Lauren and Bill were standing at the altar. Seated in the pews behind them were their
grown children and grandchildren. Although they had been married for years, they had decided to renew their marriage vows. As he stood at the altar and looked at his bride, Bill also remembered how the first twenty years of their marriage had been a nightmare for his wife and children. Bill had struggled with his alcoholism, insisting that he “didn’t have a problem” even though he had been fired from several jobs. Lauren had worked a full-time and a part-time job to pay the rent and other bills. She had to take care of the children alone. Five years ago, Lauren had finally insisted that Bill join a substance abuse program. Lauren had also talked Bill into attending church with her. A year later, Bill accepted Christ as his personal Savior. As he stood at the altar, he thanked God for giving him Lauren and for giving him an opportunity to renew his covenant of marriage with such a wonderful woman. God’s love is forever.
Even when we sin and turn away from God, He wants us to return to Him and His care and protection.
Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 31:35-37)
In these verses, Jeremiah offers even greater hope to the captives to whom he is writing. It is God, the prophet posits, who can control the uncontrollable. The intricate cycles of day and night and the motion and movement of seas are under the sovereign control of God. God alone orders and controls nature. Jeremiah now presents a powerful image for his reader. In order for Israel not to belong to God, God would have to discard His control of nature itself— something that clearly cannot happen since God alone is sovereign. God and God alone, the prophet declares, is able to restore His people and only He can hold any power against them. Jeremiah is clear that the blessings of God’s new covenant will be experienced by a fully restored nation. More importantly, present day believers have the assurance through Christ Jesus that the blessings of God’s new covenant have been extended to us.
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