The Beauty of Forgiveness
I’ve recently been reading the early chapters of Jeremiah, and it’s not a very encouraging read! In his anger with Israel for their worship of foreign gods, the Lord declares, “my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols” (2:11).
He accuses them of living “like a prostitute with many lovers” (3:1) and says, “Even the worst of women can learn from your ways” (2:33).
When I lived in Niger, West Africa, I spent two nights a week in a small village where I pitched my tent beside the mud-brick hut of my friends. One night I was yanked from sleep by the sound of pounding hooves circling the village and even brushing against the wall of my tent as they raced by. Donkeys! Male donkeys chasing the females in heat!
People were up, yelling and throwing things at them, trying to get them to leave the village, but they kept circling around at high speed. It was scary! I accepted my friends’ invitation to join them in their hut, where I spent the rest of the night in their bed—with them! (That’s a story for another time!)
I vividly recalled the memory of that crazy night when I read God’s comparison of Jerusalem to a wild donkey in heat, “sniffing in the wind in her craving… Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her” (2:24).
I find myself getting angry with Israel when I read of her pursuit of sin. But then I must consider my own heart. No, I have not overtly chased other gods, or literally bowed to idols. But I have been distracted by things that have pulled me away from being in awe of God. I have sought pleasure and fulfillment in other things.
“‘Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,’ declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.” (2:19)
Israel was punished for her sin, but the story doesn’t end there. Knowing what was to come several chapters later, I jumped ahead and read the beautiful and hope-filled promise from God: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt” (31:3-4).
Virgin Israel?? The prostitute becomes a virgin! What a beautiful picture of forgiveness. That’s still the kind of forgiveness God offers to his children who return to him.
Lisa Rohrick, Canadian Pacific District
