Jeremiah 5 Is our Heart like God’s?

Jeremiah began to wonder, is there any good news? Is it all bad news?

Like Ezekiel whom God told to look for a man who would stand in the gap, [Ezekiel 22:30] God told Jeremiah, “See if you can find a single person who deals honestly and tries to be truthful. If you can, then I will not punish this city.” [Jer 5:1] In Gen 18 the Lord and Abraham had one of those “hard conversations.” Abraham asked God if he would kill the godly with the wicked. [Gen 18:25] In His mercy, God had quietly shared with Abraham; if I find 50 godly people, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

One of the marvelous things we can count on is that God always thoroughly investigates a situation before passing judgment. He cannot nor will He arbitrarily destroy because He is a fair and judge. As He did with Sodom, He does with us.

We can count on the fact that the God we serve is “compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and truth.” It is because His “lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.” [Lam 3:22] 

Do we have these same character qualities? Do we judge before we have evidence? God’s heart is clear: He is fair and just and He expects us to be the same.