Jeremiah 17:11-13 – Expectant by Faith
11
“As a partridge that broods but does not hatch,
So is he who gets riches, but not by right;
It will leave him in the midst of his days,
And at his end he will be a fool.”
12
A glorious high throne from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
13
O Lord, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You shall be ashamed.
“Those who depart from Me
Shall be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the Lord,
The fountain of living waters.”
Will Durant opines in The Age of Napoleon on the Church of that day, "Variously privileged, the Church in France accumulated large domains, reckoned by some as a fifth of the soil; and these it ruled as feudal properties, collecting feudal dues. It turned the contributions of the faithful into gold and silver ornaments which, like the jewels of the crown, were consecrated and inviolable hedges against the inflation that seemed ingrained in history."
His picture is a useful one as we consider the indictment of Jeremiah 17:11-13. In Jeremiah's day, as in Napoleon's, as in this one, the Church is supposed to be an embassy for the coming Kingdom, an example of placing its communal hopes in the city not built with hands. Yet God through Jeremiah points out, and humanist Will Durant calmly observes, how quickly those who are ostensibly God's to protect and preserve preoccupy themselves with feathering our nests as though they were ours to keep forever. Wealth is likewise our hedge against the forces of history.
At what cost is pure faith forsaken? The partridge, God points out, is satisfied enough with her nest for its own sake that she forsakes fruitfulness. She sits on the nest, but no hatchlings are forthcoming. To the passerby, she LOOKS occupied with faith's investment in the next generation, but God is not fooled. He lifts her up, as it were, and shows us there is nothing underneath, no there there in grateful return for the life, and breath, and position He has given her.
The contrast to the next image is breathtaking. The bird sitting on her "throne" of fodder to no purpose is juxtaposed to God on His throne. The bird can be seen by human eyes, and God cannot. The bird superficially APPEARS to be more productive in advancing her kingdom than God does in advancing His.
This is the blessing to the elect by the Word and the prophet. Both insist on and allow a second look, a recounting by faith. Those given faith's ears to hear tune in to the still, small voice of His insistence rather than the purposefully noisy flutters of the world.
Despite appearances, despite what seems to be His foolish investiture of this people who have forsaken him, despite His impending uprooting of them from their nest in the unsettling of exile, He is still the hope of Israel even when they have been removed from its geographical bounds.
The fountain He is is still available, whether in Israel, or Babylon, or in America where so little seems prosperous right now. Will we write our names in the earth, contending briefly and futilely for our significance among Creation which cannot imbue purpose? Will we spend our days drawing in impermanence in the dirt from which we were made?
Or will we accept by grace an identity rooted in Christ? Will we experience His life and power in our dark frame? He, God of very God, is so interested in His brood that He likens Himself to a mother hen Who would gather us. He sits neither on throne nor on nest in vain.
“As a partridge that broods but does not hatch,
So is he who gets riches, but not by right;
It will leave him in the midst of his days,
And at his end he will be a fool.”
12
A glorious high throne from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
13
O Lord, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You shall be ashamed.
“Those who depart from Me
Shall be written in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the Lord,
The fountain of living waters.”
Will Durant opines in The Age of Napoleon on the Church of that day, "Variously privileged, the Church in France accumulated large domains, reckoned by some as a fifth of the soil; and these it ruled as feudal properties, collecting feudal dues. It turned the contributions of the faithful into gold and silver ornaments which, like the jewels of the crown, were consecrated and inviolable hedges against the inflation that seemed ingrained in history."
His picture is a useful one as we consider the indictment of Jeremiah 17:11-13. In Jeremiah's day, as in Napoleon's, as in this one, the Church is supposed to be an embassy for the coming Kingdom, an example of placing its communal hopes in the city not built with hands. Yet God through Jeremiah points out, and humanist Will Durant calmly observes, how quickly those who are ostensibly God's to protect and preserve preoccupy themselves with feathering our nests as though they were ours to keep forever. Wealth is likewise our hedge against the forces of history.
At what cost is pure faith forsaken? The partridge, God points out, is satisfied enough with her nest for its own sake that she forsakes fruitfulness. She sits on the nest, but no hatchlings are forthcoming. To the passerby, she LOOKS occupied with faith's investment in the next generation, but God is not fooled. He lifts her up, as it were, and shows us there is nothing underneath, no there there in grateful return for the life, and breath, and position He has given her.
The contrast to the next image is breathtaking. The bird sitting on her "throne" of fodder to no purpose is juxtaposed to God on His throne. The bird can be seen by human eyes, and God cannot. The bird superficially APPEARS to be more productive in advancing her kingdom than God does in advancing His.
This is the blessing to the elect by the Word and the prophet. Both insist on and allow a second look, a recounting by faith. Those given faith's ears to hear tune in to the still, small voice of His insistence rather than the purposefully noisy flutters of the world.
Despite appearances, despite what seems to be His foolish investiture of this people who have forsaken him, despite His impending uprooting of them from their nest in the unsettling of exile, He is still the hope of Israel even when they have been removed from its geographical bounds.
The fountain He is is still available, whether in Israel, or Babylon, or in America where so little seems prosperous right now. Will we write our names in the earth, contending briefly and futilely for our significance among Creation which cannot imbue purpose? Will we spend our days drawing in impermanence in the dirt from which we were made?
Or will we accept by grace an identity rooted in Christ? Will we experience His life and power in our dark frame? He, God of very God, is so interested in His brood that He likens Himself to a mother hen Who would gather us. He sits neither on throne nor on nest in vain.
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