Sour Grapes

It seems prophets are often calling for a corporate response. Jeremiah here contrasts corporate spiritual identity with individual spirituality. Israel relied on their corporate identity as Jews and the chosen of God for their protection and salvation. The import and value of their corporate experience is lost to us in our time of individualism.

Can you imagine what it was like to be a part of the masses being led by the cloud and fire? Or what it was like to dance before the ark? There must have been a mystical element to this community. When it went right it was the most beautiful expression of what it was to be the people of God. When it went wrong, the covenant became nothing more than a statement of national sentiment.

The need for Jeremiah’s time was a turn of each heart to the God of the covenant. We hear that call today, may we heed it.

“No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his
brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know
me,
from the least of them to the
greatest,”
declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 31:34 (NIV)

O to know Him! These are the terms of intimacy. Sexy and tender they speak to a depth of knowledge that should make each heart burn. As we individually turn to him and search His depths, we need to hear another call-to the community.

Again Tozer! The hound dog of the faith writes that as we each fix our gaze upon Christ, we will be in better unity, as 100 pianos all tuned to the same fork. (As I read this chapter to my two-year-old girl, she loved how excited I got.)

Just as the need for Jeremiah’s time was individual knowledge, the great need for our time is recapturing a community of experience.