Gadfly's Muse

One Of These Days....

[GlacierApproach, 2009, DJohanson]

Jeremiah 23:5-6   " Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.  In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

"The days are coming...."  What power can reside in those words! 

I remember as a young boy that my mother would say something similar... usually in a not very hopeful context.  "One of these days, young man, you'll learn...." and then she would go on to fill in the specifics of that impending enlightenment that surely would either straighten me out or do me in entirely. 

Of course it was not always bleak.  There were those times when the "one of these days" speech foretold of the joy that lay on the other side of .... high school, .... college.... a well paying job... marriage.  It was usually framed as the apodosis following some form of "if you work hard... then one of these days..." 

Whatever the particular context... the idea that "the days are coming..." framed the current circumstance in terms of the future.  It made the present understandable as because the "now" was connected to the "then".  It may not have been an exact cause/effect relation.... there were variables that remained unaccountable... but there was a sense of inevitability to it... timing may be longer or shorter, the degree of attainment might be more or less.... but the essence never in doubt.  The days are coming... the will come.... this present will be past and the future will be now.

That perspective of "now/then" that she so diligently impressed upon me has never left my soul.  I honor her for her love, care and wisdom even now that she has past on these many years ago.  How much we need that same sense to reawaken in our collective hearts in this bleak, "now" focused age in which we live. 

It appears to me that our society is characterized by a certain bleakness about the future.  We seem to simply accept that the best days are here, that things cannot get better, and that what we have is not all that great.  The future will be more of the same at best and quite possibly a lot less.  "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" is not entirely apropros to the general sense... sadly because there is not much joy and feasting in the "now".

Christians however have no right to buy into that lie.  The days of Jeremiah were truly bleak.  The people of God did not face a happy future at all.  "But", God said, "One of these days, there will come a day when the King of Righteousness will arise".  There will come a day when there will be a new prosperity, a different kind of prosperity... a flourishing of peace, justice and salvation.  This flourishing will be concomitant with his reign... it will start small, beginning when He ascends to His throne... but it will grow... and spread... and fill the whole earth.  The angels who sing at His birth will weep at His death and shout at His resurrection.  And then they will become His messengers, moving among men and serving those who serve Him.  There will be battles and losses and pain and grief in some quarters, but His invincible advance shall surely overcome all His foes. 

Like the clouds and the rain and the pastel skies, His glory will gently settle on a bleak and devastated landscape.  The promise is true and cannot be denied.  The barren forest will feather it leaves... the muddy river will run clean... and the hills will resound with laughter. 

One of these days... it will be complete.  One of these days .... One of these days.

What Goes Around.... Comes Around....

[Stairs, 2009, JAVanDevender]

Jeremiah 22:13-14   " Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness And his chambers by injustice, Who uses his neighbor's service without wages And gives him nothing for his work,  Who says, 'I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, And cut out windows for it, Paneling it with cedar And painting it with vermilion.'

As I mentioned just recently to a correspondent, I have been reading Emerson's Essays and I have been struck with a couple of points he makes.  In the essay "Compensation" he somewhat surprisingly talks about "cost."  To sum it up in my words his point is essentially this:  "Everything has its price."  If you pay the price for whatever you desire, such as fame, or wealth, or artistic accomplishment, or slothfulness, etc. then you are essentially virtuous though you may be judged imprudent as to your choices and your desires.  It is when you seek to attain "something for nothing", in other words you seek "fame" without paying the attendant demands on humility, etc. or the corresponding "costs" associated with the other goals, then you are setting yourself against the "natural law."  This "law" operates such that sooner or later the ledger columns are balanced.  You will "pay" the costs of whatever you attain one way or the other.  "Compensation" is the inevitable product of this balancing.

