Verse 30. For the children of Israel and the children of Jadah have only done evil before me from, their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the LORD. Here were people who had done nothing else but evil. God had been very good to them, but they had been very bad to him. From their youth, and without a break, they bad continued to rebel. 31. For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my fare, Jerusalem, which ought to have been a holy city, bad been so impure that it had been a standing provocation to God from the day it was built. 32. Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They seem to have been all alike. With scarcely an exception, from the highest class to the lowest, they were always disobeying God. 33. And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. This is a fearful indictment. When men refuse to learn better, turn their back upon the King of kings, and will have nothing to do with him, surely the time for vengeance has come. 34, 35. But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; There was nothing so terribly bad but they would do it; there was nothing so unnatural, so detestable, but they must needs practice it. 35-38. Which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: Is not this a wonderful passage? After all this sin, and all this provocation, when we expect the thunder and lightning of divine judgment, behold, there is nothing but the sweet voice of pitying love: “They shall be my people, and I will be their God.” Oh, the wonders of divine grace! See what the covenant of grace does for guilty men. 39, 40. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they May fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, “With them” — with these very people who had provoked him, and served Molech, and bowed before idol gods, and put the Lord to Shame, and angered him. 40, 41. That I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will, put my fear in their hearts, that they, shall not depart from me. Yea, 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. A whole-hearted God, blessing those upon whom he looks with an eye of grace. It is a wonderful thing. If he had set his whole heart to destroy them, it would have seemed natural; but God is far above any conception of ours; and so, in the midst of guilt extraordinary and almost immeasurable, behold love equally extraordinary and grace altogether measureless. 42. For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. Oh, for grace to lay hold upon this everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David; and to be saved thereby! In Celebration of Life in Him, Dr. Jim DeBruhl, gembeaux@bellsouth.net
