the
Lord”– to preach. James wrote, “Not many of you should become teachers,
my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater
strictness” (James 3:1, ESV). It is expected that the person who speaks in the Name
of the Lord will only speak the Word of the Lord – it should not be an easy
thing to speak in the Name of the Lord – and there are many people, and many
pulpits, and many churches who will find themselves terrified at the return of
our Lord, because they have spoken what He did not say and said, “thus says the
Lord.”
Jeremiah was a true prophet – and he
spoke the Word of the Lord – and after some 70 years, a remnant of the people
did return. And Jeremiah spoke about the time when those people would return –
when they who truly believed in God and His Word would return:
“Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise
shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O LORD,
save your people, the remnant of Israel.’”
Jeremiah
called on the people in captivity to sing with gladness and raise shouts of joy
– giving praise to their God while they were in captivity and before Jerusalem
and the Temple were destroyed – calling out to God for salvation.
How
could they do that?
There's
only one way that you can be in captivity and know things are going to get
worse and know that's it will be many years before your set free, and still
hold on to the hope and the promise of salvation – and that is by recognizing
this salvation is God's Work – salvation is by faith alone.
There
was nothing that the people of Israel and Judah could do to get out of the Babylonian
captivity. God had sent them word to stay there, to have families, to build
houses, to start businesses, and to wait on the Faithfulness of God. Only a
believer could go through such prolonged captivity – such prolonged waiting –
and believe that God will save. Only a believer could get word that Jerusalem –
the holy city – was destroyed, and the people have resorted to cannibalism, and
the Temple had been profaned and torn down – and believe that God will save.
Only a believer could mourn the loss of everything and still rejoice in hope
and prayer, trusting that God will save.
That's
not to say that trusting is easy – that rejoicing is easy – that prayer is easy
– as you’re carried off from everything you’ve ever known and everything you’ve
ever loved – all the places and people you put your hope in. It's not easy to
suffer – it's not easy to reap what grows from sin. But surely, if we're honest
with ourselves, we know that the answer isn't just to try harder – the answer
is the answer that we see the captives in Babylon – the believers – doing: they
tore their clothes, they repented of their sin, they cried and mourned and
wailed – and then they said, “But God is faithful, and God doesn't change. And
God doesn't lie, so I believe Him.”
That's
exactly the difference we see between the unbelievers and the believers during
the Reformation. The unbelievers were putting their faith in purely human rules
– and they had minimized the horror and the affront that sin is to God. They
thought that if they did enough good works, they bought enough indulgences,
they thought that there was a way that they could earn forgiveness – and surely
the preachers of the day were the most to blame for teaching these lies. Just
as the ministers in our day are guilty of teaching lies – God wants everyone to
be healthy and wealthy, but God doesn't care how we worship so long as we are
“faithful,” or that we can pick and choose what we want to believe in the Bible
because “it's not what we do, it's what we believe” – or some other such
nonsense.
Martin
Luther tried very hard to earn his way to heaven – to earn his way right with
God, but s he looked at himself and realized his sin, he recognized that the
greatness of his sin could never be covered through his works – that he could
never do enough the right with God – and so as he searched the Scriptures, and
taught in the University, he sought for some way of relief – and one day he
found it: “For in it the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The
righteous shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:17, ESV).
Martin
Luther's eyes were opened: becoming righteous before God is not a matter of
doing good works; becoming righteous before God is a matter of faith alone.
Understand, salvation is God's Work – and then we respond. Martin Luther understood
that he could never do enough to be right with God – God had to make Martin
Luther right with God in order for Martin Luther to do anything good.
It
is wrong to say that we are saved by praying a prayer or by having faith –
salvation is not through doing anything. God changes people – God saves whom He
wills – and then we respond – then we live as the people that God has called us
to be.
Jeremiah
wanted the people in captivity and the people who were going into captivity to
understand that there was absolutely nothing that they could do to be right
with God – and nothing has changed – God will save when God wills – because God
made a promise to Abraham, and God cannot lie.
“Behold,
I will bring them from the north country and gather them from the farthest
parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and
she who is in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here.”
And
Jeremiah tells the people that God will one day – after the captivity is over –
bring back a remnant from all over the earth – and God will not merely bring
back the wealthy and the smart, as some might have expected. God would bring
back the people that God chose to bring back – according to His Will and for His
Reasons.
