Love hurts

Jeremiah 8:4
Say to them, 'This is what the Lord says: When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? Why then have these peope turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.

Jeremiah 8:18 -- 9:2
(J)O my Comforter in sorrow, my heart is faint within me. Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?

(G)Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?

(J)The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.

Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people? Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. Oh that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers.



God is gravely hurt and driven to rebuke and anger and punishment by the unfaithfulness of his people, whom He loves. Jeremiah also loves this people, and is announcing God's word to them, and is hurt as they do not respond and he sees what is coming upon them because of it. He pleads for them, he pleads with them, he hurts for them, and he also wants to flee from the pain of it all. This is what I was thinking about yesterday -- the pain of loving people -- and how happy we are when that love is returned, and how deeply it hurts when our loved ones lash out at us. It makes me want to stop loving. It makes me want to get away, and yet I don't want to get away at all because I care. We bear a lot of pain because of love. And it feels miserable. I am very aware of my own misery when this happens. Perhaps I need to translate this into being aware of how I make God feel when I ignore him or rebel.