By pastorscott
The “gold” Jeremiah is talking about is not the precious metal. He’s talking about the precious people of God. As Jerusalem lay under siege and then fell to the merciless invaders, he saw the most valuable “commodity” of all kicked aside and treated as worthless. When the devastation was finished, he saw people scavenging for a bit of food or even some kind of clothing to protect them from the elements. It was a horrible thing that Jerusalem fell. It was sad that all the valuables from the Temple were broken up and carried off as spoils of war. Worse than those things though was the devaluing of humanity. I sincerely pray that I will never see anything like what Jeremiah witnessed. Still, I take seriously the more general truth that is found here: people are more important than things. I need to give thought to how that truth is demonstrated in my life. It may be as simple a thing as my dropping down on one knee to really listen to a child or it may be quite complicated, for instance, dealing with a boss who frustrates me to death but has deep hurts of his or her own. It’s good to be reminded today that it is people who are true “gold.”
Filed under: Uncategorized
By pastorscott
Sin separated them from their Maker and destroyed their nation. God sent their enemies to conquer them and then to scatter them throughout the world. Now, that day is ending and the Lord is making plans to gather his people from the four corners of the earth and make them into a nation of especially blest people once again. Isaiah encourages them that it won’t be long now before it happens. What played out in the history of Israel reflects the larger journey of humanity. We read in Genesis of the fall of humans in the Garden and the resulting “driving out” that took place. Later on, Cain’s sin causes him to, again, be driven out. Then after the Flood, God tells the renewed human race to fan out and populate the face of the earth. Instead, they gather at Babylon to build a tower. The Lord confounds their languages, forcing them to scatter into many different people groups. This, though, is not the final intention of God. When the time is right, he will gather his people to himself. Jesus tells his followers that God wants to make us one. He encourages us that in his Father’s house there is room for all and that he will take us there. Even as Isaiah described a reuniting of Israel, the larger picture of the Bible is God’s plan to reunite humanity in an eternal relationship with himself. Since that is God’s plan we can be sure that he’ll “make it happen.”
Filed under: Uncategorized
