MPC
8th January 2017.January 8 - Jeremiah 31 - "Always Hope"
MPC
8th January 2017.
Peter Kutuzov
My friends Arthur and Tamie live here: in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
They like it. You can get all the big name brands in fashion for a great price. Church is fun too. About 2 hours into the service the pastor says, "One more little dance before the preaching."
Half hour later, her adorable son Elliott is still dancing with everyone.
But there are some difficult things too. Like Brisbane, one part of life that is quite disheartening is the traffic.
See, around Christmas time, the police have a bit of a Christmas blitz. But it's not for road safety, it's where police officers get some extra cash for their Christmas shopping. Twice in the week before Christmas they were pulled over and fined for running a red light, when it was plainly green.
Come the day after Christmas, and Tamie is pulled up for speeding. She definitely wasn't speeding. But arguing is hopeless. It's her word against theirs, and they have the power.
And as she gets out her purse to pay the 'fine', the officers spot another car being driven by an expat. One of them points the speed gun at it.
And while standing right next to Tamie, he asks his friend "How fast should I say?". His friend says, "Say it was 60."
As Tamie reflected on the situation later, it's not the injustice that was the worst thing, it's that there's no hope. They have all the power, and there's nothing that she can do.
Now, it's not that ALL of life in Tanzania is like that, don't forget the Gucci shoes, but living in Dar ... some situations are pretty hopeless.
And that's true for all of us. Certain places we find ourselves... where it just seems no-win.
Nothing you SAY will help. Nothing you DO can get you out of it. You're just stuck. With no hope of coming out on top.
This month we're telling a story of hope. We're following the story of God's ancient people Israel, and THEIR relationship with God.
And as we're introduced to Jeremiah this week, we get caught right up in the drama of it.
Now, last week though, Phil did give us a sneak preview of the history; we really left Israel at a big moment early on in their relationship with God.
Having been saved out of Egypt, they're poised to enter the land that God promised their grandfather Abraham that he'd give them. Canaan.
And Moses, whom God used to bring them out of Egypt and through the desert gives them his last sermon.
And he's concerned for them, because he didn't just lead the people, he was the bloke who set up the agreement between them and God. The contract, or covenant, that would govern their relationship. He was the one who stored the documents, the stone tablets that God wrote the covenant on.
And, well, it's mixed news in Deuteronomy 30 verse 1.
Mixed because firstly, Moses is not excited about their prospects. Maybe through hard experience from leading them through the desert for 40 years, he's not optimistic that they'll be faithful to their God.
In fact, he's certain that they won't manage it. They're just going to fail at some point. They will. For Moses it's not IF they break their covenant vows, it's when.
But this is one of the key points in the Bible story where it becomes a story of hope. Because even in that covenant, Moses says there's an escape clause. A legal remedy, in case of breach of contract.
when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with your whole heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes
No matter how bad it gets, that clause stands. No matter what mess they find themselves in, Israel always has hope, because of that clause in the covenant.
Now it has to be genuine! But if they turn back to God, with a whole-hearted apology and desire to change, he will take them back.
And here's where we get to Jeremiah, who tells the story of the time in between that day Moses preached his last sermon, and the present day.
And he tells that story using the picture of a marriage: where God is a husband and Israel is his wife. And it starts out quite wistful. Like lovers reminiscing about the good times. The honeymoon in Fiji.
God initially recalls Israel's LOVE for him. And the faithfulness that flowed from her whole-hearted love.
But not only that, he also recalls those times he defended her honour against unwelcome advances from unsavoury characters.
You were Holy to me... That means - especially and just for me. What a wife and husband are to each other. And anyone who mistreated you had me to deal with.
But the reminiscing doesn't stay joyful for too long. To hear Jeremiah tell it, it's the beauty of those good times that makes what followed so bitter.
Israel didn't remain faithful to her God when they entered the land. Despite a temple where they could meet with Him, peace from all her would-be aggressors, a beautiful land to live in and good and just laws to ensure its welfare: Israel was unfaithful. She cheated on her husband with other gods.
Again. And again. And again.
