Meditation
The last part of the little bio for this writer (see below) says, “Two exuberant small daughters make sure that he never gets any rest.” They are seven and almost five. Last fall, both got stitches in the ER in the same month. I’ve hidden matches which were nonetheless found. They have gone into the kitchen on their own and cut bananas and lemons with sharp knives. They had to be shown several times how to get the fasteners in their car seats done right. They have to be told endlessly why eating certain foods in overabundant amounts, especially at the wrong time of day, will do them harm. They have to be told to bundle up before going outside. It’s so true — I never get any rest.
Now my children are not particularly disobedient; they are just curious and eager to be grown up. The people in today’s lesson are in a far worse situation. “They swear falsely.” “They have not grieved.” “They have refused to receive correction.” “They are foolish.” There’s more, way more. God has it much worse than I do. He cannot find even one person who seeks the truth; if he could, pardon for them all would come. “Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the Lord.
But the punishment is directed to produce correction for the wayward; much of the awful, even fatal, sufferings they endure, e.g. “a lion from the forest shall slay them,” are mostly consequences of the persistently immoral, disobedient decisions they make. With us, God never gets any rest. But like the loving Father that he is, his outcry is so that the children will “turn from their wickedness and live.” Whether it is a nation that has gone the wrong way, or a community, a family, or an individual, it is the same: we live under the immortal active love of God.
