Week 2 June 2025, Devotion Part 2

They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.  Jeremiah 8:11

Jeremiah traveled far and wide with the Holy One of Israel’s words of warning, suffering assorted death threats and incarceration before being killed in Egypt. “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the Bible, and God did indeed perform His Word by making the destruction of Jerusalem and Israel’s 70-year Babylonian exile come to pass.

Thanks to the Ryrie Study Bible, my attention has of late become fixed on his summary of Jeremiah 8:4-12, calling it “The retribution of God.” Does his choice of an English word imply retaliation or more simply, a predictable outcome? In Job 8:4, Bildad coldly blames the tragic deaths of his ten children on their sinfulness. In Galatians 6:7, Paul states, “A man reaps what he sows.” Given today’s political and cultural climate with its confusing peace narratives, I fondly recall an observation stated in 1 Chronicles 12:32.  The men of Issachar, though few in numbers, are described as people who “understood the times and knew what Israel should do”  What if a few Americans took the hint?   Part 2 or 2

Comment:  The “shock and “awe” of unexpected invasion became a household word during the Iraq War in 2003.  One could also sarcastically apply the term to Sadam Hussein, whose privacy was violated when he was pulled from the 6-8 foot “spider hole.”  When the Babylonians inflicted their “shock and awe” on Judah, it was by no means a sudden thing. Their leading “influencers” had been strenuously warned, but the lying pens of scribes sided with those greedy for personal perks.  More alarmingly still, they utterly lacked in any fear of God, well known by them as the “beginning of wisdom.”  Notice the irony of Jeremiah 8:8, “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us?’”  Dr. Charles C. Ryrie proceeds to unpack “The retribution of God.”  In criminal justice, retribution refers to the idea that criminals should be punished to an extent that corresponds to the severity of their crimes. This principle focuses on the past offense and the offender’s responsibility, rather than future prevention or rehabilitation. The core of retribution theology is the idea that God’s justice is immediately manifested in people’s earthly experiences, with blessings for the righteous and punishments for the wicked.  The “sons of thunder” wanted to rain down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village.  That only happened to Sodom when not even ten righteous people could be found in it. The Ryrie study Bible doesn’t promote retribution theology, but seeks to shift our focus from perennially sinful human conduct to the reality of God’s holy character.  Jesus said that if we see Him, we see His Father, united in the saving love actualized on Calvary.  It's the Holy Spirit’s joy to guide us into every aspect of the “way, truth, and life” of Jesus Christ.  Lying tongues and pens are destined for worse than deep and dark “spider holes” of cowardly retreat.  Let's pray for an invasion of divine mercy!  Jeremiah 8