There are things worth pondering in this idea.  Certainly the "evil" of any worldly object or attainment is the abuse of it or the perversion of its "good."  There is nothing intrinsically wrong with "fame."  The Scriptures called this "glory" as of the "glory of Solomon" being his wisdom.  There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wealth.  We might make the case that there is certainly something morally wrong with "slothfulness" but we would not say the same for "leisure."  What Emerson says, and what I believe we find in Scriptures, is that there are attendant "costs", demands, corresponding requirements that come along with any and every decision we make.  Jesus said that such was the case even when someone is considering the call to discipleship, to following Him.  "Count the cost" (Luke 14:28ff) He said and He knew and we know that the cost can be intimidating in some cases.

Yet it is most often this "cost" business that gets us in trouble.  We want the object but we want it without the hassle that comes with it.  We don't particularly like humility in the best of circumstances and we find it even harder when worldly attainments make it appear that we truly are superior to our fellows.  Riches put many things within our reach which would best be left unattainable.  With great authority goes great responsibility and we can find it to be irritating to bear.  So we seek to keep the goodies and wiggle out of paying the cost.  Truly, as the Scripture teaches, this is attempting to rob God (Mal. 3:8).

In the passage quoted above, God through Jeremiah reinforces this idea.  Those who build their houses by unrighteousness and attain their privileges and comfort through injustice will pay the cost.  "Woe" will come upon them and with much regret they will see that "what goes around comes around."

But it works in a positive sense also.  The payment of the cost affirms the blessings and improves the return on investment.  Paying the "cost" of loving your neighbor brings a return of love in response.  We reap what we sow.  Paying the "cost" of promoting justice will, in God's provision, enable and promote justice in others.  It works both ways because it is God Himself who stands behind the "law" of compensation.  

What we need to do is "study" these things.  We need to ascend to a new level of understanding how life really works and open our eyes to see how it does correspond to this idea.  We need to walk up the steps and arrive at the nice green pastures, the condition of "shalom", which is life in God's Kingdom.

The "cost" of wisdom is study, meditation and practice.  Each is a step up the stairway.

Heavenly Heartburn

[Honeysuckle, 2009, JAVanDevender]

Jeremiah 20:7  O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.

Inherent in the Christian journey is the inevitable sense of struggle.... not only with man, not only with our sinful nature, not only  with Satan... but with God Himself.

In one sense it is a measure of our sinfulness... no doubt about it... but the manner in which it shows itself is the struggle with God.  Jonah struggled by running away.  He didn't want any part of what God wanted so he took the next boat out to Tarshish (Jonah 1:3) and wound up returning in a much different way.  But his words in the belly of the fish were essentially the same as Jeremiah's above.  OK... I give... You win.

Jacob literally wrestled with a heavenly Being...  this is not the place to explore the Person of his Holy Antagonist... but the outcome was a life long limp, a reminder of Who is in charge.  Paul speaks of wrestling with God over a particular thorn in his flesh (2 Co. 12:7).  He wanted it removed.  God said "No!"  Paul had to live with it.

Jeremiah had been called to a difficult, demanding and apparently futile ministry.  God put His Word in Jeremiah's "heart like a burning fire" (Jer. 20:9), a Heavenly Heart Burn, and Jeremiah could do no other than speak it.  Yet he struggled with God over the calling.  Just let me alone... let me have some peace before I die.  There are echoes of our Lord in the garden on the night He was betrayed and just hours before He was to ascend Golgotha - "If it be your will, let this cup be taken from me....."

Wrestling with God is inevitable in the progress of our sanctification.  Sometimes it is the first step we take as we struggle like fish on a line, resisting God's hand drawing us to Himself.  Sometimes it is the character of a phase of our life as we shudder and twist under the gale force winds that blow our little ship about.  Sometimes it is a single big event... a crisis... a command we don't want to follow, a choice we don't want to make... a consequence we don't want to endure.  We see that it is manifestly God's will that such and such be the case.... but we don't want it.... and we want God to make it otherwise... we want what we want... we do not want what He wills. 

And so we struggle.

And always... it turns out the same way... "You induced me, and I was persuaded.  You are stronger than I, and have prevailed."

