August 10

Thousands of people were deported from their home as captives in Babylon. Instead of repenting, Judah's unfaithfulness deepens even though God's prophesy of judgment against them is coming true in front of their eyes. The last two kings still do evil (Jehoiachin and Zedekiah), the authorities do too, as well as all the rest of the people.

Here is a list of words in this scripture describing the disposition of the people towards God:
-did evil in the eyes of the Lord
-became stiff-necked
-hardened his heart
-would not turn to the Lord
-more and more unfaithful
-mocked God's messengers
-despised his words
-scoffed at his prophets

...and here is a list of those describing God's disposition towards the people:
-the Lord has declared
-the God of Israel
-the God of their fathers
-he had consecrated [the temple in Jerusalem]
-sent word to them
-he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place
-the wrath of the Lord was aroused
-because of the Lord's anger
-he thrust them from his presence

It's the same with people today. While we seek independence from God, He seeks to make us holy. While we hurt Him, He has pity on us. While we mock Him, He wants to consecrate us. While we sin, He wants to makes us righteous. While we do evil, He brings justice.

The last line in today's reading was really hard and heart-breaking: It was because of the Lord's anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and he thrust them from his presence. (Jer 52:3) These are strong words! Earlier it says that they angered God so much there was no remedy against His wrath. As April said last week, God was very patient for a long time. But at this time His patience with Judah's behavior ended. God is patient with some things in my life right now too. How about in yours? He is patient, loving, and forgiving but I pray that we continue to learn not to risk His presence in our lives, not even for a moment.

Yesterday was Grace Church’s annual picnic at Cove Park. It was great to see that as His church we were in God's presence and worshiped Him out in the open at the beach. It was great to celebrate the baptism of two of His sons! Yesterday we saw that God dwells in the streets of Stamford. I believe that if we stay in God's presence we will never be 'deported from the land', because He becomes our home.