July 20, 2024 - Jeremiah 31-34

“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.  And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.  For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (31:33-34).  I want to break out in a chorus of “Amazing Grace,” God’s grace being so evidently displayed, here.  The people who have spurned their God, the people who have bowed down to the idols, the people who have utterly forsaken the way of righteousness, these will know the Lord, from the least of them to the greatest.  Their sins forgiven, they will know their God intimately and take great joy in walking with him.  God’s grace will always win out!

I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew

He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me;

it was not I that found, O Savior true;

no, I was found of Thee.

Thou didst reach forth Thy hand and mine enfold;

I walked and sank not on the storm-vexed sea;

‘twas not so much that I on Thee took hold,

as Thou, dear Lord, on me.   --Jean Ingelow (1878)