June 18

Day 96: Hopeless?

This morning I began reading in Jeremiah. Reading Jeremiah will take me the next 2 weeks, according to my reading schedule.

I've always had a soft spot for Jeremiah. God told him what to say, what of God's words to communicate. And He told Jeremiah that no one would listen. Sounds hopeless.

In Jeremiah 2:21, God tells the people of Judah (those still remaining in Jerusalem, but not for long) that He had once planted them there as a "choice vine"...that went wild, by choice.

The next verse tells of how the people had tried to claim their innocence, but the stains of their sin remained exhibits A through Z. They had tried to assert to God that they in fact had not gone after foreign gods.

God responds to their false claim, in a way that is both graphic and brutal: God tells them they are like a female camel or like a female donkey. In "season." Ready and available for the rut to start.

"...a restless young camel running here and there, a wild donkey used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her."

Anybody who wants her can have her. She's standing by.

If you've ever had a family pet "in heat," you know just how much the crazy takes over. Kind of like some young adults I've known.

Moose hunters know well the advantage of the rut. The boy moose stop thinking clearly, unaware he's in the center of the crosshairs.

God tells them He knows their hearts better than they do. Their protestations don't hold up. The evidence is clear. Their defense is no defense.

Sadly, the people have already resigned themselves to failure.

Jeremiah 2:25 says, "Keep your feet from going unshod" (Don't continue on like a wild horse.) God encourages the people to "keep your throat from thirst" (You all can find true refreshment, true satisfaction in Me.)

But they respond with sad resignation. "But you [people] said, 'It is hopeless, for I have loved foreigners, and after them I will go.'" ("Foreigners" here means foreign gods.)

It's like God had married Himself to a wife, who refuses to appreciate she's actually married. Instead, she wants to wear the ring while running around like a very unattached and eligible single person.

She thinks that's the best she can do. She cannot do otherwise. It's her inevitable destiny. She holds out no hope for herself.

How sad to live with no hope. Sadder still to live with no hope that the inner you, the real you cannot and therefore will not ever change.

If the hope held is dependent on our own potential, our own fortitude, our own good intentions, even our own protestations, we will all soon discover our hope is no hope at all.

Hope fulfilled is found in no one but Jesus alone.

1 Peter 1:20-21 says, "He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and HOPE (my emphasis) are in God."

It's not in our ability or capacity to be faithful to Jesus. It's in His ability, His limitless capacity to hold any of us close to Him.

There's real hope in that.

-Mike Rydman, Lead Pastor, Radiant Church | Juneau