«I will give them one heart and one way . . . I will make on everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good» (Jeremiah 32:39, 40).
THE PROPHET JEREMIAH asked a question that is very applicable to those living in the twenty-first century: “Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin?
Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you have always done evil» (Jeremiah 13:23, NLT). Just as humans cannot change the color of their skin, they are also unable to do good on their own. We are so used to doing evil that we have even developed special talents for it. The prophet himself refers to those who are “wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge» (Jeremiah 4:22).
Six hundred years after Jeremiah, the apostle Paul also talked clearly and openly about our innate inability to do good: «I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (Romans 7:18). As we can deduce from the inspired words, the root of the problem is not on the outside—it is within us, in our human nature that is fiercely opposed to anything that has to do with God. That nature is what leaves a wake of evil in our path.
Can a change take place in our perverse nature? Yes, it can, but only if we allow God to work in us. The Lord promised the wicked, those unable to do what was good in Jeremiah’s days, “I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good” (Jeremiah 32:39, 40).
God promises those of us who are wicked to give us a heart able to obey Him. He does not promise to improve what we are, but to completely transform us. That promise, to give us a new heart, is constantly repeated in the Scriptures (see Ezekiel 11:19; Jeremiah 24:7; 2 Chron. 30:12; Ezekiel 36:26). Furthermore, God promises those of us who specialize in doing evil, “I will not turn away from doing them good” (Jeremiah 32:40).
What the text is literally saying is that He «will not repent [in Hebrew, šûb] of treating us well.” It is us who should repent and ask Him to fulfill those promises in our lives.
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Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Avineyda Hernandez
