The judgment of the Lord is announced and it will affect the
entire earth, from one end to the other.
This sounds a lot like the days of Noah doesn’t it? No nation is untouched by this judgment which
Jeremiah announces. It is a fearsome
thing to contemplate such a day. We have
led fortunate lives in the United States.
Not since we turned on ourselves 150 years ago have we known war within
the boundaries of the nation. There have
been devastations of war on other continents where we have lost millions of
lives but our peaceful existence has been sure.
We lost half a million people in the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918. We have experienced Dust Bowls and financial
crashes but we keep on as though something happened but our equilibrium is
barely disturbed and soon we are back to business as usual. That sounds also like the days of Noah and the
days described in Revelation. Do we hear
God’s warning? If not we will pay the
price for our failure.
Safety is found in Jesus.
The good shepherd is the one who gives safety to the flock. He is willing to risk his own life for the
life of the sheep and they know it. The
sheep know that the only place for them to find security and safety is in the
shepherd. He has proven himself to them
and they know, listen for, and obey his voice.
Sometimes in a sheepfold there is no proper door, the shepherd lies
across the entrance as a door, you have to get past him to get to the
sheep. There are false shepherds but
there is, in Jewish thought, but one good shepherd, the one who has promised
through the prophets that He will come
and shepherd the sheep. Jesus’ words
echo that promise and they should also have caused them to remember that when
the Lord comes to shepherd His sheep it is a rebuke to the shepherds who are
leading at the time. If we believe in
God’s judgment we need to shelter with the shepherd.
Paul sees the ingathering of the Gentiles as a means of
grace towards the Jews. They have
rejected the One He sent and they have rejected His message. John wrote, “He came to his own, and his own
people did not receive him.” Paul
affirms that they neither received Him nor His message and his hope is that the
Gentiles coming into the covenant will be the goad necessary to get the nation
to re-evaluate Jesus and accept Him as Messiah.
Paul clearly believes that the Lord has not rejected Israel, He
continues to hold out His hands to them in spite of the hardness of their
hearts. Let us not be found guilty of a
hardness of heart or hearing, instead, let us listen for His voice and obey only
His voice.
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