God always prevails in these struggles because, of course He is stronger.  But it is more than that.  He is stronger in these wrestling matches because He is right.  His cause is right.  His object in our life and the life of the world about us is right.  His purposes are right.  His wisdom is right.  At every point, in the contest of wills, it is the ultimate justice of His plans and His methods that overwhelm our opposition.  We, sooner or later, recognize that the force of our resistance is our desire to sacrifice His good ends, His ultimate benefits, for our temporary relief.  We see that it is essentially our selfishness that is prompting our efforts while He, who needs nothing, who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, who gains nothing for Himself in His doings, is motivated by grace... is moved by His irresistible will to bless His people and cause all things to work together for their good, for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Rom. 8:28).

He's stronger because He's right.

It is only when we see this in these terms, against this backdrop, does the flower of God's purposes in our lives stand sharp and clear.  Our eyes are drawn to its beauty... and our resistance crumbles and we are truly and finally fitted for the task at hand.

Beauty, truth, justice, mercy ... all bloom at the hand of the God who overcomes our objections and bends us to His service.  And the end of His beginning is life... and that more abundantly.

Beauty In The Ditch....

[RoadsideWhite, 2008, JAVanDevender]

Jeremiah 15:19-21   Therefore thus says the LORD: "If you return, Then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, You shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, But you must not return to them.  And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; And they will fight against you, But they shall not prevail against you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you," says the LORD.  "I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible."

A roadside ditch can be an interesting place.

All around is the detritus of (literally) passing civilization.  Except during the driest of summer months it is usually damp, with that rotting smell of decayed and decaying matter all about.  There are the inevitable soft drink cans that the uncouth toss out their windows, the only witness which will remain to their insignificant lives.  Sprinkled in and about, as if in deliberate defiance to human insensitivity, are wild flowers.  I am certain that these particular ones were deliberately seeded here, but it was their stalwart integrity which enabled them to prosper and bloom in what appeared to be a most inhospitable setting.  When things turn to trash, mildew and decay, God causes flowers to bloom.

Jeremiah, for all practical purposes, was the only one still standing in the ditch that now characterized the nation of Judah.  God's chosen people had presumed upon Him, littered His land with their refuse, and sped on by to whatever ultimately trivial and demeaning destination seemed so important at the moment.  Entirely self-focused, given over to pleasure, seeking after whatever quick-fix band-aid might solve the immediate challenges in their lives, they had lost sight of high and lofty goals, they had lost touch with their Creator God and were Hell-bent on destruction.

Jeremiah, though he personally could not see it himself, stood like a shining white flower in the midst of the trash.  And his blooming did not escape God's eye. 

"They will not prevail against you... For I am with you to save you."  God tells him.  Those who hold you in such contempt... those who seek to quiet your mouth... those who design to push you to the margins of society and thereby suppress your message... it is they who will decay and turn into mold about you."

It is essential to God's justice that He vindicate the faithful.  No matter what the landscape nor how intolerant and insensitive and callous and contemptuous the culture... even if it be within our own households... yet God will not allow His beautiful flowers, which He has cultivated, which He has caused to bloom in the ditch, to wither and die unmarked, unheralded and unjustified.  To His eyes we are precious, colorful and dressed in white.  We are cleansed with the blood of His Son and pure and holy and more valuable than gold.  Our lives are His message to the world... this beauty amidst the ruins is the message of My Person.

"They shall NOT prevail against you" says the Lord, our God.  Such is the courage of His saints.

The Way Of A Man......

[Horse, 2008, JAVanDevender]

Jeremiah 10:23-24    O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.  O LORD, correct me, but with justice; Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing. 

Once upon a time in a land far, far away... namely my childhood in that "other" world of the 1950's, there existed something called "Blue Horse" notebooks, pads of paper, and all kinds of other materials to purchase for school supplies.  (You can see what I am talking about HERE)  If you cut out the "Blue Horses" and saved them up into packs of ten and fifty, you could send them off for various prizes and more stuff.  It was all great fun and little raggedy-muffin, bare-foot kids could daydream about saving up enough to get a bicycle, or a Stan Musial fielder's glove, or some other treasure, of which the combined total of coupons would require schooling through graduate levels at college to save up.  But, daydreams are supposed to be fantasies.   Mostly, we wound up settling for pencils or erasers or something similar.  But the old memories are sweet and the image above is not too far removed from that which was on the coupons.

