Will the real God please stand up?

August 26, 2008

Lamentations 3:42-47 CEV
(42) "We've sinned! We've rebelled against you, and you haven't forgiven us!
(43) Anger is written all over you, as you pursue and slaughter us without showing pity.
(44) You are behind a wall of clouds that blocks out our prayers.
(45) You allowed nations to treat us like garbage;
(46) our enemies curse us.
(47) We are terrified and trapped, caught and crushed."

Lamentations 3:55-58 CEV
(55) From the bottom of the pit, I prayed to you, LORD.
(56) I begged you to listen. "Help!" I shouted. "Save me!" You answered my prayer
(57) and came when I was in need. You told me, "Don't worry!"
(58) You rescued me and saved my life.

Within just a few verses of Lamentations, Jeremiah shows us two totally different views of God. In one He is the angry God, in the other he is the forgiving God. Which is God? Can they both be God?

My thoughts, and I am no theologian, would be that the first verses show a God as the people are picturing Him. They have done wrong and they thing that the punishment is from God. We know that every good gift is from God, can He give us bad gifts. An image of God as my father says I could accuse Him of child abuse if He did. But the second set of verses show things how they really are. The forgiving God who listens when we pray and values us enough to respond.

Which view of God do you have? Why?


Read through the Bible in historical order
Today
Lamentations 3:37-5:22
Tomorrow
Ezekiel 1:1-4:17
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