A Jeremiad

“'Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.' 'Behold, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God. Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.'" (Jeremiah 3:22–23, ESV).

Have you ever watched a child settle for a nickel when they could have had a dime? If you have, you’ve seen a little of what God sees. He looks upon the earth and, with sadness, watches men and women choose that which is lesser. He loves people, so He longs for us to choose the best.

This was the case in Jeremiah’s day. The people of Israel, especially the men, chose to exercise their sinful appetites up on the hills. They thought they were really living. But God saw those hills as a ‘delusion,’ nothing more than an empty experience. Nothing real or substantive was there. So God planned a way for His sons to be healed of their faithlessness. They would suffer the discipline of the Babylonian invasion, but ultimately be cured of their cancerous lust for the sin on the hilltops.

God has provided a way for all of humanity to have our faithlessness healed. He sees the hills we pursue, empty hills, delusions that cannot give us life. He sees the delusional hills that kill his sons, so He sent His Son to be killed on Calvary's hill. He sent His Son, who sent His Spirit so that God could be within all who believe in Him. His presence is meant to help rescue us from the hills of delusion. Let us go there to the hills no longer.