“ and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, declares the Lord”–Jeremiah 31:14
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Last week our Session met and we considered the words of Jeremiah 31:14 in our time of devotion and prayer. Since that day, this blessed passage has continued to resonate in my mind, and I wanted to share some thoughts with you about these inspired words.
As you will remember, Jeremiah 31 is normally understood as the prophet’s New Covenant promise for wayward and fallen Israel. Both the Southern (Judah) and the Northern (Israel) kingdoms have suffered the judgment of God, been exiled, and for all intents and purposes, have ceased to exist.
Yet, despite their sins, the Lord was not finished with them. There would be a grand deliverance and restoration! Grace and mercy would triumph in the end! From the smoldering debris of their apostasy, God would soon raise up a new Israel, a faithful remnant, who will return to their sacred land and rebuild all that was once destroyed.
Of course, the immediate fulfillment of this passage was the return of the exiles to the Land of Promise, and the rebuilding of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, and her walls. Yet, the ultimate fulfillment of this passage is to be found in our Lord and Savior, who builds a new nation, a new holy people, and new kingdom of priests, by means of his life, and death, and bodily resurrection.
Tucked into this glorious Old Testament promise of a better covenant are the words quoted above. Yahweh announces through the prophet that those who belong to Him will discover their ultimate satisfaction in only one thing: His abundant “ goodness”!
Among the many points of connection between the experience of the Jewish exiles in 550 BC and our lives as Christian believers today in 2021 AD, there is one that I would offer for your consideration on this new Monday.
The hardships we have all endured over the last nine months or so have stripped away some of the things that we treasure and enjoy. Perhaps one of the biggest of all is our ability to be together in unhindered fellowship with one another. Quarantines, illnesses, masks, social distancing, and the threat of infection have severely limited our contact with one another. As some have suggested, we are conducting the Lord’s holy business under ‘wartime conditions.’ And with this we have experienced the stresses and pressures that accompany life and ministry on the field of battle. Such was the case with that remnant of believing Israelites who were living out their faith in a foreign land, under a pagan king, and enduring all of the restrictions and depravations that life in Babylon imposed upon them.
Yet, in the midst of this pain and affliction, the Lord was lovingly forcing His people toward a certain place, a definite destination, spiritually speaking. They needed to be brought to the point where their true and ultimate satisfaction was found only in His “ goodness.” And to accomplish this, they had to suffer the forfeiture of lesser things.
The exile had stripped away from them virtually everything they had loved and once found joy in. From one perspective, they had nothing. However, having been reduced to the place where they could claim ownership only of the name ‘Israel,’ the Sovereign Lord had them exactly where He wanted them! With hopes dashed, possessions taken, and their homeland in ruins, they were finally in a place where they could see just how incredibly rich they really were! Their true wealth was to be found in their God, and in His unflinching “ goodness” toward them! And in this marvelous benevolence, they would be fully “ satisfied”!
You see, we can never know how wonderful and satisfying our Father’s goodness really is until we have nothing else left upon which to set our affections and hopes. It is a most blessed thing to be reduced to the place of having nothing but Him! Only in this situation can we really experience and begin comprehend just how awesome and good our God is!
I find it so fascinating that when Moses asked for the honor of seeing the Lord, it was His “ goodness” that he was permitted to behold:
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy”(Exodus 33:18-19).
Of course, king David spoke so frequently of the Lord’s goodness. One passage in the Psalms comes to mind:
Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind! (Psalm 31:19).
But again, given human nature, we can’t appreciate or become satisfied with our Father’s goodness until it is only the promise and experience of His goodness that we have! As long as lesser things satisfy us, we can’t fully “ taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
This, I think, is the wonderful benefit of affliction! We are stripped of those things that we once found our delight in. And we are then moved to look upward into the face of the One who is always good to us! If we have our Lord and Savior, if we have His grace, if we have hope in His promises, then we will always be satisfied no matter our circumstances!
So, my Beloved, your Father loves you! He is always good to you! His goodness is as eternal as His very Being! And even if you have precious little left in this life, then you are in the perfect place to know just how good He is!
I love you all so very much, and I never cease praying for you by name!
Mike