Sharper Iron — A Time to Destroy and a Time to Build: A Liturgy of Repentance

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Rev. Clint Poppe, pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Lincoln, NE, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Jeremiah 3:19-4:4.

Although His people have been faithless, the LORD remains faithful. He desires to call them back to Himself in true repentance and faith. The dialogue between the LORD and Israel indicates how the LORD works this by His Word. Israel returns to the scene of their idolatry in recognition of its lies. Their idolatry has only brought them shame from which they are powerless to escape; their only hope and salvation is the LORD their God. He calls them to return in truth, justice, and righteousness, His gifts by the work of the Holy Spirit. Having gone through this liturgy with the northern tribes of Israel, the LORD calls Judah to the same repentance. They need, not just of going through the motions, but the difficult, God-given breaking of their hard hearts in repentance that leads to true faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ.

“A Time to Destroy and a Time to Build” is a mini-series on Sharper Iron that goes through the book of Jeremiah. The prophet calls the people of Judah and Jerusalem to repent of their faithless idolatry and warns them of the destruction that is coming in the Babylonian exile. Yet Jeremiah does not leave us without hope in the midst of such dark days. Jeremiah and all who believe the Word of God he preached survive because of hope that is found in the righteous Branch from the line of David, Jesus Christ.

Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God’s Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen.

Sharper Iron is underwritten by Lutheran Church Extension Fund, where your investments help support the work of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit lcef.org.

Jeremiah 3:19-4:4

19 “‘I said,

How I would set you among my sons,
and give you a pleasant land,
a heritage most beautiful of all nations.
And I thought you would call me, My Father,
and would not turn from following me.
20 Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.’”

21 A voice on the bare heights is heard,
the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons
because they have perverted their way;
they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 “Return, O faithless sons;
I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
for you are the Lord our God.
23 Truly the hills are a delusion,
the orgies[a] on the mountains.
Truly in the Lord our God
is the salvation of Israel.

24 “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

4 “If you return, O Israel,
declares the Lord,
to me you should return.
If you remove your detestable things from my presence,
and do not waver,
2 and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,
then nations shall bless themselves in him,
and in him shall they glory.”

3 For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Break up your fallow ground,
and sow not among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of the evil of your deeds.”

Footnotes

Jeremiah 3:23 Hebrew commotion