Jeremiah 31:1-40

For Reading and Meditation:     Ezekiel 11:1-15

The final aspect of God's nature that we examine is His knowledge and wisdom. I link these two characteristics together because really it is almost impossible to consider one without considering the other. This is true of all God's attributes, but perhaps more so of the two we are now about to consider. The...

For Reading and Meditation:     Jeremiah 31:1-12

"How little real love there is for God," says theologian Arthur W. Pink. He suggests that this and the resulting low level of spirituality in today's Church are caused by our hearts being so little occupied with thoughts of the divine love. "The better we are acquainted with His love," he says, "- its character, its...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 John 4:7-16

We turn now to consider another aspect of God's nature and character - love. There are three things told us in Scripture concerning the nature of God. First, "God is spirit" (John 4:24), which means He has no visible substance. Second, "God is light" (

POOR, fickle, backsliding Ephraim, is thus called by our infinitely gracious God. Adopted by grace into the heavenly family, taught by the Spirit, and united to Jesus, God views us through Him; and having predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, He views things which are but purposed as accomplished, and we are comely through the comeliness He has put upon us. His love to us is wonderful; He says, "He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye." He rejoices to do us...

"And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD." Jeremiah 31:34

Truly, whatever else we do not know, we know the LORD. This day is this promise true in our experience, and it is not a little one. The least believer among us knows God in Christ Jesus. Not as fully as we desire; but...

"For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." Jeremiah 31:34

When we know the LORD, we receive the forgiveness of sins. We know Him as the God of grace, passing by our transgressions. What a joyful discovery is this!

But how divinely is this promise worded: the LORD promises no more to remember our sins! Can God forget? He says He will, and He means what He says. He will regard us as though we...

"Their soul shall be as a watered garden." Jeremiah 31:12

Oh, to have one's soul under heavenly cultivation; no longer a wilderness but a garden of the LORD! Enclosed from the waste, walled around by grace, planted by instruction, visited by love, weeded by heavenly discipline, and guarded by divine power, one's favored soul is prepared to yield fruit unto the LORD.

But a garden may become parched for want of water, and...

"My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the LORD." Jeremiah 31:14

Note the "My" which comes twice: "My people shall be satisfied with My goodness."

The kind of people who are satisfied with God are marked out as God's own. He is pleased with them, for they are pleased with Him. They call Him their God, and He calls them His people; He is satisfied to take them for a portion, and they are satisfied with Him...

Sometimes the Lord Jesus tells his Church his love thoughts. "He does not think it enough behind her back to tell it, but in her very presence he says, 'Thou art all fair, my love.' It is true, this is not his ordinary method; he is a wise lover, and knows when to keep back the intimation of love and when to let it out; but there are times when he will make no secret of it; times when he will put it beyond all dispute in the souls of his people" (R. Erskine's Sermons). The Holy Spirit is...

The thunders of the law and the terrors of judgment are all used to bring us to Christ; but the final victory is effected by lovingkindness. The prodigal set out to his father's house from a sense of need; but his father saw him a great way off, and ran to meet him; so that the last steps he took towards his father's house were with the kiss still warm upon his cheek, and the welcome still musical in his ears.

"Law and terrors do but harden All the while they work alone; ...