Readings for today: Jeremiah 33-37
I have this image in my head of a scene from the movie, The Princess Bride, where Vizzini keeps saying the word, “Inconceivable”, every time he fails to kill the Dred Pirate Roberts. Today’s reading doesn’t quite have the same ring to it and certainly doesn’t have the same intent but when I read these words from Jeremiah, it was the first thing that popped into my head and made me chuckle.
“The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it, the Lord is his name, says this: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:2-3 CSB) Great and incomprehensible things. When you hear those words, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? What do you expect God to reveal in the subsequent verses? Fiery judgment? Harsh condemnation? More violence and suffering and pain as the people of God pay for all their unfaithfulness? I think about all Jeremiah has endured over the course of his life. I think about all the words God has called him to say. I think about the many times he has put his life at risk as he spoke God’s truth to power and defied the king. I wonder what Jeremiah expected when the Lord spoke to him of great and incomprehensible things.
I have to imagine he didn’t expect God to sound a note of grace. A note of compassion. A note of healing and restoration. The shift in the text is jarring. So jarring, in fact, that I’m sure there are some scholars who believe this wasn’t original to Jeremiah. The sharp right turn in the text signaling a potential different author has arrived on the scene. At the same time, isn’t this what makes grace so radical? So extreme? So illogical and nonsensical from a human perspective? Why would God continue to turn and forgive? Why would God continue to heal His people and their land? Why would God restore them to their former glory? Isn’t it all about grace? And hasn’t God told us He is gracious over and over again? Hasn’t He revealed His grace and mercy to a thousand generations? Perhaps the turn in the text isn’t so radical. Perhaps this is exactly what we should expect when God talks about “great and incomprehensible” things.
“Yet I will certainly bring health and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance of true peace. I will restore the fortunes of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times. I will purify them from all the iniquity they have committed against me, and I will forgive all the iniquities they have committed against me, rebelling against me. This city will bear on my behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the prosperity I will give them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them. This is what the Lord says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without people or animals, that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without people, without inhabitants, and without animals, there will be heard again a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying, Give thanks to the Lord of Armies, for the Lord is good; his faithful love endures forever as they bring thanksgiving sacrifices to the temple of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 33:6-11 CSB)
Friends, God is still in the business of doing great and incomprehensible things. He is still showing us grace upon grace upon grace. There is no end to it. There is no limit to it. There is no restrictions on it. It is ours and it is free. It is ours and it is abundant. It is ours and it is eternal. Rest in the great and incomprehensible grace of God in all you do and say today.
Readings for tomorrow: Jeremiah 38-40, Psalms 74, 79