Now, Jeremiah's not shy about using the most lewd of metaphors for Israel's activities. Read it and you'll be unsure whether it's the Bible or men at the pub talking about the easy girl around town.
Because when his very own special people are unfaithful to Him, it's THAT kind of betrayal. It's intimate and it's public.
Her love wasn't just for her God anymore. Her heart wasn't wholly for Him. And her faithfulness went along with it.
Which is why the history of God taking his people back, again, and again and again in that period doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Until Jeremiah.
Because God's message through Jeremiah is: this has got to stop.
God calls Jeremiah to the scene as his covenant lawyer. You just can't keep bringing home foreign gods... whenever you're not willing to trust ME to take care of you.
We made promises to each other. And you promised - NOT THIS.
The legal letter arrives with Jeremiah, to Jerusalem.
It says, If you don't admit everything, and come back to me fully, with your whole heart: it's over.
We're separating. In fact, YOU'RE leaving. Instead of protecting you as I always have, I will leave you to your own devices. And you will be conquered and taken away from my land, into exile.
It's a strongly worded letter.
But do you notice how God isn't like a jilted lover. He hasn't just lawyered up when he can't take it anymore and tried to take everything from his spouse. Instead, GOD'S lawyer is trying to SAVE the relationship.
Jeremiah's whole ministry is spent begging Israel to return to her God. Begging her to invoke the Deuteronomy 30 clause, so that she can have EVERYTHING back how it was. And God will do it. No questions asked.
She need do nothing, but come back to him with her whole heart. To recognise that what she's done is wrong, and set her heart once again wholly on loving and obeying her God.
And God will forgive everything.
This unusual to our eyes, but even more to theirs. There was a law in Israel, another part of the covenant, and Jeremiah references it. It says that if a woman is married to one man, and then gets divorced, then marries a different man, and is also divorced from him, that she then can't remarry the first bloke. It's inappropriate.
Using the marriage metaphor for God's relationship with Israel, he shouldn't really be doing this. It's, at the very least, inappropriate. This is a lot of honour to lose to take her back.
Just a quick word on Israel as the unfaithful wife here, please don't hear that as a slight against women. In fact, Jeremiah's critiques of Israel's behaviour was written to the men in power in Israel quite pointedly. Israel's casting as the wife isn't a statement about femininity. Israel is SHE, because God is the husband in this ancient metaphor.
And what a husband! This really is quite incredible love. And we're still in the Old Testament!
This is one of the benefits of knowing the big story of the bible.
If you thought that the God of the Old Testament was harsh, unforgiving, loves rules and the God portrayed in the NT is kinder and more willing to forgive, it's just not true.
Joseph Campbell, who clearly wasn't as much of a fan of Apple computers as Phil Campbell, once said, "Computers are like Old Testament Gods; lots of rules and no mercy."
This must have been in the days before autosave and Siri.
It's a stereotype I hear quite often.
But Joseph Campbell's problem is he hasn't read the Bible as a story. God has his lawyer, Jeremiah, begging his people to come back to him. It's that same type of evocative image we see in the New Testament as the Father of the prodigal Son defies social propriety in accepting his loved one back.
But. She won't return to Him. She doesn't.
The only thing that stood between her and total acceptance again was turning back. Saying sorry. Admitting that she'd been wayward, and with her whole heart going back to him.
But she just can't bring herself to do it. Her heart is elsewhere.
And so, in 597 BC, the best and the brightest of Israel are hauled off to Babylon as Jerusalem falls. As they wonder when they'll be able to go home, Jeremiah sends them a letter saying:
"Settle down, this wasn't just a scare tactic from God. Build a house. Have some kids. Start a new life, away from God. You'll be there a long time yet."
Ten years later, as if to underline Jeremiah's words, Babylon returns to crush a mini-rebellion in Jerusalem, and most of the rest of the population are carted off to Babylon too.
At this point, realistically, there is no hope for Israel. She would receive no sympathy in divorce court, her rap sheet is far too long.
She has only one hope, and it's the one thing she refuses to do.
Return to God with her whole heart, and activate the Deuteronomy 30 clause.
