I am beginning to understand why God led me to Jeremiah. I asked Him for years to let me understand Him, help me know Him, because growing up, most of what I knew from Him was fear and anger.
We often see the Old Testament God as a God of wrath. Growing up on stories of floods, fire and brimstone, plagues, etc., I had a hard time understanding that He was a God of love.
It seemed to me that He was just a God of control... and I have heard many who felt the same. After going through an abusive relationship, it was especially hard for me to grasp. I had literally been stalked by a man whose mantra was, "Love me or I will punish and kill you."
So while I felt close to Jesus, and prayed to Him often, I always had a fear of God. As a child, I saw God as an angry, controlling Father, and Jesus was the big brother who would talk to God and convince Him not to punish me, His little sister.
In some ways, that was correct; Jesus is indeed our intercessor. What I didn't understand, however, was that God wasn't being abusive and controlling. Israel was His bride, and she cheated on Him over and over, with "strangers under every green tree." Earthly husbands would not tolerate such for very long at all. In most cases, if a wife cheats on her earthly husband, he immediately throws her away with no chance of coming home and healing the marriage.
And yet God literally begged his bride again and again to just stop cheating and come home so that He could wash away the filth of her discretions and love her....
We see time and time again that God protected the faithful, from Noah, to Daniel, the 3 Hebrew boys, and so many more, including David, who had sinned against God, but returned and repented of his adultery. But an adulterous bride cannot demand the protection of her husband while refusing to stop cheating and just come home.
"but she did not return..."💔
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