Other than the nostalgic tug though, the aspect of this image that drew me to it was the halter.  Here is a very nice horse, of much superior strength than a man, and yet, subject to man's leading.  Pull on the halter and the horse follows.  That is the nature of the horse (at least most of them), that is the way of the world of horses.

Jeremiah is not thinking of horses though.  He is thinking of you and me.  'The way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps."  (cf. Proverbs 16:9,  20:24).  Our lives unfold before us in increments: moments, hours, days, weeks, years.  In each of these instances we deal with whatever lies before us.  We move, we react, we plan, we consider, we talk, we sulk, etc.  Our individual nature responds to the challenges of the moment and we exercise our "free will" in accordance with the impulses and desires and considerations which arise from the often competing tendencies that lie within us.

Alexander Pope was a great poet.... he described us this way:  "Chaos of thought and passion, all confused..."  That's pretty accurate when we get right down to it.  Yet, we bumble along and do what we do and reap what we sow.  From our perspective, it is OUR life and with more or less heat, we insist upon that notion.

Yet, it is one of the great humbling discoveries of life, the beginning of true wisdom, to discover that such is not a true depiction.  The world is not filled with endless possibilities all awaiting our puny choices in fulfillment.  For all our relative strengths within the created order, yet, sinner and saint, we are all haltered and led.  We pass on this stage, play the assigned role we have been given from all eternity to play, and exit stage right or left into the curtains of history.  God leads us so deftly that we don't even feel the bit between our teeth. 

Are we mere automatons?  Far from it, and this is not the medium for an extended defense or development of the thought.  All that is important now is the comfort of the idea for my purposes here.

To know... to really know... that my life cannot fail means a lot.  To know, that God is directing my steps such that the part I play in the comedy of life will be meaningful and efficiently arranged to do that which God from all eternity intended for me (Eph. 2:10), is the most freeing doctrine of personal theology that I can imagine.  Whether I strive and fail miserably according to my plans, or stumble into some good fortune and by seeming "good luck" have a huge impact in some way... all are so arranged, and so coordinated that not one measure of energy is wasted.

God is in His Heaven... He has not abandoned me, or you, or this world.  No matter how we strive we can never break the bonds of His Sovereignty in all things.  What a relief!

Let Me Talk With You About Your Judgments!

[Bee_Stylized, 2008, JAVanDevender]

Jeremiah 12:1-5  Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?  You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth But far from their mind.   But You, O LORD, know me; You have seen me, And You have tested my heart toward You. .....   How long will the land mourn, And the herbs of every field wither? The beasts and birds are consumed, For the wickedness of those who dwell there, Because they said, "He will not see our final end." 

" If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? 

It is always dangerous to presume that God owes us an explanation for what's going on at the time.  Jeremiah, as is so common with us, looked around him at the sordid mess we sinners have made of our lives, of our families, of our communities, of our nation and indeed of our world, and he wonders "Why do you let this go on?"

"Do you see Lord how wicked some of these people are?  Everyone seems to look out only for number one and everyone else be damned!  People do what they can get away with.  If it means taking something, or taking advantage, or pushing the limits, or saying whatever happens to flit through their sin besotten brains... they do it or say it."

"And look what this general depravity has brought upon us.  The land is broken.  Crime fills our streets.  People live in fear.  Our leaders are corrupt, petty and tyrannical.  The semblance of prosperity is a mere facade with the corners already charred and smoking.  A mere spark would cause it to flash and burn to powder. "

"Why, Lord, won't you fix it?"

