Jeremiah 34-35

(January 31, 2015)

                I think that I am far too casual with covenants with the Lord.  I understand my own weaknesses and limitations, and that I have made covenants that I cannot keep.  I understand that the Lord will be forgiving of me when I fall short of keeping my covenants, because of His perfect mercy and love towards me.  All of that is well and good, but the problem comes in that I think that based upon those two things I give myself far too much latitude with my failures and I don’t properly recognize the magnitude of falling short in a covenant with the Lord.

                In this chapter, we have a people who made a covenant to finally get around to keeping a commandment that they were under obligation to keep.  And they kept this covenant for a short while, but they then returned to their own ways – and, predictably, destruction came.  A central theme of Jeremiah is the very idea of backsliding – the Lord will be patient with us so long as we are moving forward, but when we move backwards (especially against a covenant) then we are in serious, serious danger.

                As a result of this, it is a reminder to me how seriously I need to take my covenants – both those that I have made as part of ordinances and those that I have taken upon myself in my communications with my Father.