Relentless Pursuit
In my daily Bible reading, I have been slowly making my way through the Old Testament, and reading the story of God’s people, the Israelites. I am reminded again how often the Israelites strayed from God’s good plan. Just as soon as the nation was collectively following God with their whole heart, it seems that they were turning away again to worship idols.
I have a lot in common with the waywardness of the Israelite people of the Old Testament. They were sinful, broken, suffering, stubborn- and pardon my indelicate word choice- many times, downright stupid. I have this same sin-bent, fallen nature that began with Adam and Eve in the garden. I, as we all are, am affected by the same broken story.
Yet we have the next part of the story that the Israelites didn’t see yet. Instead of a hopelessly broken humanity, we get to see a renewed humanity restored in part to deep relationship with God. We get to see not only the bloody battle, but the victory: We get a taste of the pre-fall, Edenic intimacy with our Creator.
We are just like God’s people in the Old Testament- and just like them, we haven’t done a thing to earn His gift of love. There are many examples of Israel (the people, not the location) turning away from God and then receiving His mercy, but I think Jeremiah 42 is a great example for us here. In this chapter, we see a segment of the vicious cycle of sin-consequences-mercy-repentance that the Israelites went through continuously:
“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? 28 Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it.
… This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight 32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction.” (Jeremiah 42:27-28, 31-33)
“They have turned to me their back and not their face.” That struck me deep. These people outrightly defied God. They built abominable altars and idols and worshipped them, indulging in the most evil and grotesque practices- yet God continued to pursue the Israelites as many times as they turned away from Him.
He did not pursue them because He wanted them to simply “do good”- He wanted a relationship. Nevertheless, Jesus is rejected time and time again. Even in the New Testament, the final stage of the battle for humanity’s restoration, Jesus was spat on, ridiculed, flogged, and crucified by the very people He came to save. He has never forced Himself onto us- He loves with a fierce, death-defying passion, more intimate than anything else we could ever know.
Now let’s go back to Jeremiah 42, picking up in verses 36-42:
“Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: 37 Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. 38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.
42 “For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them.”
Here is part two of the story, God’s mercy and unconditional love for us: “I will bring them back to this place… I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” Reader, can we even begin to grasp the gravity of this?! God loves us with all his heart and soul. He brings us back, no matter how many times we stray. He shelters us, no matter how many times we run away from the safety of his arms. He loves us, no matter how many times we push him away.
Just the same as the Israelites were beckoned back to the romance God had for them, so are we. It does not end here, however. The relationship God desired to have with His people required their desire for a relationship with Him. Love for love, yearning for yearning.
Truly intimate relationships are never one-sided. We pursue God as much as He pursues us! Loving God does not happen simply by “doing good” but by becoming infatuated with Him. Despite our perfidy, God gives us endless chances to fall back in love with Him.