Monday, August 1
Love and loyalty
Scripture: Jeremiah 1-2, Revelation 4
Jeremiah 2:1–2 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Go and announce directly to Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says:
I remember the loyalty of your youth,
your love as a bride—
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
Jeremiah 2:32
Can a young woman forget her jewelry
or a bride her wedding sash?
Yet my people have forgotten me
for countless days.
Observation
Having just finished Chronicles which ends with the final kings of Judah, we move to Jeremiah who prophesied during the reigns of those kings.
I love Jeremiah. He is called “the weeping prophet” because he lets us feel his deep emotion over the destruction of his people, and his own fear and discouragement. He uses vivid imagery and metaphor like this: For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves—cracked cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2:13)
Or this: Jeremiah often compares Judah’s relationship with God to a marriage. Judah’s idolatry is spiritual adultery. They have abandoned the marriage and sought love elsewhere.
In these verses above, the Lord remembers “the loyalty of your youth, your love as a bride,” but then questions how they could have forgotten God. “Can a young woman forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash?” Imagine a bride today forgetting her wedding dress! That’s how unthinkable it was for Judah to forget God and pursue others, to abandon their love and loyalty.
Application
Just as I am faithful to my wife, I am to be faithful to the Lord. It is easy for other things to become too important and God is given a back seat (or is crowded out altogether).
When I think of my first love for Jesus—“the loyalty of your youth, your love as a bride”—I remember how eager I was to share Jesus with others, how intentional I was about doing it. I actively looked for opportunities, or even worked to create them. I’ve lost some of that enthusiasm and passion. I think of this verse we read two days ago:
Revelation 2:4–5 But I have this against you: You have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
More than anything, the Lord desires a relationship with us; He wants our love, our devotion. I don’t want to be a bride who forgets her wedding dress! I want my love for God to keep growing, always moving up and to the right, burning hotter and brighter.
Prayer: Lord, help my love for you grow, not dim. Help my fire burn hotter, not cooler. Let my love and loyalty for You be better at the end of my life than it was at the beginning!