"People of Zion, who live in Jeruslam,
you will weep no more.
How gracious he will be when you cry for help!
As soon as he hears, he will answer you.
Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,
your teachers will be hidden no more;
with your own eyes you will see them.
Whether you turn to the right or to the left,
your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying,
'This is the Way; walk in it.'
Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver
and your images covered with gold;
you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth
and say to them, 'Away with you!'"
***
It is important that these people are in a covenant relationship with Yahweh, they are to follow his Way, and he is to Bless them. But if they cry to idols for help, God will respond to their blatant rebellion with punishment, as a good Father would discipline his wayward children. They brought their bruising and wounds upon themselves, and God promises to heal and bind up all those that will seek him for the restoration. What kind of God loves in this Way?
Jesus comes to mind in meditating on this poem. Jesus comes to the covenant people of Israel as well as the created humanity of the earth: Walk with me, go my way. Our way in this world results in destruction at every level. God is at work in the destruction, bringing righteousness as a response to the wicked, but bringing restoration to the repentant.
May your cry for help be from a penitent heart, and may Jesus respond to it with deliverance from the destructive forces in and around you.
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