So often I’ve connected the wrath of God with hatred and punishment. But rather it is His love for us, His compassion, His desire to spare us from pain… and a life half-lived, not that He wants to just wipe us out because of spite.
God is love… if we let that sink in to our core … His wrath then is motivated out of His great love, His fatherly protection. He wants the BEST for us. He says no because of a greater YES!
Jeremiah 7:6b “… and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm…”
Jeremiah 7:19 “But am I the one they are provoking? Declares the Lord, Are they not rather harming themselves, and their own shame.”
Our waywardness, or idolatry not only brings Him so much pain but us so much pain – and that is unbearable to Him.
Perhaps it is better for the people in Jeremiah Chapter 7 to be wiped out than to continue to live such hollow lives apart from God (just my pondering, here…)
Do I believe God is love? Do I trust Him, His love for me? What is He calling me into or away from?
“We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (C S Lewis, The Weight of Glory)
The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. Jeremiah 31:3
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