When I was young I remember a school assignment to list all the homonyms I could come up with (words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings). I loved the challenge and came up with quite a list. Today, as I was reflecting on the prophet Jeremiah (which we are surveying in the Mini Bible College) I thought of two interesting words that are homonyms: "grown" and "groan". It occurred to me that there can sometimes be quite a bit of agony in the process of growth (growing pains). In the case of Jeremiah, the people of Judah were told to prepare to be taken captive for 70 years because of their failure to turn from idol worship. No doubt there was a lot of groaning in the course of being ripped away from homes and thrown to the servant heap of the Babylonians. Jeremiah had also provided hope, though, that after 70 years of capitivity the people of Judah would be set free to return and rebuild Jerusalem. Apparently the Bible makes it pretty clear that when they were restored after that captivity idol worship was no longer a problem (of course they still had other issues). The Lord took them through a "groaning" process so He could also take them through a "growing" process. I suppose He is doing the same today in our lives, because He knows that some of the most lasting lessons we learn are fired in cauldrons of difficulty.
Jeremiah 23:7 "So then, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when people will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' 8 but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' Then they will live in their own land."
blessings (may your groaning lead to growing),
Rob Smith
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