Jeremiah 17:3-4 – The Surrender of Setting and Stuff
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O My mountain in the field,
I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,
And your high places of sin within all your borders.
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And you, even yourself,
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”
"Renunciation is a piercing virtue," admits Emily Dickinson in Eugene Peterson's The Jesus Way.
It is so sharp, in fact, that in Jeremiah 17:3-4 it turns the Father Who made and owns all things to lament. Perhaps for this purpose the Lord of the universe identifies especially with Israel and Jerusalem, so that He can say with meaning, eliciting something not unlike pathos, that He gives His mountain in the field as plunder. We can feel genuine pain in the immortal, impervious as He likewise severs the bond between the people on whom He has put His Name before the nations and the land He has given them for a thousand generations.
They will learn in exile, then, the land which is a gift of God's grace still preserved as theirs by His sovereign plan, that His provision, protection, and plan are bigger than a particular setting or particular role. On reflection, some of them will see the truth of His Word that originally every victory over the Canaanites proved His faithfulness, that every subsequent harvest was as much a gift of His grace as was the manner directly from Heaven which fed them in the desert. But, in order to appreciate their position in blessing's epicenter, they will need to be removed from it – lest they take it for granted as simply a genetic birthright.
Is dislocation doing a similar work in you? Do you more feel the sting of renunciation out of your control, or the individual balm of perceiving His purposes in what otherwise seems capricious? Is the parting of the usual logic between cause and effect, between your sowing and your reaping, between your words and their present, in-the-room impact deepening your faith, or forcing you to sip the Scriptural bitterness of a dream deferred?
That God provides at all in the light of the justice of His curse in Jeremiah 17:4 and elsewhere is proof of His persevering grace. Contending with Him for a more obvious impact of our efforts won't help. Reveals Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship, "[A}nxiety nor work can secure his (the Christian's) daily bread, for bread is the gift of the Father. Man in revolt imagines there is a relation of cause and effect between work and sustenance, but Jesus explodes that illusion. According to Him, bread is not to be valued as a reward for work. He speaks instead of the carefree simplicity of the man who walks with Him and accepts everything as it comes from God."
Illusion exploded in vulnerability revealed, we can embrace the truth of grace, humbling and ennobling at the same time. Christ took back just, burning anger for His own. Bread in whatever form, whether manna, or from flour made from "our" harvest, or wages, or government benefits is grace from Him. For those who are in Christ, it doesn't merely forestall the ultimate bankruptcy of accountability for our sins. Instead, it is a foretaste of the riches which belong to us because of Christ.
O My mountain in the field,
I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,
And your high places of sin within all your borders.
4
And you, even yourself,
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”
"Renunciation is a piercing virtue," admits Emily Dickinson in Eugene Peterson's The Jesus Way.
It is so sharp, in fact, that in Jeremiah 17:3-4 it turns the Father Who made and owns all things to lament. Perhaps for this purpose the Lord of the universe identifies especially with Israel and Jerusalem, so that He can say with meaning, eliciting something not unlike pathos, that He gives His mountain in the field as plunder. We can feel genuine pain in the immortal, impervious as He likewise severs the bond between the people on whom He has put His Name before the nations and the land He has given them for a thousand generations.
They will learn in exile, then, the land which is a gift of God's grace still preserved as theirs by His sovereign plan, that His provision, protection, and plan are bigger than a particular setting or particular role. On reflection, some of them will see the truth of His Word that originally every victory over the Canaanites proved His faithfulness, that every subsequent harvest was as much a gift of His grace as was the manner directly from Heaven which fed them in the desert. But, in order to appreciate their position in blessing's epicenter, they will need to be removed from it – lest they take it for granted as simply a genetic birthright.
Is dislocation doing a similar work in you? Do you more feel the sting of renunciation out of your control, or the individual balm of perceiving His purposes in what otherwise seems capricious? Is the parting of the usual logic between cause and effect, between your sowing and your reaping, between your words and their present, in-the-room impact deepening your faith, or forcing you to sip the Scriptural bitterness of a dream deferred?
That God provides at all in the light of the justice of His curse in Jeremiah 17:4 and elsewhere is proof of His persevering grace. Contending with Him for a more obvious impact of our efforts won't help. Reveals Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship, "[A}nxiety nor work can secure his (the Christian's) daily bread, for bread is the gift of the Father. Man in revolt imagines there is a relation of cause and effect between work and sustenance, but Jesus explodes that illusion. According to Him, bread is not to be valued as a reward for work. He speaks instead of the carefree simplicity of the man who walks with Him and accepts everything as it comes from God."
Illusion exploded in vulnerability revealed, we can embrace the truth of grace, humbling and ennobling at the same time. Christ took back just, burning anger for His own. Bread in whatever form, whether manna, or from flour made from "our" harvest, or wages, or government benefits is grace from Him. For those who are in Christ, it doesn't merely forestall the ultimate bankruptcy of accountability for our sins. Instead, it is a foretaste of the riches which belong to us because of Christ.
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