Scripture Daily

Context No. 1897 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 32:36-44: in context

36Now therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning this city, about which you say, “It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:” 37“Behold, I will gather them out of all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, and in my wrath, and in great indignation; and I will bring them again to this place. I will cause them to dwell safely. 38Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. 39I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good and the good of their children after them. 40I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good. I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me. 41Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.” 42For the LORD says: “Just as I have brought all this great evil on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. 43Fields will be bought in this land, about which you say, ‘It is desolate, without man or animal. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ 44Men will buy fields for money, sign the deeds, seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, and in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South; for I will cause their captivity to be reversed,” says the LORD.

To a city about to fall to Babylon, God speaks a promise of restoration. I will gather them from all the countries where I drove them, he says, and bring them back to dwell safely; they will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way; I will make an everlasting covenant with them and will not turn away from doing them good. And then a line of astonishing warmth: I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land with my whole heart and with my whole soul.

The line that shines in this promise reveals the heart of God toward his people: I will rejoice over them to do them good; I will plant them with my whole heart and with my whole soul. God is not describing himself as a reluctant or grudging benefactor, doing good to his people out of mere duty or obligation, blessing them with a sigh. He describes himself as one who rejoices to do them good, who plants them with his whole heart and his whole soul, who delights in blessing them. God's goodness to his people is not grudging but glad, not reluctant but wholehearted, springing from a heart that rejoices to bless. This corrects an image of God we too easily carry. We can imagine God as stern, reluctant, doing good to us grudgingly if at all, needing to be persuaded to bless, blessing us as a favor extracted rather than a joy. And here God says the opposite: he rejoices to do us good; he blesses with his whole heart and soul; his goodness to his people is his delight. There is a world of difference between a God who blesses grudgingly and a God who rejoices to bless, and Scripture insists it is the latter. He will rejoice over you with joy, Zephaniah says; he will rejoice over you with singing. God's plans for his people, Jeremiah says elsewhere, are plans for good and not for evil, to give them a future and a hope. The God who let the judgment come was, even then, purposing to do his people good, and to do it wholeheartedly, with joy. This should change how we come to God and what we look for from him. We come not to a grudging benefactor who must be talked into blessing us, but to a Father who rejoices to do his children good, who blesses with his whole heart and soul, whose goodness toward his people is his delight. I will rejoice over them to do them good, he says; and that is the heart of the God we come to.

Do I imagine God as a stern and grudging benefactor, blessing me reluctantly if at all, needing to be persuaded to do me good, or can I take hold of God's own word, that he rejoices to do his people good and plants them with his whole heart and soul, and come to him not as to a reluctant giver but as to a Father who delights to bless?

Sources