Of dog dishes and Jeshurun

My littlest one has been driving me nutty over the past few weeks. She is almost 17-months old and she is a pistol. This morning I learned she can maneuver down the stairs. I discovered this upon finding her in our basement, dancing in the dogs water dish and having a marvelous time. Mind you, I had seen her in the kitchen only moments earlier and thought she was still there until finding her at the crime scene.

She is a corker. Add to this the fact that she has the biggest blue eyes and a smile that just makes you laugh and you have real cause for concern. She is hard to discipline while keeping a straight face.


This morning, upon seeing me she spread out her hands and began pointing to the stairs then the water dish. With her eyes determined she began explaining, in baby talk, how she had climbed down the stairs and into the water dish. I couldn't understand a word of it but I am positive she was saying something like, "Now, Mom, I know I really shouldn't be doing this, but isn't this the greatest! I climbed down the stairs all by myself and I found this whole new world called the laundry room basement! It is so great in here! Don't be mad, just come on in and join me!" Her chubby little, pointing fingers and her soaking wet body completely disarmed me. Anger would have been natural (Trust me, I've definitely felt that) but this morning I felt joy. Joy at my soaking ,wet, little monster and her beautiful face. Joy because I love her and she is mine.

This week while speaking to a group of ladies I was witness to the opposite of this. We were discussing God's love for us and a women raised her hand and adamantly shared how we need to be careful not to confuse human love with God's love. "God does love us," she explained, "but not with the tender, fuzzy kind of love that we humans think of. His love comes with commands that we must obey and we must fear Him above all." When she finished there were several sets of eyes pinned to me, the speaker, all wondering how I was going to respond.

Yikes! I was also wondering how to respond but then was moved to pity as I realized the word of God has already responded. I took a deep breath and began by saying, "You are right. We should never confuse human love with God's love for there is no comparison for his love is more tender than ours can ever be."

I must admit I was a bit nervous disagreeing with the women in front of a group, I wanted to be sensitive and respectful but the more we looked into Scripture together the more I couldn't help but smile, the more I wanted to just start dancing around like my precious little daughter. You see the love of God, as told to us in scripture is not only tender but is also down right irrational. It's the type of love that stays, in the midst of deep sin, it stays.

In Psalm 106 God recounts the sins of Israel, the Psalm is a grocery list of their screw ups, their idolatry, their yoking themselves to other gods, even their detestable acts of sacrificing their own children to foreign gods, but do you know how God inspired that Psalm to end? It ends, "But He took note of their distress when he heard their cry, for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great LOVE he relented." The woman was right. God's love is not human. God found them in way more than just the dog's water dish and still he said "because of my great love I will relent." My joy at seeing my daughter in her mischief is paled. My love does not compare.

It gets even better. Deuteronomy 32:15 reads "But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked, filled with food. He became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior. Now that doesn't sound like much other than God calling Israel by this new name Jeshurun and telling us again about their sin. This is nothing new. Any of us who went to Sunday school can list the mess ups of Israel. However, when you realize what Jeshurun means it transforms the verse and it tells me without a doubt that my God loves with a tender love, an amazing love. You see, Jeshurun actually is a Hebrew term of endearment, a diminutive nick name of sorts which means, "my darling little ones, my precious little upright, righteous ones." Can you believe it? In the midst of their great sin he calls them this. He gives them this dignity. The verse can actually read, "My darling little ones, you have grown fat and kicked. You have become heavy and sleek, you have abandoned me, the God who made you, your Rock and your Savior." Yet He calls them Jeshurun.

This wonderful name also occurs in Isaiah 44. Again it is used after the recounting of sin, and again God says, despite this sin, "Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun (my darling little ones) whom I have chosen. I will pour out water on your thirsty land, I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants. " Again, and again, what love! What tender, wonderful, incomprehensible love!

When I think of this love, when I think of being called Jeshurun the things of this earth, it's trappings and temptations, seem nothing more than filth. My desire to be nasty, to be critical, to gossip are squelched because I have been adopted into the promises of His Israel (Eph 1:6, 2:11).

No doubt, God is huge. He will visit wrath upon this earth. He will return with a sword in His mouth but that sword will not be for me, for I am His Jeshurun.

His love is so tender and I am His Jeshurun. Oh, to live like it!