Anyone who’s a parent has heard those words: “Why can’t I go? All my friends will be there.” It’s a cry of desperation, one that’s meant to sway our rigid decree and convince us to change our minds.
Giving in turns the cry of desperation into joy, but it doesn’t mean we are happy with our child’s choice. Sometimes, however, we give in anyway, even though we suspect we will regret the consequences. We realize we have to let our children grow up, and that means allowing them to make mistakes.
It also means meting out the consequences.
God is a good god. He wants us to love him. When we plead, sometimes he gives in with a sorrowful heart.
He also metes out the consequences.
Jeremiah 3:8 speaks about the children of Israel, now divided into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. God sees the two as they are, just as we, as parents, can see our children’s friends as they really are. God knew Israel was filled with corruption, and he had already put her away. He had refused to let her come into his house, for she was covered with the filth of her hypocrisy.
Then, Judah looked at Israel and cried, “Why can’t I go to Israel’s party? All my friends will be there.”
Jeremiah 3:8 tells us:
“She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.”
Judah frolicked in a dangerous dance of pleasure. She was at the party she should have stayed away from. Job 19:29 cautions us:
“Be afraid of the sword, for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgment.”
Yet, just as we love our children, and after the party’s over, we invite them home once again, and we do all we can to set them once more on the right path, God loves his children, and he does the same.
Jeremiah 3:12 gives us his call of reconciliation:
“Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever.’ ”
As parents, if our children continue to party, we begin implementing consequences to modify their behavior. We set curfews, take away the car keys, and even send them to military school if necessary.
Let’s not force God to send us to military school. He will, if he has to, because he is a good god, and he loves his children.
Just because it’s the modern thing to do doesn’t mean it’s God’s thing to do.
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