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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Hello, and thank you for listening to your

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Speaker 1: Daily Bible Verse, the podcast that examines one verse each

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Speaker 1: day to learn more about God and his will for us.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Shaka Heinz, and after this short word

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Speaker 1: from our sponsor, will dive into today's verse from Jeremiah,

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Speaker 1: chapter three, verse nineteen. Today's verse is Jeremiah three, verse nineteen.

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Speaker 1: I myself said, how gladly would I treat you like

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Speaker 1: my children and give you a pleasant land, the most

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Speaker 1: beautiful inheritance of any nation. I thought you would call

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Speaker 1: me fond and not turn away from following me. Now

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Speaker 1: this scripture, it made me think of my daddy. He

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Speaker 1: is seriously one of my favorite people in the world. Now,

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Speaker 1: he's not perfect, but I always know he loves me,

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Speaker 1: and I could trust him now. One night, when I

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Speaker 1: was a teenager, I seriously disappointed him. I broke the rules,

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Speaker 1: and the next morning I tried to call him at

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Speaker 1: work to discuss the consequences from a distance, but he

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Speaker 1: told me wait until I get home, and that ended

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Speaker 1: up being the longest day of my childhood. When he arrived,

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Speaker 1: he used a typical daddyism and he said, you dance

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Speaker 1: to the music and now it's time to pay the piper.

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Speaker 1: And he grounded me for the first and only time

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Speaker 1: in my life. Now I understand now his discipline wasn't

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Speaker 1: about anger. It was about helping me turn back. It

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Speaker 1: was about repairing trust. It was about helping me to grow.

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Speaker 1: And the source of it really was love. And that's

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Speaker 1: the same heartbeat we hear in Jeremiah three nineteen, God says,

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Speaker 1: how gladly would I treat you like my children? His

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Speaker 1: discipline is never detached or vindictive. It comes from a

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Speaker 1: father's desire to restore his children and bring them back

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Speaker 1: into life under his care. Through his own sovereign choice,

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Speaker 1: God had called Israel to be his treasured people after

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Speaker 1: rescuing them from slavery and Egypt through mighty acts. He

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Speaker 1: established a covenant at Mount Sinai, and there he declared

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Speaker 1: in Exodus nineteen, verses five and six, if you obey

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Speaker 1: me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations,

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Speaker 1: you will be my treasure possession. You will be for

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Speaker 1: me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And

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Speaker 1: the people responded in Exodus chapter twenty four, verse three,

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Speaker 1: everything the Lord has said, we will do now this

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Speaker 1: covenant relationship is the background for Jeremiah three nineteen. When

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Speaker 1: God says he longed to treat them as children and

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Speaker 1: give them the most beautiful inheritance, he is recalling the

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Speaker 1: promises of the Covenant, the blessings of land, provision, and

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Speaker 1: best of all, his own presence. His yearning was not

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Speaker 1: for mere obedience, but for a family bond, but Israel

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Speaker 1: turned away. King Solomon's disobedience led to the division of

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Speaker 1: the kingdom. The Nordan tribes came to be called Israel,

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Speaker 1: and they fell first. God used Assyria to carry them

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Speaker 1: into exile because of their unfaithfulness to the Covenant with him.

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Speaker 1: Now only the southern Kingdom Judah remained, and Jeremiah was

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Speaker 1: given the heavy burden to warn them. His ministry spanned

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Speaker 1: Judah's last five kings, during a time of corruption, idolatry,

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Speaker 1: and social injustice. Judgment loomed, and Jeremiah's grief was so heavy,

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Speaker 1: so palpable, that he was called the weeping Prophet, which

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Speaker 1: often echoed the lamentations of God's own heart throughout the book.

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Speaker 1: And yet right in the middle of warnings, we hear

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Speaker 1: God say in Jeremiah three nineteen, I thought you would

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Speaker 1: call me father. The language is intimate and relational. Before

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Speaker 1: announcing consequences, God reveals his deepest desire that his people

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Speaker 1: would see him as father and remain close. Think of

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Speaker 1: the imagery Jeremiah uses elsewhere, a child rebelling against a

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Speaker 1: parent or a spouse breaking their vows. These are not

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Speaker 1: cold legal categories, but relational betrayals. So when God speaks

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Speaker 1: of children and inheritance in verse nineteen, he's reminding his

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Speaker 1: people of the relationship they're walking away from. If we

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Speaker 1: read Jeremiah only through the lens of judgment, we might

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Speaker 1: mistake God's nature as harsh or vindictive. But verse nineteen

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Speaker 1: shows us something else. It shows us the father's heart.

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Speaker 1: He gladly desire to bless, to give his children the

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Speaker 1: most beautiful inheritance, to be called father. The tragedy is

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Speaker 1: that his people turned away, like my daddy. God's heart

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Speaker 1: and discipline is not to destroy, but to restore, to

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Speaker 1: help us repent, to reestablish safe boundaries, to repair trust

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Speaker 1: that's been broken, and the relationship, and his deep desire

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Speaker 1: is for us to flourish under his care. And that's

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Speaker 1: exactly what Jeremiah three nineteen shows us. Before God ever

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Speaker 1: speaks of judgment, he reveals his longing. Listen again, how

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Speaker 1: gladly would I treat you like my children? I thought

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Speaker 1: you would call me father and not turn away from

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Speaker 1: following me. His discipline flows out of that same fatherly

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Speaker 1: love and desire for intimacy. So let me ask you,

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Speaker 1: how does Jeremiah three nineteen reshape your understanding of God's character?

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Speaker 1: And if God's intent, even in discipline, is always rooted

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Speaker 1: in love, how might that inform the way you respond

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Speaker 1: to Him today? Let's pray, Father, thank you so much

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Speaker 1: that your heart for us is always love, from Old

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Speaker 1: Testament to New Testament, from Genesis all the way through

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Speaker 1: to Revelations. Your heart is not to punish, but always

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Speaker 1: to restore, to reconcile, to bring healing. Ah. But I

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Speaker 1: pray that if anybody who is listening right now has

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Speaker 1: that of you as a harsh father, has not understood

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Speaker 1: or or misunderstood your heart behind discipline, that you would

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Speaker 1: help them to see who you truly are. You are

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Speaker 1: the God who loves us. You are the God who

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Speaker 1: is for us. You are the God who gave everything

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Speaker 1: in order to restore relationship with us. We love you Father.

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Speaker 1: I pray that we all come to call you Father.

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Speaker 1: Send Jesus name. We pray Amen.