The goodness and severity of God

Am currently reading the book of Jeremiah, and today stopped to linger at Chapters 14 and 15, where God tells Jeremiah not to intercede for Judah because He will not relent.

 Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good. ¹² When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.” (Jeremiah 14:11-12)

God goes on to say in Jeremiah 15, that because the people have persistently rejected Him, He is "weary of relenting".

You have rejected me, declares the Lord;
you keep going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
I am weary of relenting (Jeremiah 15:6)

I've paused here because these two chapters have made me rethink my notion of God - whether my view of Him is a biblical view or a Santa Claus view. I've always known of course that God is a God of justice and mercy. But these chapters reminded me today that we cannot presume on the mercy of God forever. Even more sobering, it reminded me today that there is a point of no return, a point where God intends to bring forth judgement, and no intercession, no pleading, will change His mind.

We really need to consider the goodness and severity of God, and hold this in a tension. He is "a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6). But He is also "a jealous God" (Exodus 20:5), and holy and righteous.

God cannot let sin go unpunished, but He has graciously made a way - by sending Jesus, His son, to bear our punishment in our stead. We need to repent though of our wicked ways, ask God for forgiveness, and made Jesus our Lord and Saviour.

We don't know how long this window of opportunity for repentence will be. We cannot presume upon God that His patience towards us will last forever. May we respond to Him, and keep our hearts tender towards Him.

“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:15)

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10)