GOD'S LOVE IS UNDETERRED
God’s love is undeterred. It is not distracted. It is never delayed. God’s love never stops loving regardless of the hate and the evil and the filth that the people of this world and we ourselves throw in his way. God’s love remains steadfast even when it fails to receive love in return. In fact, the Bible is really a book filled with stories of this undeterred love of our Lord. Adam and Eve: hand-made by God himself, created in perfection, given the world. But human beings who threw it all away because they wanted more. They ate from a tree that they knew they were not supposed to eat from because they thought by doing so they could be more like God. But God’s love for them was undeterred. He did not immediately destroy them, he patiently listened to their sorry excuses, and he gave them the promise of a Savior even before he ushered them out of the garden. Their blatant disobedience could not stop God’s love.
The Israelite nation, God’s own people, chosen, protected, blessed: constantly grumbled, continually complained, incessantly griped about God’s power and his plan. They even bowed down to a golden statue of a calf while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments. But God’s love for them was undeterred. He preserved them throughout the 40 years in the desert. He guided them to the Promised Land. He drove out the Canaanites before them. He delivered them from invading peoples. And he made them into a great nation. Their open idolatry and reoccurring rebellion could not stop God’s love for them.
Judas Iscariot: one of the 12 chosen disciples of Jesus himself, a part of the Lord’s inner circle for three straight years, privileged enough to hear Jesus preach, to listen to Jesus teach, to watch Jesus perform miracles, and to experience Jesus’ grace first hand, but a man who decided to hand Jesus over to his enemies for 30 pieces of silver anyway. He betrayed his Lord, set up a time and place, gathered a mob, led them out to Gethsemane, and hypocritically kissed Jesus on the cheek when he got there. But God’s love for him was undeterred. Jesus gave Judas many different chances to repent. He confronted Judas with his sin in different ways and at different times. He longed for Judas’ life to be turned around even though he knew where this fallen disciple would eventually end up. Even Judas’ betrayal and his infamous back stabbing could not even stop God’s love. Because God’s love has always been undeterred. He will never stop loving - even those who hate him. And the story we have in front of us this morning is just one more example of this constant love that God has shown all people.
Our story from the Old Testament picks up during the time of King Jehoiakim, one of the last kings of Judah. And during his reign the nation of Israel was going downhill in a hurry because the leaders were pulling the people away from the Lord. And so the Israelites refused to worship him; they refused to read his Word, and they refused to listen to his prophets. But God’s love was undeterred. In fact, he was so concerned about the spiritual depravity of his people and wanted so much for his chosen nation to come back to him that he sent the prophet Jeremiah to call them to repentance. But despite God’s love and his patience with his people, Scripture says that “As soon as Jeremiah finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests, the prophets and all the people seized him and said, ‘You must die! Why do you prophesy in the LORD’s name that this house will be like Shiloh and this city will be desolate and deserted?’ And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.” The people didn’t want God’s love. They didn’t want to repent. They didn’t want to hear that Jerusalem would end up like the city of Shiloh if they continued in their sins.
Shiloh had once been a very prominent city in the land of Israel. Many centuries before Jeremiah ever spoke these words, Joshua led the people of Israel over the Jordan River and into the Promised Land for the very first time. And the spot that they chose to set up the Tabernacle of the Lord was the city of Shiloh. And the worship center of the entire nation remained there for 300 years. But one day in a fateful battle during the time of Samuel the prophet, the Philistines overtook the Israelite army, captured the ark of the covenant, and destroyed the city. The ark was eventually returned, but Shiloh itself was in ruins and it would never be built up again. All of the Israelites knew what Shiloh had been and what it now was. And so when Jeremiah pronounced 450 years later that Jerusalem would become like Shiloh if the people did not repent of their sins, the Israelites wanted nothing of it. They didn’t want to listen to this harsh judgment on their beloved city. It was unpatriotic! It was almost blasphemous! And they were perfectly content to continue on in their sins and ignore the warning and love of the Lord.
And we should understand that kind of attitude because we ignore the words of the Lord all the time! If there is something we want to do and God’s Word clearly tells us not to do it, we usually try not to think about what the Bible says because we want to do it anyway. And if we dwell on Scripture’s directives for too long, we might feel a little bit guilty about our actions! Or if there is an inappropriate thought that comes to our minds or a condescending word that finds its way into our mouths - things that we know are against God’s Word - we oftentimes keep thinking about it anyway or continue to say it nevertheless because we know in the back of our minds that we won’t be immediately struck dead for disobeying God’s law just this one time. It hasn’t happened before, so why would it happen now? Indulging my sinful nature just a little bit isn’t going to make too much of a difference, is it?
