Everlasting Love
Today’s Verse:
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. ~Jeremiah 31:3
Jeremiah prophesied of Judah’s seventy-year captivity to Babylon. Jerusalem’s walls, its temple, and many of its buildings would be burned and destroyed. Those not taken into captivity would be killed by the sword, famine, or pestilence. Those taken into captivity would be told to build their houses there and allow their sons and daughters to marry. Then, God told Jeremiah to tell them that they would return to Jerusalem after the seventy years. God’s chastening hand against Israel would be completed after seventy years, and God would bring them home. Jeremiah’s message encouraged the people about God’s everlasting love.
There is perfection.
God said that His love is everlasting. God never stopped loving His people. God had to chasten His erring people, like a father must chasten his erring children. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6). God was never the one who drifted in love: it was His people. Perfect love loves even when the other is unlovable. Perfect love never diminishes or wavers. It gives hope and brings home the fallen. It beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Perfect love never fails. Perfect love is God’s love.
There is pardon.
“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Everlasting love forgives and forgets. All of our sins are buried in God’s sea of forgetfulness. There is acquittal in forgiveness. There is mercy in forgiveness. There is immunity in forgiveness. God brought them back, restored them, and poured out the mercies of His goodness upon them.
There is patience.
“Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.” Everlasting love is longsuffering and extremely patient. In His patience, God always thought of Ephraim as His dear son. In spite of the evil His people committed, God always thought good, and not evil, of them. Patience is being grieved, but not giving up. Patience is waiting, without having wrath. Patience is maintaining kindness and not being cruel.
There is prosperity.
“Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.” God, in His everlasting love, restores and replenishes. God, in His everlasting love, gives us more than what we deserve. God, in His everlasting love, blesses us in an exceeding abundant way. We see the goodness of the Lord in His love. We see soul prosperity: their soul would become like a watered garden. This represents His care to nurture them back to strong spiritual health. Sorrow was replaced by joy. Sadness was replaced happiness. Worry was replaced with peace. God’s law was written in their hearts. Everlasting love is unfailing love!
Have a love-filled God Morning!
Bible Reading Schedule: Exodus 28-29