Wednesday January 17, 2024

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jeremiah 33:3, NIV)

Who doesn’t like these words? Who doesn’t long for God to reveal and teach “great and unsearchable things” that he or she doesn’t know?  God wants to do it – He wants to instruct us in His divine mysteries. And it looks like the only thing we have to do is to cry out to Him, and He will answer us with His glorious teachings. In effect, this is what the verse says.  

But we need to look at more than just this verse – it’s important to look at the context in which these words were given. Because God gave these words to Jeremiah, an Old Testament prophet – and at that moment he found himself a prisoner in the courtyard of a prison in the house of the king of Judah while the army of the king of Babylon surrounded Jerusalem in a siege. He wasn’t in a five-star hotel on the beach, nor on a cruise, nor on a mountain top. He was in a prison, undoubtedly cold and hungry, probably mistreated, most surely suffering and in want.  And that is precisely where God pronounced these words of hope.  

God almost always speaks His most significant promises to us when we are struggling and suffering in the deepest parts of our souls.  After all, how can God place His most profound truths in superficial hearts?  

It makes me think of a garden, seeds and the ground in which you sow those seeds – and it makes me think of the Parable of the Sower told and explained by Jesus. Jesus spoke of four soils in which the seed sown by the sower fell:  three did not have very much or very good soil, and the seeds did not germinate nor grow in any of them.  Only the fourth had good soil, favorable for a fruitful harvest. (Matthew 13:1-9 y 18-23)

Seeds need soil to germinate and grow well – good soil.  A generous amount, and good quality soil. Just a little soil -- soil only on the surface -- does not permit the seeds to sprout and grow well. When soil is scarce, there is not enough space for the plants to develop long and strong roots; in this environment there is little water and the sun burns and withers the seeds. In poor soil, the roots have no way of growing, they do not have sufficient support, there is no protection from the elements of nature, and the seeds simply do not survive very long.  

But in good soil, and abundant earth … ahhh … there the seeds can germinate and grow into beautiful flowers and solid and fruitful trees.  

But how does soil grow to be deep and rich?  It becomes deep and rich as the gardener makes a deeper and deeper hole in the ground – digging and scraping – loosening and breaking up the soil – using his shovel and plow to make a deeper and deeper hollow, and leaving the earth turned up, oxygenated and fresh.  Then the seeds can be planted in the depths of the hole where their roots can grow long and strong, where they will have enough water and support, where they will be protected from the elements of nature.  There in the depths of the earth, covered with abundant and good soil, they will grow to be beautiful flowers or fruitful trees one day.   

This process is similar to what happens in our souls and hearts: only a soul and heart that have allowed the divine Gardener to dig deep in their depths, loosening and breaking up, working in them and preparing them – only that soul and heart are ready to receive “the great and unsearchable things”, the inscrutable and glorious truths that God wants to give them.  Only souls and hearts with depth can receive the great and unsearchable secrets of God.  Is there a price to pay? Yes, there is. Will it hurt? Yes, it will.  The cost and the pain involved are much more than a simple crying out to God. It costs and it hurts when the Gardener of our souls and hearts digs up, roots up and breaks up things within us that don’t please Him or serve His purposes, things that block us, hinder us, things that ruin and destroy us – until our souls and hearts become the prepared and fertile soil that can receive everything God wants to reveal to us and give to us.   

Dear friend: how are you today? Do you feel like you have a very superficial heart that does not have the depth to receive everything God wants to give you? Or do you feel that God is digging and tilling up your heart, deeper and deeper, causing more and more pain, and leaving more and more wounds with his shovel and till that break up and loosen the hardness in you?  If today you feel like your heart is a deep hole, scraped, open and hurting, there is a  word of great hope for you:  God is deepening your heart so that there will be more room for Him in you.  The larger and deeper your heart is, the more “great and unsearchable things” He will be able to show you. Those that have a superficial heart that is barely tilled and prepared will never have the divine revelation that you, with your heart that has been plowed up by the divine Gardener, will have.   

For you, with your plowed up heart: “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord.” (Psalm 27:13-14, NASB) 

 

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