It's a real hope, she could do it any time. It's in the marriage contract. But hoping for that is like hoping that a maybe the 152nd time you confront them, a narcissist will just stop being a narcissist and say sorry.
God will have her, if she'll just say sorry, and turn back. But she won't.
And so between God's refusal to have an unfaithful spouse and Israel's self-sabotaging refusal to return: there IS no way forward.
It's hopeless.
And that is why our reading this morning is such a big deal.
What Jeremiah promises is that the story won't end here, with a covenant that can't save hard hearted people, but God will make a new one that can.
He does it by triggering the Deuteronomy 30 clause himself, in Jesus.
See, Jesus wasn't just God come to earth. The incredible thing about Christmas is that it celebrates God becoming ONE OF US. But more importantly, ONE of Israel.
One who could represent Israel TO GOD, and on behalf of Israel, TURN BACK to God. To be the whole-hearted repenter, who would trigger the Deuteronomy 30 clause. The thing Israel could never do on her own.
When Jesus went to his cousin, John the Baptist and asked to be baptised, John said, "Why would YOU need to be baptised. YOU don't need to repent."
Which is true. Jesus was repenting on behalf of the nation. Leading them in repentance. Representing them as the one true Israelite, who would turn back to his God. Whole-heartedly, so that he obeyed even to death on a cross.
And so it's Jesus' whole-hearted repentance that enables what Deuteronomy 30 always promised:
When you return to me, I will change your hearts, so that you will love me with your whole heart.
And so God poured out the Holy Spirit (more on that next week) and did exactly that. Taking his desires from on the page, and putting them into human hearts. Fulfilling his promise to take the external, and make it internal. To bring commandments off the page, and put them into our desires.
And not only that, but this changes the game in terms of Israel's legal history with God.
All of Israel's history. Her darkest hours of shame. Her unfaithfulness. Her refusal to return.
Paid for, at the cross. Old Covenant, satisfied. Forgiven, and gone. For all who, by the Spirit, will finally turn back to God.
And plenty did, as Jesus' followers preached this very story to their countrymen after his death and resurrection.
There was always hope. Even when Israel's hearts were hardest.
This is the story of Israel, once unfaithful but reunited with their God in Jesus. But it doesn't end with them. Because as we'll see more next week, Israel's story was meant to overflow to anyone who will turn to God with their whole heart.
This is good news for me. This is a good morning. Because saying sorry is hard. Repenting is difficult.
My unaided heart is hard. It's no better than an Israelite's at admitting my faults and turning back to God. I NEED a New Covenant that can deal with that kind of heart!
Do YOU find it difficult to say, "I'm sorry"? According to Elton John, it's THE hardest word to say.
What about, "I was wrong. My thoughts were wrong thoughts. My heart was selfish"?
If that's you, then this New Covenant is good news for you. There is hope, for you.
Or if you're the kind of person who's freaking out because you're always trapped in hopelessness, scared that there's no way free from your sin and broken-ness. Today's a good morning for you.
Because there's hope for you. Did you see how dark it got for Israel? Just how depraved and hard-hearted they were?
The incredible thing about the New Covenant, is that the Spirit gives hope to hearts exactly like that. Like yours and mine. He is in the business of changing them, and remembering sins no more.
His promise is that he writes God's law on your heart and mine.
Take heart. There is hope for you and for me.
Some of you will have been Christian for a little while now.
If you're the kind of person who's pretty pleased with yourself because of how whole-heartedly you follow God, this Covenant is Good News for you this morning is instead you can be pretty pleased with the Holy Spirit for that. To be thankful that he's put a desire to live for him in your heart.
Without the Spirit, you never would.
I wonder if for some of us, the things that came true for God's people in Jesus are coming true for you in a new way this morning. Is it possible that as YOU hear about Jesus and what he did for you, as the Holy Spirit does His work of getting alongside your heart, that like Israel you're starting to think differently.
Maybe you've been hard-hearted, but maybe admitting to God that your way isn't working doesn't seem so bad now.
Maybe
That maybe it's time to go and have a chat with God. A real heart to heart.
Tell him what you've done. Tell him what you've thought. Say sorry.
It might be just the day.