Saturday - Jeremiah 15 - Repent & Return

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T is not my purpose to convolute, confuse or otherwise complicate a simple truth. When God calls people to repentance, that's exactly what He wants. However, in Jeremiah 15:6 it is recorded that God said to the Jews, "You have forsaken me, says the LORD, you are gone backward: therefore, will I stretch out My hand against you, and destroy you; I am weary with repenting." Frankly, it makes little difference whether His weariness regarding repentance had to do with the cycles of the people's repentance, or to the numerous extra chances that God had allowed them.  Either way, the point was that every reformation that the people had ever experienced was only temporary.  And, God was tired of their cycle of backsliding.

There is a key word that is used here that should speak loudly to us in relation to our own spiritual walk. It is the word, "return." The God of great patience was out of patience in reference to His wandering people. He said that even if they had had Moses and Samuel to defend them, at this point they couldn't be helped (vs. 1). God had decreed their destruction (vs. 2-3). Most specifically, He declared 4 kinds of judgments against them in response to the wickedness of the former king, Manasseh (vs. 4). And, it wasn't just the king’s sins, it was the fact that even after great infractions & painful punishments, the people still refused to repent & return to God (vs. 7).