Daily Radio Bible - September 10th, 21

The words that we've read today in Lamentations are quite sobering. In fact, they're downright disturbing. taken at face value these readings beg the question, what is God like? is Jeremiah saying that YAHWEH is a God who makes his people eat gravel. He tells us in this passage that all these afflictions come from the rod of the Lord's anger, that God has led him into darkness And out of all light -- that God has made his skin and flesh grow old -- that he has broken his bones -- that God has buried him in a dark place -- that God is bound him in chains and blocked his way-- That God has dragged him off a path and torn him to pieces -- that God has left him helpless and devastated -- that God has drawn his bow, and made him a target for his arrows -- that God has shot his arrows deep into his heart -- that God has made him to on gravel, that God has rolled him in the dust, and stripped him of, of all peace. Is this what God is like? is Yahweh like the Greek gods, who sit on Mount Olympus? And are capricious toying with their people, afflicting their people? Does Yahweh need to be appeased in order to stay in his graces,  otherwise he makes you eat gravel? Is that what God is like? For many of us, passages that describe God like this, create some questions and uncertainty, anxiety even related to how we think God is. And because we don't know what to make of these passages that describe God in this way, we fail to rest, we fail to trust, we fail to come close and grow in our affections towards him, we fail to know him his father. So it's very important that we understand how to understand these passages that speak of God. In such a monstrous light. One of the interpretive principles that we use when wrestling with the Bible, is to understand that God allows his people to tell his story. And so Jeremiah, the author of this book is telling us how it felt, to be under siege, to be under attack to feel like the whole world is crumbling before you. Or he feels that this is all coming from the very hand of God Himself. And it's important that we read things in context, because he tells us after saying these horrendous things in verse 21, he tells us this  Yet  I still dare to hope. Even though I feel that this is how God has dealt harshly with me, I still will hope. When I remember this, the faithful love of the Lord never ends. Now here the Prophet arrives at, what we know to be true about God, that God is love, and his faithful love will never end. In fact, it's new every morning. And we know this because this is what was revealed to us in Christ. God's Final declaration and revelation of who he is, before we open the scriptures, whether it's in the Old Testament or the New Testament, we approach it with a commitment to the gospel of Christ. Christ is the final and ultimate revelation of who God is. In fact, the Bible cannot be properly understood, unless we view it from the vantage of the gospel of Christ, the living word.

God did not come to make us eat gravel and to pay for our sins. God came to deliver us from evil, to deliver us from wrath, not to inflict it. Romans 5:10 says this much more being justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through him. This is what God is like. And the more that we begin to know him as he is, the more we will trust Him, the more our affections will grow for him. The more that we will know him As Father. Now we'll circle back to this again as we go through the Scriptures together. Because this is a perennial question, this is something that haunts us. Something we need our minds and hearts renewed from. As we look into the face of Jesus, as we meditate on the goodness of God and His gospel, for more of God's word, all of it will begin to take on a new life and new hope, causing Jeremiah song to well up within our hearts, that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness. And the prayer of my own heart today is that I will see beyond the shadows of what Jeremiah saw and look clearly into the face of Christ. And allow him the living word of God to change and transform my frightened heart, to behold the God who is love. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family for my wife, my daughters, my son, and that's a peer that I have for you. Me, may it be so

You are loved!