'My people hath been lost sheep' (3)

‘My people hath been lost sheep’ (3)

4In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.
5They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
6My people hath been lost sheep: (Jerm50:4-6) we have already looked at the Past and the Path of the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’, with respect to Secularism. Sadly the ‘lost sheep’ of God’s pasture had slipped away from the mountain of God’s Word and settled on the hills of Secularism. However, after reflecting on their Past mistakes and sin before Almighty God, these ‘lost sheep’ began to consider their state before the Lord; after having endured the Path of transgressors and found it indeed to be hard; they began to repent of their evil ways.

Their Penitence is set forth in verses 4&5 of Jeremiah chapter 50; there was a future day, a day coming that these ‘lost sheep’ would return to the Lord their God with Penitent heart. This is what marks out the true child of God; they may stumble and fall; they often fail the Lord in thought, word and deed; but when their hearts are touched by God’s compassions which fail not, then they begin to ponder their standing in Christ and their state before God and men. When they hear afresh the voice of the Good Shepherd, calling out to them and beckoning them back to the sheep fold of God’s Word, then their hearts begin to melt.

A Penitent heart is always soft, ‘going and weeping’; when God melts the heart of His redeemed, divisions and bitterness fade away, ‘the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together’. Secularism can never withstand the power of God’s Word stirring the heart of society; no Secular power can resist the unity of the ‘bride of Christ’, as God’s people return to the Lord with Penitent hearts.

What a difference it would be to see God’s people transform society that has lain in the grip of Secularism, through the power of heart rending and believing prayer; ‘they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.’ Secularism has cast the Word of God out of pulpits, fellowships and out of society as well; but when God’s people humble themselves and pray, Secularism will be defeated and God’s Word can be installed in the rightful place. ‘If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.’

When the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ begin with Penitent heart, to seek the Good Shepherd for direction and guidance, then the hand of divine providence appears. ‘They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward,’ when God’s people desire the protection that the stronghold of God’s Word affords then the walls of Secularism will fall. When the Penitent in heart remembers that, ‘The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and are safe’, then the tower of Secularism will fall flat.

Rev Mervyn Cotton (Heb13:6)