Thursday, April 23, 2009
Jeremiah 3:19-23
“‘I said,
How I would set you among my sons,
and give you a pleasant land,
a heritage most beautiful of all nations.
And I thought you would call me, My Father,
and would not turn from following me.
Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.’”
A voice on the bare heights is heard,
the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons
because they have perverted their way;
they have forgotten the Lord their God.
“Return, O faithless sons;
I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
for you are the Lord our God.
Truly the hills are a delusion,
the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the Lord our God
is the salvation of Israel. (ESV)
by Angie Osborn
Sometimes it is tempting to look at the nation of Israel in the Old Testament and wonder what in the world they were thinking and doing?! Over and over God showed them that HE was in control and that they needed to depend on him and follow his ways. Why couldn’t they just see the need for obedience to him? Why can’t we? So often we wander away from God and try to make it on our own. And what is God’s response? “My wayward children, come back to me and I will heal your wayward hearts” (v. 22, NLT). He is a loving father, waiting for us to turn to him so he can heal our sin and bring us back into his arms.
Copyright Information
Daily Bible Meditations are taken from The Helping Hand,a Sabbath School student quarterly for youth and adults. Copyright © 2010, Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education, Inc.
Scripture quotations marked "ESV" are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Text provided by the Crossway Bibles Web Service.

