Jeremiah 14:8-9 - Homiletics

The Hope of Israel a stranger in the land .

I. GOD IS THE HOPE AND SAVIOR OF HIS PEOPLE .

1. God is the Hope .

He is the Hope of Israel, truly the Hope of the spiritual Israel.

2. God is the Savior in trouble. He is remembered in trouble if he is forgotten in prosperity. In our greatest need he is found nearest to us. Though he does not always prevent us from falling into trouble, he is always ready to help us when we are in. There is to us no more important character of God than that of the Savior, since, as "man is born to trouble," we all need a Savior, and he alone can deliver from the great sorrows and sins of life.

II. GOD MAY BE WITH US AS A STRANGER .

1. He may be with us and unknown— like the stranger who passes through a country unrecognized. He was received by Abraham as a stranger ( Genesis 18:2 ). Hagar and Jacob failed at first to discern his presence. Christ was treated as an unknown stranger by the two disciples journeying to Emmaus.

2. He may be with us but for a season—like the traveler who sojourns for a night and is gone the next morning. We may receive temporary visitations of God without enjoying his abiding presence, casual glimpses of the Divine instead of a constant walking with God, the light of Heaven falling now and again on our path while earthly clouds fling long stretches of dreary shadow over the most of it.

3. He may be with us without having communion with us—as a stranger, not as a companion—as the traveler who pitches his tent in our land, not as the guest whom we welcome to our hearth. Thus God may be near to us without our receiving him into our hearts as our great Friend.

4. He may be with us without acting for our good—like a mighty man slumbering. So he may see our need and yet we may not be saved.

III. IT IS MOST SAD THAT GOD SHOULD BE WITH US AS A STRANGER .

1. It is sad because the blessings of his presence are then not received .

2. It is sad because it is a violation of our natural relations with God . God is our Father. Shall our Father be but as a stranger passing through our midst? He is changeless in his eternal love to us. We are bound to him by close and perpetual obligations, and we are in great and constant need of him. How, then, do we ever find ourselves in this unnatural condition? The cause is in us ( Jeremiah 14:10 ). Great sin cherished in impenitence severs us from God, and makes it necessary that he should depart from us. God is a stranger when with us,