Being unfaithful
God recalls Israel’s first love.
That honeymoon period when the people were devoted to their God, loved Him with their whole hearts like a bride loves her husband. They would follow Him anywhere. They would do anything for Him. They would give Him the best.
Now all that has changed. The people have become distracted by foreign practices and beliefs. They have forgotten who God is and what He has done. They have tainted the land and tainted their relationship with the one true God. They have tried to go it alone. To do it their own way. To say that they don’t need God. They have become involved with other gods. If Israel is a bride, then this is adultery. This is being unfaithful to their God.
And God thought that Judah would learn from the example of Israel, but no. They went and followed exactly the same path. And in some ways this is worse – being unfaithful is worse than being faithless from the start. Pretending that all is well on the surface and saying the right words and hoping to deceive is worse.
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,
declares the Lord.
My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Jeremiah 2:11-13
And there have been consequences. They have been attacked on all sides. When trouble came, they cried out to God for help – the God they had turned their back on – but no amount of excuses or cleansing could ever take away all that they they had done.
I was chatting to someone the other day about when she first became a Christian and the excitement she felt. The passion she had to find out more. The burning desire to read the Bible. This was her honeymoon period with God, I guess. But then she was saying how that has changed. How hard it is to keep that flame alive. How hard it is to feel God is in her life all day everyday. How hard it is to remember.
Most of us can relate to that in some way, I imagine. There was a time we would have given anything to God, done anything for Him, but now? Other things have got in the way. Our families, our partners, our work, our activities, our holidays or home or possessions. Somewhere along the way, these became more important. When bad times come, we cry out to God for help and expect help, when we are the ones who have turned our backs on God and started to go it alone and trust in our own abilities.
Every day, we will find ourselves drifting away. So every day, we need to ground ourselves in our relationship with God. Every day, we need to come back to Him. Every day, we need to remember who God is and what He has done.
The good news is that God’s invitation is always open. He is always waiting like the father to welcome his prodigal son home with open arms.
‘“Return, faithless Israel,” declares the Lord,
“I will frown on you no longer,
for I am faithful,” declares the Lord,
“I will not be angry for ever.
Only acknowledge your guilt –
you have rebelled against the Lord your God,
you have scattered your favours to foreign gods
under every spreading tree,
and have not obeyed me,”’
declares the Lord. Jeremiah 3:11-12
This is good news, right? God is faithful. Always. The Faithful One, so unchanging. Always there. Ready to forgive. Ready to forget.
This is how it can be –
“How gladly would I treat you like my children
and give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.”
I thought you would call me “Father”
and not turn away from following me. Jeremiah 3:19
But this is how it often ends up –
‘But like a woman unfaithful to her husband,
so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,’
declares the Lord. Jeremiah 3:20
What will you choose today? What do you want your relationship with God to look like? What are you going to do about it?
Every day, we will find ourselves drifting away. So every day, we need to ground ourselves in our relationship with God. Every day, we need to come back to Him. Every day, we need to remember who God is and what He has done.