And that’s exactly what the Israelites must have been thinking during the time of Jeremiah: “We have worshiped other gods and done things contrary to the book of God’s law for years now, and nothing bad has happened to us yet! There’s no urgency to reform our ways! There’s no pressing reason to do things differently! How could this great city of Jerusalem ever become like Shiloh anyway? There is no way any army could overtake our fortifications! There is no way that the Lord will ever give up the city of his king! There is no way that what we are doing is bad enough for our homeland to be destroyed!” Oh, but it was. The Lord finally did send the Babylonian army against his chosen city in the chosen country of his chosen people and he allowed that foreign nation to completely destroy it. Jerusalem eventually did end up like Shiloh. And for the very same reasons.
God does not take sin lightly. He is enraged by it. He is also offended by it. It is a personal affront to his love and mercy when his own children knowingly and willingly break his law. He is hurt by that kind of insolence and he will sometimes punish it as he did during the days of the Old Testament. Throughout the time of the judges the Israelites we constantly handed over to their enemies specifically because of their sins. At the end of that era Shiloh was eventually destroyed on account of their disobedience. And Jerusalem itself was even overtaken, not just once by the Babylonians, but a second time by the Romans a few decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Lord will not tolerate unrepentant sin. He will not let it slide. He will make sure that sin is dealt with one way or another. Sin will either end up being punished because of God’s justice or forgiven because of God’s love. It will not be excused. It will not be passed over. It was not be brushed aside. Every sin of every person will be handled by the Lord himself. And when it comes right down to it, the Lord always prefers to handle sin with his love.
That’s why he sent Jeremiah to the people: not because he hated them, but because his love was undeterred. And that’s why he told Jeremiah to say to them: “Reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God. Then the LORD will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you.” God did not want to punish his people or make Jerusalem like Shiloh or send them into exile! He wanted them to repent! He loved them! And that’s why Jeremiah went: because his love for God’s people was undeterred as well. Jeremiah knew he would be hated for the words he was about to speak - it had happened before! And Jeremiah knew his life would be threatened - that had happened before too! But Jeremiah wanted to see his countrymen repent of their sins almost as much as God himself wanted to see it happen. The undeterred love of God filled Jeremiah’s heart for these hard-headed Israelites and he longed for their salvation. And so death threats, public ostracism, and a very meager hope of success did not prevent Jeremiah from showing the Jewish people the love of God. Centuries later, Christ himself would be in a very similar position.
Throughout Jesus’ ministry he received death threats. He was ostracized by the Jewish elite. And he knew that his success rate with the unbelievers living in the land would be meager at best. In fact, while he was there in the city on one of his many visits to Jerusalem, the Pharisees told him to leave because Herod was looking to murder him. But Jesus’ love was undeterred. He was determined to preach to the people, he was set on spreading the gospel, and he was even willing to die at the hands of its citizens because he loved them so much. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” he said, “you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gather her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Luke 13:34)! Jesus longed for those who longed to see him dead! Jesus poured out his heart for those who poured out his blood! Jesus stretched out his arms to those who physically stretched out his arms for him so that they could nail them to the beams of the cross. Jesus’ love was undeterred. Their hate could not stop him. Their sinfulness would not prevent him from winning their forgiveness on a hill outside the city walls. And neither can ours.
Our sins cannot stop his love. We cannot possibly sin enough that the Lord will love us no longer. We cannot damage his law, insult his name, or disregard his will to a point where he will turn his love away from us. You will always be loved. YOU WILL ALWAYS BE LOVED BY THE LORD. And so when the Lord says to you through the prophet Jeremiah, “Reform your ways and your actions and obey the LORD your God,” it’s not so that the Lord will then love you; it’s because the Lord already loves you. He wants to see you live a life of praise to him. He wants to see his children thank him for his love. God’s love is not the end goal of your life; it is your motivation. It is not what you are trying to get; it is what you have. Because God’s love is undeterred. God’s love is always there. It is the only constant in your life. It is the only thing you can count on. It is the only thing that will never let you down.
Your spouse will die if she/he hasn’t already. Your children will not always be as dependable as you’d like them to be. Your neighbors and friends and family members and pastors will come and go. But not God’s love. That will always be there. God’s love will never leave.
God loved the people of Israel during Jeremiah’s time, even though they ended up rejecting him and killing his prophets. And he loves the people of Israel still. God loved the mockers and the blasphemers during Jesus’ day, even though they crucified him. And he loves the mockers and the blasphemers of this world still. God loved us before he created this world; he loved us at the moment we were conceived in sin; he loved us when we disobey him and when we insult him and when we ignore him. And he loves us still. God’s love for you is undeterred. Let nothing deter your love for him.
Amen.
“May the Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” - 2 Thess. 2:16-17
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