Heartfelt Cry

There are many perks about the job I have right now.

I am able to get on the internet, play xbox,
watch movies, and just about anything (basketball, football, anything you can
think of) I would like all while on the job.

One other thing that I enjoy though is there are a couple of hours when
I am alone and it gives me the chance read and reflect upon what I read in the
Bible.

Lately I have been reading
through Jeremiah and here are some thoughts about what I read and learned from
reading this book.

Throughout the book
of Jeremiah there rings a cry of a father deeply longing for his children.

God constantly tells His people of how He
took care of them and desired only their best, and how He wanted to “treat
[them] like sons.”

God speaks of all
the good He did for His people and then mentions how they cared not for Him,
they were like prostitutes, unfaithful. God tells His people to just
repent and everything will be fine and God would give them shepherds to watch
over them and that He would cure them of back sliding (3:15, 22).

The people wanted nothing to do with the
heartfelt cry of their Rescuer from the Egyptians, with their Guardian in the
desert, with their Mighty Warrior who cleared the Promised Land, with their
Father who said, “How

GLADLY

would I
treat you like sons.”

Even after
proclaiming destruction upon His people for their countless rejections of Him
reaching out to them, God says of the exiles in Babylon, “My eyes will watch
over them for their good…”(24:6-7).

A
little later God utters these words, “Is not Ephraim my dear son, the child in
whom

I DELIGHT

?

Thought I often speak against him, I still
remember him.

Therefore

my heart

YEARNS for him; I have

great compassion for him” (31:20).

Then shortly after the destruction of Judah
there are survivors left in the land who are thinking about fleeing to
Egypt.

God tells them to stay in the
land because “[He is]

GRIEVED” for
what He has done (42:10).

However, the
people do not listen.

Throughout
Jeremiah I see the intensity of His emotions and desires for His people.

Then I ponder about Christ and how He was,
and still is, the image of the invisible God.

It was Christ who said He longed to gather the flock of Israel in His
arms, just as His Father continually desired the same as expressed through His
words in Jeremiah and Isaiah.

Christ had
compassion on the crowds who came to hear his words, and witness and
participate in the healings.

Christ saw
that they were like sheep without a shepherd.

God promised His people He would send them shepherds to watch over them.

Christ embodies everything God expressed for
His people in the Old Testament.

Christ
claims that He is the good shepherd, a familiar term for the people.

The heartfelt cry of the Father in Jeremiah
came to life on earth and it is through Christ we know of His unconditional
love.

Reading through Jeremiah I have
been taken back by the words of God towards His people.

The
passionate and detailed description of God’s unconditional love for His people
can be seen throughout the entirety of Jeremiah.

I am thankful that God chose to extend His
salvation to the Gentiles so that I may know Him who delights in His children,
who yearns after them, who sings and rejoices over them, who constantly and
relentlessly pursues them wanting only their good.

I see God as a Father who wants nothing more
than to know His people and to be known by His people.