Love & Justice
7/10/26 Bible Thought (Jeremiah 8-9)
Main Idea: God acts upon His love, justice, and righteousness.
A Look at the Text:
The prediction of judgment that we have seen thus far in Jeremiah is unpacked in vivid detail in today’s text. There would be desecration of tombs, even of the royalty (Jer. 8:1-3). This disaster would be the result of Judah’s unwavering pursuit of rebellion.
Normally, when people fall, they get back up. Or when they miss a turn, they get back on course. But Judah remained steadfast in their error, unwilling to return to Yahweh (Jer. 8:4-5).
This was partially due to the sin of the religious leaders, with scribes misrepresenting God and with the continual cries of “peace, peace” that didn’t come from Him (Jer. 8:8-11).
The coming desolation was the result of their own waywardness, for they followed their hearts rather than God’s law (Jer. 9:12-14). Sadly, the people were perplexed. They even cried out, wondering where God was:
Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” (Jer. 8:19).
When God was charged with absence, He simply replied with the root issue—their idolatry (Jer. 8:19).
Certainly, it didn’t delight God to bring judgment upon His people.
Scholars debate whether it was Jeremiah, God, or both that responded with great sorrow and weeping (Jer. 8:21-9:3).[1] What is clear is that God acts in love, justice, and righteousness, and in light of this, all boasting must be in Him (Jer. 9:23-24).
Bringing it Home:
The Scripture presents on page after page a God with a multifaceted nature who acts in accordance with His nature. He is both loving and He is just. As such, His discipline of His people was an outworking of both love and justice.
Many people struggle with the concept of God punishing sin, and the idea of a wrathful God is understood as an antiquated view that is inferior to the God who is love. Yet, we see in Jeremiah a God who faithfully disciplines His wayward people but does not delight in doing so.
One scholar has helpfully concluded:
God’s wrath toward sin is usually emphasized, but his suffering is equally intense. It is like that of the parent watching a wayward child destroy his or her life by wrong choices. Nothing will deter us from sin quite so effectively as the awareness of how much God suffers when we sin.[2]
In a similar vein, the apostle Paul once charged:
And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live (Eph. 4:30, NLT).
Yes, God does have a settled, holy wrath towards sin. Yet, we cannot lose sight of the fact that this same God is grieved by our sin. His heart breaks for people who continually reject Him and choose their own way, not knowing that their way ends in death (Pro. 14:12).
God extends mercy to those who will turn from their rebellion and bow their knee at the foot of the cross. It was at the cross, John Stott once argued, that divine love and divine justice met. In Christ, the justice of God has been borne. Yet, at the same time, His love is poured out on every hopeless sinner who turns to Him for mercy.
Challenge:
Do I see the beauty of the cross as my only hope and the source of boasting? (see Gal. 6:14).
[1] Hetty Lalleman, Jeremiah and Lamentations: An Introduction and Commentary, ed. David G. Firth, vol. 21, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 2013), 118.
[2] F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, vol. 16, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 117.