Greetings guys, read and remain blessed
To punish is to inflict physical pain or to withdraw love and affection or to deprive a person of something that he or she cherishes, for wrong doing. The aim is not to make him or her suffer unnecessarily moreso to make him or her change his or her character for the better. It is to make a person change from being a bad person to a good person. Thus, punishment is a corrective measure and not a punitive one. Consequently, we are punished at home, at school or in the community so that we will put an end to all forms of bad conduct while growing up so as to be obedient, respectful, truthful, kind, contented, forgiving and hardworking Christian citizens.
Hope is the belief that inspite of the unfavorable existing conditions of things, there is still a brighter future. If we are punished for being bad today, there is hope that we will benefit from it tomorrow, by becoming better Christians citizen. Thus, we are all to take punishment in good faith, learn our lessons and with the help of the Holyspiri, work hard towards our restoration.
In the Bible, the Israelites were punished by God for refusing to change, inspite of all the preaching of the prophets like Jeremiah. God's punishment was unto salvation. Therefore, there was hope of restoration for the nation if they repented and did what was right in the sight of God. This is the call to us to see divine punishment in a positive light so that we would repent lead righteous lives.
The Significance of Jeremiah's Message of Punishment.
Jeremiah pronounced God's judgement on the people of Israel for their sins. They were to be punished. They would be defeated by their enemies and sent into exile. Their sin was what they paid lip service to the worship of God. They neglected the moral demands of their faith and emphasized sacrifices, offerings and the payment of tithes. They also worshipped false gods. The situation then, is no different from what exists on our society today. We also pay lip service to the worship of God. On Holy days, the churches are full, yet there is abundant evident that in place of God, the people are worshipping mammon(money). Some Christians are idolatrous. They leave the true God and seek help from the traditional priests, medicine men, diviners and magicians.
Today, countries in the world are consumed by a number of vices. These include, social injustice, bad leadership, indifferent followership, cultism, indiscipline, mistrust, tribalism, nepotism, child abuse, fraud, examination malpractices, drug trafficking and drug addiction. Though efforts are being made by the churches and the government to check these vices, yet not enough is being done by way of eradicating these vices in our society through divine intervention. We must condemn all these religious and social vices as Jeremiah would have done, if he were here today.
Our lack of progress today can be attributed to all these vices in the society. It is God's way of punishing us for paying lip service to the moral demands of our faith. We must all help to eradicate these vices.
Hope In The Land
Jeremiah assured the people of Judah that there was hope of salvation for the nation. God was prepared to revoke the punishment in store for them on the condition that they acknowledge d their guilt as a rebellious people who had disobeyed the commandments of the Lord. And if they were sincerely penitent, the Lord would not be angry with Israel forever. Hence, Jeremiah's message of hope demonstrates the nature of God as full of love and mercy. God is merciful and forgives all those who acknowledge and repent their sins.
He reconciles with them and restores them. As Christians therefore, we must learn to repent and ask for the forgiveness of our sins so that we might be reconciled with His and hope to gain eternal life.
God also punishes those who fail to repent as a disciplinary measure. Hence, we must avoid God's punishment by doing away with evil and turning on a new leaf in life. There is also a lesson for our church leaders. They should seek knowyamd understood God's will. They should not give the people false hope like the religious leaders of Jeremiah's day did. Rather, they should correct the followership through leadership by example.
I hope you enjoyed this. See you in my next article!!
Some people feel when someone punishes them the person hates them but it's the opposite. Punishment is meant to correct you for doing something bad that's what God did to the people of israel. It doesn't mean God don't love them. Is just like when a child does something bad and you beat the child but before the punishment you have been warning that child but the child refuses to heed to your warnings. That's what God did as well.