Praise in Pain

Jeremiah 31:7-14
7 For thus says the Lord: Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, "Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel." 8 See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. 9 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble; for I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd a flock." 11 For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. 12 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd; their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again. 13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. 14 I will give the priests their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty, says the Lord.
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God's people had radically sinned. They had worshipped idols. They had oppressed the poor. They had neglected the widow and orphan. They had become sexually perverse. They had honored the LORD with their lips but not loved the LORD with their hearts. They had acted like spiritual whores. They had ignored and persecuted the prophets who warned them.
God radically responded to their sin. God allowed the Babylonians to smash their defenses. The LORD did nothing as their towns burned, children died, women were raped, and all their wealth was stolen. They were enslaved and taken out of their land to serve the Babylonians in exile. No nation or people had ever recovered from such a deportation. Nothing was left. Israel and Judah were dead.
Now God says to the exiles. I want you to sing, shout, and give Praise to ME! I want you to have a prayer meeting and ask the LORD to save the remnant of Israel. I want you to stop rebelling against God. God is saying to them; “Stop being angry with ME over what happened and accept your guilt.” Be angry at the sin that brought judgment. But come now, praise the LORD for saving the people from idolatry and oppressive relationships. Ask now to be saved.
God is radically going to save them. Now that judgment has come. Now that repentance has been experienced they will be saved. God is going to bring from Babylon and all the places where they have wandered the remnant home. They will come home not because they are the strongest. No, God will save the weakest of the weak. The handicapped and pregnant women will be returned despite their physical weakness. He shall gather a great company of the broken and return them to the land. Against all odds and all history they will be restored. Israel will not die but be resurrected.
God's people will radically repent. They will weep real tears over their sins. They will plead for mercy and recognize they deserve only judgment. They will be humble and submissive.
God will radically be with them. He will personally lead them in their journey. Because God is their father and they are His children they will not be lost. The LORD is the shepherd of Israel and will gather what has been scattered.
God has paid for Jacob's salvation and bought Israel back from the power of world, the flesh, and the devil. God's people's resurrection has a price. That price will be the blood and suffering of the Messiah Jesus. Even the return from exile as part of God's redemptive plan was only possible because Messiah Jesus had died for His people. Mercy to be just must have atonement.
God's people will be radically joyful. As they see the answer to their prayers for salvation their weeping will turn to wild adoration over the goodness of the LORD. Young woman and men will dance. The darkness of judgment will give way to the light of restoration. The people of God will feast upon a vision and experience of God's goodness and be satisfied.
The faith of the Bible is a radical faith. We might wish that it was less radical. That sin would not bring such radical consequences. That we could stay in a safer and more moderate relationship with God. Yet, the LORD, pushes the issues. The LORD demands holiness and punishes sin. The LORD will save us from this sin regardless of the cost to Himself or to us. We will not be lost to the power of darkness. He will give us life.
Now the only people who could find the joy offered here are the ones who adopted God's story over the events that had occurred and accepted the promises of restoration as true. The people who are being asked to praise are the ones who have seen death, destruction, rape, and torture before their very eyes. They have experienced events that normally produce post traumatic shock. Their hearts have been ripped out of them as they have seen loved ones suffer and die. They have lost every physical possession and all their wealth. In the midst of this they are to praise and sing.
This is only possible if they accept God's story about these events. Any other story will lead to bitterness, complaint, doubt, anger, and despair. Only accepting the good news of God' grace can place them in a position to be restored.
In the 2008 movie "Defiance" directed by Edward Zwick and based on a true story a group of Jewish brothers resist the Nazis and endeavor to build a village in the middle of the woods to provide protection for about 1000 Jewish exiles from the Nazi extermination. The movie demonstrated the horror and pain of the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis. In that movie the Rabbi is filled with despair as they face yet death after death and loss after loss. He then prays this prayer.
"Merciful God, we commit our friends - Ben Zion and Krensky - to You. We have no more prayers, no more tears; we have run out of blood. Choose another people. We have paid for each of Your commandments; we have covered every stone and field with ashes. Sanctify another land. Choose another people. Teach them the deeds and the prophesies. Grant us but one more blessing: take back the gift of our holiness. Amen."
Here the Rabbi has assumed the innocence of Israel. God is unfair in allowing such suffering from the Rabbi's point of view. There is no hope in restoration. There is no reliance upon promise.
We can understand this prayer by the Rabbi. It is very close to how we pray when we feel under the pressure of struggles and affliction in our own lives. It is more honest than we normally will admit. But we can relate to the prayer. The price of being God's people is just too high. We must remember the amount of pain that brought about such prayer. This prayer we can understand better than praise.
Yet, God wants us to believe His story in the middle of experiencing exile, loss, persecution for righteousness, and struggle. God wants us to feast upon His goodness and know joy in the midst of our tears. The LORD wants us to live as though all things are working for good and trust His promises of restoration. We are His children and nothing will separate us from His love which is found in Messiah Jesus. We can weep but not despair. We can know sorrow but not shut our hearts to hope. We are called to believe in the midst of our suffering.
The restoration of Israel from exile in Babylon occurred. Nothing in all history was ever seen like that. Israel again is scattered by the Romans during a series of wars and the temple is destroyed in 70 AD. No people so dispersed over centuries ever returned. Yet in 1967, nearly 1900 years later, Jerusalem is restored to Israel. God's promises and prophecies are kept. Remember what Messiah Jesus taught.
"They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." (Luke 21:24 ESV)

God is at work in the midst of the brokenness of history. We must pray for peace among Palestinians and Jews. We must seek just resolutions in these conflicts. Yet, in the midst of all of this complicated and difficult political process we must see God at work keeping His Word.

Such global faithfulness of God should cause us to believe that in the middle of our daily lives God is also being faithful. The LORD has promised us that one day a new heaven and a new earth will come in which righteousness will dwell. The rebellion of the world, the lust of the flesh, and the temptations of the devil will end. We will see our Lord Messiah Jesus face to face, and feast upon the goodness of the LORD forever. This vision of total restoration is to comfort our hearts and give us strength in the midst of our current struggles.

Sing praise to the Lord and shout for joy! LORD, save your church from our apostasy and apathy. Give to us reformation and revival. For your glory and for our good. Amen.