As Jeremiah winds down his
thoughts and words in the book of Lamentations, he pointed them
toward the Lord in prayer. He declared the eternal characteristic of
the Lord, and because of His generational to generational nature,
Jeremiah asked why God forgot and forsook the people of Jerusalem and
Judah. In chapter five and verse twenty-one Jeremiah pleads for the
Lord to “turn” and “renew” the relationship
they once knew with Him where we read:
Turn us unto you, O
LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
The
verse begins, “Turn us unto you, O LORD, and we shall be
turned;” If we use our
imaginations we can picture the idea that Jeremiah has in mind. It is
as though Jeremiah sees the Lord turned against them in a manner like
His back is turned away from them. Jeremiah's desire is the Lord
would “turn” back
to them, and when He does Jeremiah promises “we shall be
turned” which means “to
bring back, allow to return, put back, draw back, give back, restore,
relinquish, or give in payment”. In other words Jeremiah beckons
the Lord to turn unto them and they will return unto Him.
The
verse goes on to say, “renew our days as of old.” In
addition to having the Lord turn unto them, Jeremiah desires the
Almighty to “renew our days” which conveys the idea of
“repairing or making anew” their days. Jeremiah reflects upon the
way things used to be when the Lord was watching over them, helping
them, providing for and protecting them, and his desire is for the
Lord to restore them to that time once again. In other words Jeremiah
desires a “do-over”, and he wants the Lord to be the one to renew
them once again.
When we
have times where we know we have turned from the Lord and our
relationship seems distant from Him, we may desire a “do-over”
like Jeremiah. We may think, “If only the Lord would turn unto us
again, then we would turn unto him”. Because we feel abandoned by
our current state we may long for the Almighty to restore us to the
times when He was over us, providing for and protecting us. When
these times come we should remember that it is always the Lord who
stands ready to turn and renew, and it is usually us who in some way
prevents this from happening. Being yielded to Him comes through
humility, and when pride is vanquished and pleading becomes our
mantra, He is always there to renew, restore and turn toward us. May
we learn from the state of mind from which Jeremiah makes these
pleas.
Next
time we will end the book of Lamentations and see one last
declaration of Jeremiah, 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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