When we last read of
Jeremiah's state, he declared “the Lord will not cast off
forever”, and in chapter three and verse thirty-two he declared
a qualifying statement concerning grief and compassion. We read:
But though he cause
grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his
mercies.
The
verse begins, “But though he cause grief,...” Once again
we encounter the word “but” as Jeremiah continued to share
about the man who “bears his yoke in his youth”. This time
the disassociation conjunction links itself to the idea of being
“cast off forever”. We see the origin or “cause”
of this “affliction, suffering and grievance” as being “the
Lord”. The qualifying and quantifying word employed is “though”
which leads us to know there is more that Jeremiah will add to his
commentary concerning grief.
The
verse goes on to say, “yet will he have compassion
according to the multitude of his mercies.”
Jeremiah doesn't deny the origin of his grief, but he once again
realizes that it has limits. God's “compassion”
which is to “love, love deeply, have mercy, be
compassionate, have tender affection” towards another will be
measured by “the multitude of his mercies”. God's
“greatness and abundance” of “goodness, kindness, and
faithfulness” becomes the degree and limit to which he responds to
the one in whom grief He causes.
At first
glance we may be taken back by the fact that God would “cause
grief”, and we may be inclined to ask, “How could a God of
love cause us to go through grief?” When we consider these things
we should also meditate upon these words by the Prophet Isaiah when
he wrote concerning Jesus in chapter fifty-three and verse three of
the book called after his name:
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our
faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
He also
added this in verse ten of the same chapter:
Yet
it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief:
when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his
seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the
LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Jesus
is acquainted with grief. He experienced it Himself, and when He
allows us to experience grief, we may know that as He was enduring
His grief that a greater purpose may be obtained, so it is with us.
“The pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand”
both with Jesus and with us as we make our way through this sometimes
very grievous world. May the Lord continue to extend his “multitude
of mercies” and “compassion”
toward us as we venture.
Next
time we will see more about how the Lord works with grief, so read
ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be
Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the
Mount” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ;
www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at
www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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