God Never Gives Up

Readings

Baruch 5:1-9
Psalm 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11
Luke 3:1-6

The Promised Land

Israel’s exodus from Egyptian slavery into the Promised Land of “milk and honey” epitomizes humanity’s exodus from sin into the Promised Land of transfigured holiness. The physical journey through the wilderness illustrates the spiritual journey from alienation to union with God through Jesus Christ, the source of “living waters” (John 7:38). 

Thirst for water prompts the Israelites to complain only three days after the exodus (Exodus 15:22). Desert hardships find them begging to return to Egypt’s comforts (Numbers 11:5). Without deep interior transformation, the Israelites wander spiritually for centuries, making golden idols and drawing down the wrath of the prophets. Waywardness and obstinacy lead to multiple exiles and captivity to foreign powers. 

In the book of Baruch, named after Jeremiah’s scribe, deportations to Babylonia demoralize the Judeans who have lost their temple. Yet God never gives up. He commands Jerusalem to “take off your robe of mourning and misery… For God will show your splendor to all under the heavens” (Baruch 5:1-4). God will ultimately bring his children into the Promised Land.

Returning Home 

Jewish exiles picture redemption as the homecoming of children from “east to west” into the arms of Jerusalem, their mother.

Rise up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;
look to the east and see your children
Gathered from east to west
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that they are remembered by God.

Baruch 5:5

From the desert, John the Baptist calls the exiles home: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths” (Luke 3:4). Trumpeting Isaiah’s 400-year-old prophecy as the latest news, he proclaims the advent of the Messiah for “all flesh” (Luke 3:6). Valleys, mountains, and hills level out to welcome the weary and displaced. Roughly two centuries before Christ, Baruch bolsters the faith of the Babylonian exiles with echoes of Isaiah’s prophecy (Isaiah 40:4, Baruch 5:7). Jesus longs to gather Jerusalem’s children “as a hen gathers her brood under her wings” (Luke 13:34).

God Never Gives Up

The timeless message of the prophets endures until God is “all in all’ (1 Corinthians 15:28). Paul prays for Christians—exiles on the earth—“that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). The same God who calls Abraham calls his people home to the new Jerusalem. God never gives up.

When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.

Psalm 126:1-2

Traditional Chinese Translation

《神永不放棄》
從東到西，上帝的兒女都歸來。
流亡者渴望耶路撒冷。