Inspired by Jeremiah chapter 12:7-13
Can a leopard change his spots?
This is the question I heard from the prophet’s mouth. “No!” Was my obvious reply, and then it all came home to my heart, and there was nowhere to run!
A few days earlier:
The hills of Judah are alive with vineyards. From my journey I have watched farmers labor - season after season - waiting years for vines to mature: Pruning, tending, training each branch on wooden poles. One laborer told me it can take nearly five long years before the vines give their true fruit, and even then the work never ceases. The vine-dresser of the same vineyard told me it has taken 2 generations. He knows his vines intimately; he waters them, keeps away wild beasts, protects them from infestations, guards them from thieves. He pours his life into them, for they are his joy, and his inheritance. His portion passed down from generation to generation.
So imagine the horror of a man who has tended such a vineyard with love and patience, only to wake one morning to find a band of shepherds had come in the night (men that neither cared for nor understood the value of these vines), trampling its rows, ripping up the roots, scattering what once was lush and fruitful. And now their sheep eat the wasted years, and the vine-dresser’s joy has deserted his heart, replaced with one word: Desolation!
The prophet Jeremiah seized upon this image. He stood with eyes wet from weeping, and declared:
“This is what has happened to my heritage”, says the Lord.
I remembered how close Israel had once been to the Lord, as close as undergarments to my skin. He taught us, and made us a people, and gave us a land flowing with milk and honey. He even gave us the right to carry His name. The name of Almighty God. I remembered how Moses likened Israel to a helpless baby drowning in it’s blood … yet the Lord took us and tended to us like a vine-dresser his vines: with skill, with love, and with patience.
“Yet look at you now” Said Jeremiah, as he pulled out the dirtiest and stinkiest pair of underwear I had ever laid eyes upon — “You are torn from the soil, sullied, trampled by foreign feet, taken over by foreign gods!”
His eyes scanned every one of us, trying to feel even one ounce of sorrow at this reality he had brought to bear. His tears welled up again as he spoke with a broken voice:
“And not one of you lays it to heart.”
The wound of betrayal bled through his speech. His words like a Father’s cry over rebellious children.
“Just like this underwear is utterly ruined, so are you before the Lord. You who were once so close to Him - meant for intimacy, beauty and honor. But now your pride, idolatry, your secret sins have made you useless. And from the North comes Babylon. They will pluck you out like weeds, and you will see what you have done. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean? Will you not be ashamed when it all comes to pass?”
No wonder they have plotted to kill him, I thought to myself. He was basically assuring us that our people would be ripped out like those vines and our land burned to the ground. I thought of the Leopard with his spots, and the Ethiopian with his skin. I thought of how we had strayed again and again from what God intended for us. Perhaps Jeremiah was right? There was no way for us to change. What could be done?
A feeling of hopelessness filled me. Yet something more in Jeremiah’s words gave me a glimmer of hope. Our God was not just the God of Israel, He was also the God of every nation and tribe and people.
Surely the story was not finished yet, although I found myself in tragedy, I had the feeling that God could still use it.
And then I remembered words from Jeremiah himself, that brought a little bit of hope. “Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them, and bring them back … “
“No,” i said to myself, “the end is certainly not yet here, there is more to this story.” And I tried to stay closer to Jeremiah from that day on.
Many years later the Apostle Paul would stand in Athens and speak to the crowd saying: “He (Adonai) is the God who made the world and everything in it … From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries… His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.”
I want to end with those words, that God’s purpose for the rise and fall of nations (and peoples) is simple: That each one would learn justice and mercy, and have the opportunity to “feel their way toward Him.”
God wants everyone to find Him.
Extra reading: Deuteronomy 32 and Acts 17
A few small questions to help you and your family reflect:
What is the name of the prophet from this story?
Who was Jeremiah speaking to? A: Israel 2: Judah 3: Other Nations
When do you think the people of God were closest to Him? Think about the time they depended on Him the most.
Were the people of Judah trusting God anymore?
What Nation did Jeremiah predict would invade Judah?
Discuss with your parents, why was Babylon coming? The answer is in chapter 13.
Tune in next time for more stuff from the prophet Jeremiah. Words more relevant today than ever before.
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