The days are coming when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

Odd Things God Has Had People Do

As I was studying the Jeremiah text and the verses around it this past week, which I found to be odd, I began to ponder the odd things that we do- things that seem to be the opposite of what we ought to do. With all this snow and ice I remember when we were suppose to pump the brakes when trying to slow down on ice and snow. Now with anti-lock brakes, the ones that make that horrible noise when they are engaging, you are suppose to hold your foot down on the brake pedal- no pumping! The anti-lock brakes are pumping faster and better than we ever could. Still it seems odd to me. I have to fight the urge to do it my way.

Other odd things: dieting- we need to eat and drink more to lose weight- more vegetables and less fats, more water and less sugared sodas. How about fishing? If you get a fish hook buried in your hand you don’t pull it out because of the barb, often you have push it on through until the barb comes out and then clip it off. These and other things like this often don’t seem to make sense- they are odd but they work.

God has had people do some pretty odd things. Things that didn’t seem to make sense at the time: If you look in the book of 2nd Kings, chapter 5, you will find the great general, Naaman. He’s the one who had leprosy. It seems the prophet, Elisha, told Naaman if he wanted to be cured to go and dip in the Jordan River seven times, and he would be healed. This was very odd and it didn’t make sense. At first he refused to do it- imagine someone being stubborn to the Word of God. In case you don’t know the story, he eventually did go and was healed.

As long as we are in 2nd Kings, look in chapter 6. It seems some men were cutting down trees. They were using a borrowed ax, which in those days was a very expensive and special tool. It was sort of like borrowing your neighbors “terminator” or chainsaw. It is recorded that the head of the ax came off the handle and fell into the river. Elisha, the one who spoke for God, told them he could get it back by throwing a stick into the water. I can almost see their expression- “Yeah, right,” and oddly enough it worked. Elisha threw a stick in the water and the ax head floated- odd but true.

In today’s lesson the prophet Jeremiah is declaring, the days are coming when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. To understand this verse we need to back up to chapter 31 and an odd thing that the prophet Jeremiah was told to do. At this time, Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians. God had revealed through Jeremiah that all of Israel was about to be carried off into exile. The kingdom as they knew it, as they always expected it would be, was about to be thrown down. And God says to Jeremiah, buy some land. Buy the family farm and take the documents and register them properly and put one set away for safe keeping. It reads like this: your uncle will come to you and say, “buy my field …because as the nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it.” (32.7) And then Take the documents, (the deed) both sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of purchase and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time. (32.14) This to me was very odd. When you are about to be overrun and have everything you own taken from you, it is not the time to be buying property. The conquering country isn’t going to recognize previous ownership that is how wars of conquest used to be fought! “We won; it is ours. Sorry Charlie, you are out of luck!” In the midst of this war, Jeremiah the prophet of God says, we need to buy land, record the deed and I know that shortly we will be marched off into captivity with no prospects of winning but listen why I was told to do this: For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says,: houses, fields and vineyards will again be in this land. (32.15) As odd and hopeless as it looks now. You will return. Your God will deliver you and He will keep his promise to raise up a righteous Branch from David’s line. He will be a Lord and King and will sit on the throne of David. He will be called The Lord our Righteousness. I know it all sounds very odd and things look pretty hopeless, but thus “saith the Lord!”

Things That Are At Odds With What We Ought To Do

It is easy for us to look back into the Bible and see odd things that people were told to do and how they worked out: Joseph, Son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary home as your wife; what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. (Matt 1.20) Peter, let your nets down in the wrong place at the wrong time of day for a miraculous catch of fish. (Luke 5) To the man with shriveled hand, Jesus said stretch out your hand; he did and it was completely restored. (Matt 12) Odd requests but they did it. How often do we hear what sounds to be an odd request, especially regarding the things of God, and fail to carry it out?

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all the rest of life will find its proper place. (Matt 6.33) It isn’t that we fail so much to seek it but how often is it not first and foremost? It seems odd we are to do that before food, clothing and shelter, a car, getting the cable turned on, and this and that…

We are told to be in prayer constantly. Isn’t it odd that prayer is often what we do when all else fails. We are told to give thanks to God in all circumstances, being anxious about nothing, but oddly it is often God we get angry with when our circumstances are too hard or seemingly too uncertain- we are carried off into the bondage of disease, growing older, or uncertain finances. Proverbs tells us, if sinner entice you do not give in to them (1.10) and oddly we think we can handle sin- we can dabble and not get hooked or burned. We are told to train a child up in the way he should go- train them up in love and fear of the Lord but oddly this too we often neglect. Thinking we will do it tomorrow or tomorrow or tomorrow-when they are older- when life isn’t so busy…. I fear we are often at odds with God and what He would have us do- what He has told us to do. I fear we rebel too much.

Odd Things God Has Done

Despite our rebellion, God was and is faithful. He has done some very odd things to save us. When the sin of Adam shipwrecked creation, He made a promise to send us a Savior. That Savior would be God in flesh appearing. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. (Col 2.9) Oddly, Jesus who was worshipped in heaven would come from there and take up the role of a servant. Matthew records Jesus’ words, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and give His life as a ransom for many. (Matt 20.27) That ransom was paid by His substitutionary death in our place. All those sins of rebellion, all those sins of thinking God’s word and direction are old-fashioned, out of step, or in need of 21st century reinterpretation, Jesus suffered and died on a rough and rugged cross for. Oddly, He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in Him (because of His life, death, and resurrection) we might become the righteousness of God. (2nd Cor 5.21) Truly, truly it is by His wounds that we are healed. (Is 53.5) We are forgiven of our sins! (1st Pet 1.24) and where there is forgiveness, there is life now and beyond death. That full forgiveness- our full forgiveness- was declared by the God/man from the cross when He said, It is finished, (Jn 19.30) and our forgiveness was certified- was attested to- by His bodily resurrection three days later. He was declared with power to be the Son of God! (Rom. 1.4)

Odd Things We Ought To Be Doing

All around us are people who need to hear about the odd but truly amazing and life changing things that God has done for all of us. Like us, they need to hear all the promises that God has connected to baptism. They need the reality of forgiveness found in God’s words of absolution to repentant sinners. It may seem too odd to them that Jesus has joined Himself in a sacramental, yet real way, to the bread and wine of communion but is this too hard for One who could put all that is Christ into the Bethlehem baby? They like us need to hear again and again of the mercy and grace of God to save sinners of which I am the worst. All this may seem very odd just as I’m sure buying land and going to great lengths to register the deed seemed odd in Jeremiah’s day but it can all be trusted for this Jesus has proven Himself trustworthy by His life death and resurrection and it was attested to by those who beheld it first hand. (2 Pet1.16) It may seem odd at first but by the working of the Holy Spirit all of it can become profound.