God, in a manner very nearly like His response to Job, says... "Do you think you could understand... or even if you understood, do you think you could BEAR the knowledge of MY ways?.... You have run your race in the presence of footmen, foot racers... do you think you can keep up with thoroughbreds?  You have struggled with the misery that has come on you and your land when things are relatively peaceful, when no armies were at the gates.  Do you think you are ready to see the carnage that is on the flat plains of the Jordan, the place where armies clash?

"I have My ways and they are certain.  Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.  You, Jeremiah... you, whoever you are in your own time and place, attend to the duties that are before you.  Content yourself, like a bee, with the flower that is under your specific wings.  Work your work, do your job, attend to your business.  Be faithful in a little and I will make you lord over much."

God's ways of dealing with big problems is by having His people solve little ones... their little ones.  If the individual cleans up his act, and his family follows... and those who are with him join him in cleaning up theirs... then pretty soon the Sun of Righteousness dawns on the darkened horizon.

It is not up to us to comprehend the fullness of God's ways or His plans.  They are beyond us.  We are footmen and He is the ultimate Thoroughbred.  But we can and we must know our place... and the problems that are ours to solve ... and the ministry and witness that we are to bear.  We are bees hovering above a flower... let's tend to what is ours to tend and let God raise up others to tend to theirs. 

Thy Kingdom Come... Thy Will Be Done... On Earth As It Is In Heaven.

The Old Paths

[MadeForMotorcycles, 2008, JAVanDevender]

Jeremiah 6:16   16 Thus says the LORD: "Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. 

"New is always better!"  By now, if you have lived very much at all, whether in age or experience, you probably know that such is not the case. 

We spend a considerable amount of time discovering that what we have (or what we had) is better than what we would trade for it.  Not that I would want to return to the days when there was no running water in the house... I like my hot showers... but certainly the intangibles that accompanied those days back when we had no indoor conveniences are objects of nostalgia.  When you don't have much you are forced to appreciate what you have.  Somehow, for example, Christmas was more exciting than now.  The gifts were truly special because they were not something that ordinarily was even possible.  In today's world the gifts on Christmas are special when they are unique but seldom are they special because they would not be otherwise attainable. 

Furthermore, the lack of telephone, television, etc. enabled and facilitated the arts of conversation and reading.  As I said, there are certain intangibles that accompanied the "old" days which the "new" lack.

It is inevitable I suppose for the lure of "the new" to incline folks to explore it.  I don't necessarily diminish that.  We are supposed to be improving the world as we inhabit it.  The problem with "the new" is that once embarked upon it, if we actually discover "the new" not to be better, instead of going back to "the old" we try to repair, patch up, polish, or otherwise fix "the new" so as to make it work.

There are times... there are ideas... there are projects... which are so fundamentally flawed that they cannot be repaired, patched up, polished or in any other way made to work.  There are some "new" things which need to be abandoned as early as possible and we need to return to the "old" way and rediscover its merits.

The degree to which "the new" ideas floating around today are manifestly, fundamentally, flawed is, to my eye, self-evident.  We have not "improved" the basic human condition by abandoning old ideas of right & wrong, virtue, integrity, honor, etc.  A single instance should suffice - the value of honest, manual labor.  Today a young person who does not go to college so as to get a "good" job is considered second rate at best and an object of pity at worst.  Yet, in many ways, honest skilled labor is the surest way to job contentment.  It is the one most availing of job satisfaction in final product completion.  A craftsman is faced with problems that are unique to each project and solutions which are his and his alone in surpassing them.  This is just a single instance where a return to the "old" ways of thinking might actually solve large issues of angst and frustration in our society.

No where does the need to return to the "old" ways show itself most pressing than in our Christian witness.  Living for the glory of God instead of self-oriented "fix my life" therapeutic band aids, would restore the leaven in the loaf character of the Church at large, yet it requires a return to "communal identity" instead of "self", it requires a giving over to Christ and submission to His will instead of our own desires.  It requires that we actually believe the promises, tremble at the threatenings, and sincerely desire justice rather than special treatment.  Humility before the living God seems so strange today... it was abandoned at some point in favor of a "new" path...