And
the people that God will bring back will be – in part – surprising: the blind,
the lame, and the pregnant women. God chose to save people who would not
normally be admitted to the Temple. God chose to bring people for whom the
travel over those thousands of miles would be extremely difficult. God chose to
bring people who might give birth along the way. God's choice of the remnant to
bring back would be surprising. As Moses wrote: “If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of
heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will
take you” (Deuteronomy 30:4, ESV).
God
was doing something new – something unexpected – God was not bringing back all
of the “right” people. The fact of the matter is that God continues to work in
the same way: “For consider your calling, brothers: not many
of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not
many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame
the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose
what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to
nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of
God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God,
righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let
the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31, ESV).
That's
not to say that God doesn't save the wise and the noble – God does – God saves
the people He always intended to save. The point is that we not be proud of why
God saved us, because we don't know. We ought to be glad and rejoice and praise
God and pray to Him in thanksgiving for His Salvation – for choosing us –
certainly there are better people – more gifted people – prettier people –
there are certainly better pastors.
“With
weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back,”
And
the remnant who returns will come with weeping – they will come in repentance
and joy which causes weeping. One of the Psalms about God's restoration has
these lines: “He
who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts
of joy, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:6, ESV). I wonder if many of
us have not had that experience of weeping for our sin and then rejoicing in
God calling us back in forgiveness? Have you ever truly wept before God for
your sin and then known His forgiveness, such that you rejoice? God has shown
mercy to all those who believe in Him and He will not turn His back on His
people – even as we continue to send – that He calls us to repentance – to true
sorrow – and He is there in mercy with His Arms open, ready to receive His back
in joy.
“I
will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall
not stumble,”
God
now speaks of His Providence for those returning out of captivity: as the lame
and the blind and the pregnant women, and all the others that God has chosen in
His Mercy to receive back, God provides them with water so they will not drop
away and thirst as they make the long journey home.
The
sons of Korah wrote about God's provision in their Psalm: “As they go through the Valley of Baca they
make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools” (Psalm
84:6, ESV).
As
they made their journey from the Euphrates River back to Israel through
mountains and valleys, God gave them a straight path – almost as though there
were a highway through the desert. And God's Character does not change: we remember the prophecy of Isaiah: “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the
LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’” (Isaiah 40:3, ESV).
God
will bring us to Himself without stumbling. It may seem like we’re stumbling
all over the place, but God's Way is straight and narrow – and God will not
lose one of His Own.
“for
I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.”
Jeremiah tells the captives that God
is their Father – the believers of this remnant are not merely part of the
people, but they are His sons and daughters. God does not choose us to be mere
servants, but to be His sons and daughters.
As Paul explained, “So then,
brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For
if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put
to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the
Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to
fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by
whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and
fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also
be glorified with him”
(Romans
8:12-17, ESV).
God called the returning exiles
Israel – Ephraim – the firstborn – symbolically referring to any believers who
returned, not merely those of the tribe of Ephraim or the nation of Israel. God
expressed His Fatherly Love toward the remnant that He would save from Babylon.
In
the same way, God is our Father – God is Father to each person who believes in Him
by faith alone. God has chosen a remnant from throughout the world and He
changes our hearts and makes us believe. And then we have faith to believe in Him
and follow after Him and know that He is our loving Father – the God Who
provides for all of our needs, including our greatest need – that of salvation
from God.
So,
all those who believed during the exile had that hope in knowing that they were
not in Babylon merely according to the Wrath of the Almighty God, but due to
the discipline of their loving Father – the Father who would not leave them
forever, but when the time was right would bring them home again.
Where
does your hope life? Does it lie in your ability? Or your money? Or your
family? Or the good things you do? Where is your hope?
Is
it that while you are in exile in this fallen world, the Father Who loves you
and has called you to be His son or daughter has changed you and saved you and
made you right with Him forever and will one day bring you back to a perfect,
restored Creation in His Kingdom forevermore?
Let
us pray:
Almighty
God, and our Father, we thank You for showing the exiles that sin is serious
and must be punished, and for also showing them that You are a loving and
faithful Father Who makes His sons and daughters right with Him – not through
anything that they do – but through what You do. We thank You for the
fulfillment of prophecy in the sending of Your Son, Jesus, that all we who
believe by Your Mercy and through Your Grace, have now been adopted as sons and
daughters. Help us to live in trust in such a way that others will know Who our
Father is. For to You is the praise and the glory forever and ever, in Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
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