When the Beloved FALL

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord, explaining why he was holding back the rain:  “Judah wilts; commerce at the city gates grinds to a halt.  All the people sit on the ground in mourning, and a great cry rises from Jerusalem.  The nobles send servants to get water, but all the wells are dry.  The servants return with empty pitchers, confused and desperate, covering their heads in grief.  The ground is parched and cracked for lack of rain.  The farmers are deeply troubled; they, too, cover their heads.  Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn because there is no grass in the field.  The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills panting like thirsty jackals.  They strain their eyes looking for grass, but there is none to be found.”  The people say, “Our wickedness has caught up with us, Lord, but help us for the sake of your own reputation.  We have turned away from you and sinned against you again and again.  O Hope of Israel, our Savior in times of trouble, why are you like a stranger to us?  Why are you like a traveler passing through the land, stopping only for the night?  Are you also confused?  Is our champion helpless to save us?  You are right here among us, Lord.  We are known as your people.  Please don’t abandon us now!”  So this is what the Lord says to his people:  “You love to wander far from me and do not restrain yourselves.  Therefore, I will no longer accept you as my people.  Now I will remember all your wickedness and will punish you for your sins.”  Jeremiah 14:1-10

Tough times, and no answers to your questions and prayers, make for an agony of time standing still.  God told Jeremiah to hold back the rain; Jeremiah prayed, and everything dried up like a desert.  And Heaven was silent.

Then Jeremiah spoke these words of explanation:  My people, you walked away from me; I’m still here, but you don’t give me a thought until you get in trouble.  Strap-in, beloved…it’s going to be a rough ride for you!

This passage, and many others in Scripture, answer the question:

Can you backslide?  Can you go far enough from God that He will abandon you?

This is perhaps the most difficult question I had to settle two decades ago.  I was on the verge of shifting from Calvinist to Arminian theology, and this was the breakpoint.  My Calvinist roots from the earliest proclaimed the security of the believer (once saved, always saved).  The chasm between that and my Wesleyan challenge which says you’re able to deliberately walk away from salvation is not a small gap.  For this small-town, former agnostic, often disobedient and wobbly Christian boy, admitting Christ is Lord, and then entertaining the thought that my actions were turning him into my judge, rather than my Savior and friend…well THAT was too big an elephant in my little room to ignore.

One of the more poignant Scripture verses that speak to the issue with which I was wrestling is:

And have you forgotten the encouraging words God spoke to you as his children?  He said, “My child, don’t make light of the Lord’s discipline, and don’t give up when he corrects you.  For the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.”  Hebrews 12:5-6

The summary of what happens to a disobedient child is up to a parent; you can walk away, but He will never stop calling you back.  And that call is sometimes a hard thing to ignore, or bear.

For You Today

Take it from one who walked away, and is glad to be back.  Listen for the call.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Wearing the Mess You Made and No More Tambourines

[1] Images:  via Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©