"This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD."
Jeremiah 9:23,24 (NIV)
The book of Jeremiah can be a very depressing read, as the LORD describes what the future holds for His people who reject Him. Most of us try to forget the passages as soon as we read them - if we read them at all - and YET Jeremiah contains some real gems! Verses that we should put on plaques on our walls, or put on our desktop background; verses to be chewed on over and over again.
These two verses in chapter 9 speak to our souls about who the LORD truly is. Do you know who the LORD is? Not in the midst of plenty, but in the midst of disaster, for chapter 9 describes disaster. Do you know who He is when “Death has climbed in through your window”, vs 21? When your food is bitter and your water poison, vs 15? People ask us (we even think it ourselves sometimes) how could a good God kill so many people? They say that they could never worship a God who allows a baby to die, and never worship a God who allows so much suffering, or who would create a place of eternal suffering called hell. Yet there is something about a Christian that causes us to worship God in the midst of disaster. There is something about a child of the Most High that draws us to Him even as everything we love is taken away. We have been given the understanding by the Spirit of God that enables us to know that God is a God who delights in and exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on this earth. So let us put this verse on our walls, and in our hearts while times are good. Let this verse teach us to boast in God and only in God (1 Cor 1:31).
Did we boast this week about anything? Did we boast about our strength? Hey- did you hear my son made the Ontario u16 rugby team? Did we boast about our wisdom? Hey- did you hear about my other son’s good grades at engineering school? Did we boast about our riches? Hey- did you hear about my daughter’s great summer job at WSIB? Did we boast about being given the grace by God to know Him through his Son Jesus Christ - to be able to see Him as He truly is, to be able to recognize His character and to KNOW in my heart that He is good all the time?
A friend of mine says to me, “John – if you are going to tell me that God is good all the time - you will have to define good for me!” Very well then – good is defined in this verse as “exercising and delighting in kindness, justice and righteousness on earth” – this is who God is and what a wonderful good God He is!
Heavenly Father thank you! Thank you for opening my eyes! Thank you for revealing yourself to me! May I boast this day in You my Lord, and not in my wisdom, or strength or riches.
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