"But they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy."
It sounds like this would have been a good time to give up. They he been given a fair chance and they had ignored it. Now there was no remedy and the world they knew was crumbling around them. But the LORD's desire is always to save even when things are hopeless from a human perspective. Even, or perhaps especially, in Babylon we can learn to place Jerusalem ahead of our own joy. In so doing is the only way we will know that joy which we seek and not ruin it with infidelities.
It was hopeless for us as well. We were "dead in our transgressions". The palaces, walls, temples, and precious objects of our past lives could provide no surety without the LORD. Even so, just as God sent Cyrus to rebuild his house for a purified people so too did he send his Son Jesus not just to rebuild our past lives but to raise us up that we might be "seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus".
With Cyrus he fulfilled the words of Jeremiah and we can see that he had always had this plan to restore his people. In Jesus we can see that the plan goes back even further.
"For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them."
He has always had such great plans for us. He knew from the beginning that we would rebel and yet his plans remained unchanged. As we come to know his steadfast love for us let us come to trust in his plan for our lives. God delights to save us. He didn't send his son grudgingly but because he "so loved the world".
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him."
Amen. Save us, LORD!
...for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.
ReplyDeleteI read a different translation that said, "...for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should do." I took this to mean that God has laid out ahead of me the tasks of doing good things, maybe things which only I can do.
But your translation might imply that God has prepared good things for us to enjoy. What do you think? (If you look at the lives of the saints, many of them seemed to have been doing more good things than enjoying good things.)
This verse has always struck me as one of the mist important in the Bible, so I'm anxious to get it right.
Since it says good works I assume that they are something that we do. Since it says we are to live in them I think that it means they become more than just what we do. They become the whole paradigm of our existence. They are our lives in accordance with God's plan. This is certainly blessing to be enjoyed. Both/and, I guess.
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