A couple of years ago a friend of mine told me a story, and to this day I don’t know if it’s true or not. It best illustrates the point I’m going with in this blog so here it is…
A man and woman where suppose to be experiencing the “happiest day of their lives” together, it was a wedding like none other. On that fateful day in Clemson, SC everything was over the top from the reception hall all the way down to the thousands of dollars spent on the flowers. For the bride it was a day of excitement and fulfillment as she got to see her childhood fairy tale come true. For the groom the “happiest day” was about something totally different, this day would be about revenge.
The groom had found something out, something no groom should ever find out. Through the grape vine he heard a rumor that his best man and his “bride to be” where…let’s just say they were a little closer than a groom likes his best man and girl to be!!!!!!!!! Finding out weeks before the wedding that his soon to be wife and his best friend where having an affair shook this groom to the core, so he decided to go through with what could only be described as the ultimate revenge and go through with the wedding but get back at the both of them.
As the best man stands before the wedding party and tells gushy stories about how “awesome” these two are together and how it is a “match made in heaven”, the groom lets all these lies sink in. After the best man is done talking the groom get the attention of the crowded room and states, “With all that said now I have a surprise for all of you. Underneath each one of your chairs is an envelope, would you please take the envelopes out… Everyone open your envelope.”
The room was filled with gasps as to the horror of everyone at the wedding there where pictures of the bride and the best man in some unbecoming situations. The groom turns to the best man and punches him in the face, then to the bride as declares the words no bride should hear on her wedding day, “It’s over! I hate you!!! I did all of this so you would feel the pain I feel” While the groom exits the room, the entire party is in an up roar. Hurt. Pain. Anger. Game over!
WOW!! How does reading this story make you feel? It cause me to feel pain in my own heart. Not just because of the story, I mean I don’t even know if the story is true. But it causes me to reflect on my own unfaithfulness. Not to my wife, but to my Savior. You know the one that died for my sins, the one who gave His own life so that I wouldn’t have to give mine. Yeah, that guy!
In Jeremiah 3, God is ticked at Israel. In God’s own words in v.1, “If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return unto me.” Ouch! Played the whore! Double Ouch! Don’t know about you but I haven’t always been the most faithful person in all of creation.
But in v. 11 He states this, “Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord. I will not be angry forever!” How about that, God remains faithful to me even when I’m not faithful at all to Him. So much so that the New Testament says this about Jesus in Romans 5:8, “but God shows His love for us in that while we are still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even at the peek of my sinfulness, when I was the most unfaithful, God loved me and was faithful to me!!!
While the story toys with the emotional side of the human nature, it actually revels to us how different we are than God. We are prone to be unfaithful, with everything from how often we go to the gym to how often we change churches. Yet God Himself remains faithful to us and loves us through all that we go through. The whole “never leave us or forsake us thing.” Man, am I glad that God is so amazingly faithful!
Blessings, 
Pastor Jason
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