Harsh Mercy

"'Have you noticed what people are saying?

--"The LORD chose Judah and Israel

and abandoned them!"

They are sneering and saying that Israel is not worthy

to be counted as a nation.

But this is what the LORD says:

I would no more reject my people 

than I would change my laws that govern night and day,

earth and sky.

I will never abandon the descendants of Jacob or David,

my servant, or change the plan

that David's descendants will rule the descendants

of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Instead, I will restore them to their land

and have mercy on them.'"

Jeremiah 33:24-26 NLT

It seems harsh and cruel, as if God had deserted His people.  In reality, it was quite the opposite.  In His punishment, He was demonstrating a harsh mercy because without this hard time of exile, His people may never come back to Him.  And without this severe kindness, the rest of the benefits would not follow.

Healing.  Humans can be quite hardheaded.  We can be given every good thing, lavished with life, abundance, prosperity, security and love yet fail to acknowledge the Source of all these good things.  It often takes a harsh wake-up-call to remind me from where all good things come.  It might take a wounding of sorts, a taste of bitterness that leaves me reeling in pain in order to bring me to my senses.

Once I come around, realizing how dependent I am upon the Lord, He heals my wounds.  He brings about peace of mind, tranquility of spirit, and harmony in my relationship with Him (Jeremiah 33:6).  He builds up many treasures of eternal value, overflowing my cup with His love, joy, grace and riches untold.  And I enjoy robust health, especially in my spirit which is the part of me that matters.  Even if my body remains ravaged by the forces of this dark world, my spirit can soar free in the flow of His great love for me.  What can anyone or any circumstance do to me if God has me firmly in His clutches (Romans 8:31)? 

Even when God uses harsh difficulties to bring me back to Him, He heals the wounds that follow, generously giving peace and prosperity to me as His beloved child through repentance and faith in Jesus.

Restoration.  There are many things that can hold me captive.  Addictions of many kinds, habits of various sorts, tendencies that lead me toward self-reliance and self-obsession, anything that rules me, that has a hold on me, that controls me.  As much as the people of Judah were held as prisoners by the Babylonians, I can be owned by whatever drives me.

But God created me for more than this, for something greater than living only for myself.  He made me for relationship with Him.  And when He frees me from the captivity of all that binds me, His mission is to restore me to this original intention for me.  He can rebuild my life to what it was meant to be, back when God first designed me, before sin ruined His perfect bond with me.  Through repentance and faith in Jesus, I can taste a renewal of this Father-child relationship and see how sweet it is to live in harmony with Him as I was always meant to live (Jeremiah 33:7).

Even when God uses harsh difficulties to bring me back to Him, He restores me to my original condition as a precious, well-loved child through repentance and faith in Jesus.

Cleansing.  Part of what holds me back, weighs me down, is guilt over my sins.  There are so many ways I fail, fall short, crash and burn.  It sometimes seems to define me, to color me, to give me my identity.  I feel unworthy of living as a child of the One True God, of standing in His presence, of asking for His mercy.

Yet in Christ, I have all this and more.  In Christ I am forgiven, set free from the burden of guilt, identified as His heritage, the bearer of His inheritance (Romans 8:17).  Once God gets my attention, sometimes by bringing out the big guns of suffering, wallowing in the muck, hitting rock-bottom, I find forgiveness in Christ.  Through faith in what Jesus has done, I realize the futility of living my old life and develop a taste for this new life He has brought forth in me.  Even though my sin makes me His enemy I can do something different, turning from my old ways and treasuring His ways.  And when I do, Jesus calls me a friend (John 15:14-15).  And I can live as one who is forgiven, no longer tainted by the sin that used to define me (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Even when God uses harsh difficulties to bring me back to Him, through repentance and faith in Jesus, He cleanses me from all unrighteousness and presents me as holy and blameless before Him (Jeremiah 33:8, Colossians 1:22).

God's people of old must have felt abandoned by God, but they were anything but forgotten.  In the same way, I may feel like yesterday's treasure, discarded as He moves on to someone else.  In reality, God may be using severe tactics in order to get my attention or further refine me.  Consequently, I can be sure that this harsh mercy will end in healing, restoration and cleansing.  In God's hands, it truly is all good.

As I begin this day it is my prayer that I can trust God enough to walk by faith when I feel all alone.

How can I remind myself of the truth of God's promises to heal, restore and forgive?

When do I lose hope, falling into despair when I could look to the promises of a faithful God?