Throughout the Bible, we see God’s chosen people, a nation God personally set apart from the rest of the world for no greater reason than His love for them, remain stubbornly stuck in their vicious sin cycles, somehow unable grow up and out from their prideful, foolish, and childish ways. 

God, in His mercy, has given and continues to give Israel ample time and overt signs to return to Him. Again and again, His mercy is presumed, the gravity and ramifications of His righteousness trivialised, and yet, His faithfulness to His covenantal promises and to a faithful remnant, endures.

Let us then, carefully look into ourselves – are we as helpless and malleable as Israel to the innate sin in our stony hearts? Or are we as steadfast as God’s scattered, hopefully earnest and resolute in following God, indelibly united and transformed by His love and truth?

As a devoted father knows to give good gifts to his children, our heavenly Father keeps the absolute good for His children. Nothing – neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, is able to separate God’s beloved from Him. 

May the righteousness, mercy and faithfulness of God towards Israel serve as constant reminders and points of reflection to us of our own everlasting commitments unto God.