The "old" ways are still there... we just need to turn and return to them.

The Road of Returning...

[Overlook, 2008, JAVanDevender]

Jeremiah 3:14,15,17   14 "Return, O backsliding children," says the LORD; "for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.  15 ¶ "And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. .... 17 "At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.

There is something refreshing yet not precisely understood that happens when one stands on a hill top and looks at the view.  The landscape unfurls beneath you... the clouds seem to extend from your very forehead.  Eagles and hawks are level with your eyes instead of far above.  Somehow we feel that this is how it ought to be.  This is where we rightly should stand.  From here things are seen in perspective.  Standing above it all one can discern patterns, progress, the way forward.  Man was not meant to be in the pits slushing through the mire.  Man was meant to stand above, look about, and with clear eyes and clear understanding plot his course on the journey God had set for him to complete.

Yet these moment are more often the exception than the rule.  We may not have been meant for the mire but that is where we spend most of our time.  And we do not escape the smell.  We find ourselves lost and fallen and at some level, alone.  We fall into habits of the soul that shame our conscience and offend our sensibilities.  But such is the thicket about us that we can only dimly remember the light, the blue sky, the clear vision of where we are.

Sin does that.  It tears our flesh like brambles.  It clings to our person like the filthy mud in a swamp.  We long to be clean, to be whole, to be back on the road, traversing the peaks rather than the briar patch.

How comforting it is to know that there is One who can accomplish just that very feat.  How incredible it is to realize that no matter how far we have wandered, how badly we have fallen, how miserably we are lost... yet there is one who can set our feet again on the high places and restore us to a true vision of the place we are in. 

No matter where we are in our journey, God never forgets His own.  Those who belong to Him are constantly being sought by Him.  His hand is always there to guide them back to the Road of Returning.  And as He sets our feet again on the right path, more and more through His Holy Spirit does He equip us so that we are able to stay on it, to not wobble off into the thickets again, to change our hearts so that we don't long for the smell of the swamp... at least not as much.

"I will bring you to Zion" He says.  You will never find it on your own.  But I will reach out to you.. I will redeem you... I will wash your dirty linens and clean your scabrous wounds.  You belong to Me.  I have married you and I shall delight in you, though you have strayed from Me.

The Road of Returning is uphill for a while... but the clear air, fresh breeze and beautiful vista awaits at the top.   Return to Me, O backsliding children... for I am married to you.

Sins, Individual and Corporate

[StandingWatch, 2009, JAVanDevender]

Jeremiah 2:11   11 Has a nation changed its gods, Which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory For what does not profit.

It was back in October when I took this photo.   I was on my morning walk (which I am desperately in need of starting up again) and all I had with me was a little point and shoot Nikon.  The image is as stretched as it can be without the grain completely obscuring the content.

The big old Red-Tail (I think) was serene on his vantage point.  The crow in the lower middle was no threat until he took flight.  But from this point no field mouse was safe and the whole area was open to his view.

I don't think it too far removed to think of God in a similar fashion.  Above and beyond history He sees it all, from beginning to end.  It is open to His inspection and intervention as well as His guidance.  His eye misses nothing... no tell tale movement in the grass escapes His notice no matter how well concealed the mouse thinks he may be.

The people of God had sinned... egregiously... continuously... without significant deviation for centuries.  As God goes on to say in this chapter, it has not escaped His notice.  Though they think that their secret idolatry is obscured by the magnitude of events happening all about them, though they think that God, if He cares at all, has to be more concerned with the manifest evil that exists in those other nations surrounding them: Egypt, Assyria, and now Babylon, yet, God sees all, hears all, is affected by all.  God tells Jeremiah go speak to them and tell them... I know what's going on.  I know what is in your heart.

