‘I have seen his ways, but I will heal him.’
It is interesting that God chooses to use the words ‘I will heal him’ in this particular context. We might have expected the verse to say ‘I have seen his ways, but I will forgive him’. And we are perhaps more familiar with the concept of God forgiving us than with the concept of God healing us. And, of course, we do need the forgiveness of God for our ‘wilful ways’. But it is also possible that the idea of God’s forgiveness can feel a little bit distant, or a little bit contractual, to us. We are familiar with the idea of God’s forgiveness, but less familiar with the actual inner experience of God’s forgiveness. This seems to be addressed here by the very personal promise of Creator to created: ‘I have seen his ways, but I will heal him’. We need to know the forgiveness of God. But we also need to experience the deep inner healing of God for our brokenness, our fallenness, our wilfulness. There is a deep woundedness at the heart of humanity that needs an equally profound solution. As Jeremiah 17:9 says (NIVUK) 9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
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December 2020
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