RELIGION: 'O LORD, correct me, but with judgment'

Weekly Devotion

"O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing." Jeremiah 10:24

God, through the prophet Jeremiah, warned His people of the impending judgment which was coming upon them for turning aside from the true God and His ways into idolatry and sin. The armies of the north -- the Babylonians -- were coming to execute God's wrath and judgment against Judah and Jerusalem. The people would perish from hunger, disease and the sword; those who survived would be carried away captives; and Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed.

In the midst of these warnings, Jeremiah prays (in the stead of the people), "O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing."

This prayer asks of the LORD God to correct and chasten him, but with judgment as to what is needed to correct him and bring him to his senses and to true repentance and not in God's just anger against sin lest he be totally condemned and brought to nothing. It is a prayer for God to chasten and correct His people in love and mercy and not to totally destroy them in His righteous indignation and anger.

Are you willing to pray this prayer? Would you have God chasten you and correct you for your sins and the error of your ways?

If you stop and think about it, wouldn't it be far better to be corrected of the LORD, even if such chastisement is difficult and painful, rather than to have the LORD deal with you in His just wrath? If God were to deal with us as we deserve on account of our sins, who among us could stand? We would all be brought to nothing! But, for the sake of Christ Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross, God desires to deal with us in mercy and bring us to repentance that He might graciously forgive our sins for Jesus' sake. Cf. Psalm 130; Ezek. 33:11; 2 Pet. 3:9.

Jesus says: "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent" (Rev. 3:19). In Hebrews 12:5-11, we read: "And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

It is far better to be chastened and corrected by the LORD now than to continue on in sin and disobedience and face His wrath on the day of judgment!

O LORD God, we so often fail to follow after You and obey Your commandments. Do not deal with us in Your wrath and bring us to nothing but chasten us, only in the severity needed to bring us to repent of our sins and look to You for mercy and forgiveness in Christ Jesus and then, as a fruit of our faith, amend our lives to live for You. In Jesus, name, we pray. Amen.

[Devotion by Randy Moll. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]

Religion on 10/31/2019