Jeremiah relays the message God has given Him.  Your sin is greater than that of Egypt, Assyria or Babylon.  As barbaric as they are, as cruel and sensuous, as addicted to pleasure, as drunken as they remain, yet in this they are more righteous than you... they have not rejected THEIR gods... even if those gods are nothing but mute rock and timber.  You, however, knew the one true God... you who had everything going for you have turned from Him.  You have traded all your valuable gold for worthless tin. The people of God kept up the semblance of covenant with God... but their hearts were far from Him.

And so God says that He will repay.  He will repay individually and He will repay corporately.  He will bring the individual and the nation to their respective knees.  Like the hawk swooping down from his perch, so God will descend with fury and He will sanctify His people through His wrath.

We need to be reminded of this.  Our God is God of men and nations.  He deals with each.  A nation, such as ours, with a long history of Christian tradition, stands before God as more guilty than those who have never known Him.  As individuals we have a responsibility, like Jeremiah, to proclaim the truth to our communities, to our cities, and to our nation, that we are far removed from being righteous and God is watching.  As individuals we and our families may not escape the corporate chastening that God appears to be bringing to pass.  As individuals we and our families need to inspect our own attitudes and practices to see where we stand in the face of our corporate guilt.  Are we a force for good, standing against the tide?  Or are we just one more piece of flotsam drifting along toward the sewer.

The stakes are high... it's a life or death question.

The Last Act of Defiance....

[Tree&Snow, 2010, JAVanDevender]
Isaiah 66:21-23   21 "And I will also take some of them for priests and Levites," says the LORD.  22 " For as the new heavens and the new earth Which I will make shall remain before Me," says the LORD, "So shall your descendants and your name remain.  23 And it shall come to pass That from one New Moon to another, And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me," says the LORD.

It just seemed so incongruous, standing there three months into the winter, surrounded by snow 30 inches deep, and still hanging on to its leaves.  Those gold colors stood bold against the powdery blue so characteristic of snowy days.  Yet in spite of the blustery winds that had only recently accompanied the flooding snow there were no specks of gold fallen beneath the tree.  "Show me your worst" seemed to be its message, "I know Spring is coming and I shall not lose these until the new birth arrives."

So the people of God stand, hanging on to their leaves, awaiting the promises of God.  And what promises they are!  In the midst of worldly despair, hauled off into captivity, subject to scorn and ridicule, they and their God the object of sneering by the arrogant Babylonians, yet still, they were God's tree and therefore they had hope.  So said Isaiah and so said God. 

There will come a day when I shall take all these Gentiles, those who now sneer and make jokes, and I shall bring them to their knees in repentance.  Yes, I am allowing them to remain in their ignorance for a season (cf. Acts 17:30) but there will come a time when the clarion call of truth will resound throughout the entire world.  In the very midst of winter, when shepherds are guarding their flocks, a voice will be heard and the world will be commanded to peace. 

From the very midst of these barbaric tribes will come those with hat in hand, clothed in sack cloth and ashes, and with wailing voice decry their past sins and ignorance.  They will see the one true God through the one true Christ Whom He sends.  And through the power of the Holy Spirit acting in His Gospel, they will turn to Him and be saved.  From them, from these very peoples, will come those who will be the new priests and Levites, the new elders and deacons, of the new Israel, the new Church which I shall call into being.

And it shall be a new creation, a people whose heart will seek the Lord and they will observe the Sabbath I command, the Sabbath of the Lord, revealed in Christ and celebrating His resurrection.  There will come a day when members of every tribe and every nation, representatives of all flesh, will bow their knee before Me and proclaim that Jesus is Lord.

That is the Spring that is coming.  Maintain your colors, hold on to that which you have been given, stand fast before the blast of cold wintry air that Satan's defeated legions are yet able to send upon us.  Maintain the witness, even if it seems you are all alone in the midst of the field.  Even now the prophecy is coming true.  Even now the dark recesses of the globe are yielding their treasures and people pour out of the caves where they have been sequestered and are hearing the Gospel and responding in faith.

It's cold at times... and bleak at others... but that cannot dim the brilliance of God's day.  It's here yet not yet.  It's come and it is coming.  It's now and then.  But perhaps... it's not that much longer till spring.