Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreakable, Always and Forever Love

I have reflected upon The Story of God as we come to the end of the Old Testament, and it really is the story of God's never stopping, never giving up, unbreakable, always and forever love. If you have been here for any of the story, you know that God's people were not easy to love. In fact, God actually said to them early on in the story that he didn't set his love on them because they were lovable. Yet through it all, though Israel forgets God many, many, times, God never stops loving Israel.

When we reach the end of the first half of The Story of God (near the end of the Old Testament), Israel is sort of like the boys at the end of the book, The Lord of the Flies. Remember that from Lit class? A bunch of young boys are marooned on an island without adults, parents, or anyone to guide them. At the beginning of the book, they are there by the wreckage of their plane in their prep school uniforms, and because all of the adults were killed in the crash, they are left to their own devices. By the end of the book, they have forgotten who they are and are little better than savages.

We are not told in that story how the boys who were rescued faired later in their lives, but in the Bible we are told how Israel faired after they came back from the wreckage of being exiled in a strange land. When the people of God hear the record of his love for them expounded and explained, it has an effect on them: they weep. They see how far they have fallen, even as they remember who they are supposed to be. Then the strangest thing happens. It is totally unexpected, totally counter-intuitive, and totally blows up what a lot of people think holiness looks like--they throw a party!

Sound strange to you? Well, if it does, join us Sunday for the rest of the story.....

Blessings,

Jim