(292) October 19: Jeremiah
1-2 & 2 Thessalonians 2
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read note the
particular sins condemned.
To ponder:
Jeremiah begins telling us that he prophesied the word of
the LORD from the time of King Josiah to when Judah went into exile under
Babylon (1v1-3, see 2 Kgs 22-25). First, his call is described: God had
personally known and set him apart as a prophet from before he was born
(1v4-5). Knowing this would have sustained him in his times of trial, and
affirms his authority to the reader. It also reminds us that God has our lives
and vocations pre-ordained. Like Moses, Jeremiah humbly recognized his
insufficiency to the task, not least because of his youth. And like Moses, God
affirmed he would be able to fulfil his calling because God would be with him
and protect him. So Jeremiah must say whatever God commands without fear of
others (1v6-8). There’s a model here for all called to preach God’s word.
Symbolically touching Jeremiah’s mouth, God declared he had put his words in
his mouth, appointing him to tear down and build up nations and kingdoms. This
signals that, as with Isaiah, what we will read has consequences beyond Israel’s
borders. The sense is that by declaring God’s word of judgement or restoration,
Jeremiah is God’s means of that word coming to pass (1v9-10).
The phrase
“the word of the LORD came to me” will prove to be a common way of describing
the receipt of a vision in which something is seen as if by the eyes and heard
as if by the ears. This was the standard means by which prophets received
revelations (1v11, Num 12v6-8). And these initial visions confirm Jeremiah’s
call. First, he sees an almond tree, which sounds in Hebrew like “watching,”
signifying the fact that God was watching for his word to be fulfilled, and so
for nations to be uprooted or planted as Jeremiah would predict. Second, the
prophet sees a pot of boiling liquid signifying an imminent disaster to be
poured out from the north onto Judah and Jerusalem. These nations (we will
learn this is Babylon and her allies) are summoned by God so agents of his
judgement against Judah’s wickedness and idolatry, and their kings will
eventually rule Jerusalem (1v11-16). In the light of this, God tells Jeremiah
to prepare and fearlessly go and tell the people whatever he commands him. He
declares he has made Jeremiah like various items of strength to stand against
the land, its kings, officials, priests and people – ie. everyone. This is
going to be a lonely task. Indeed, he is forewarned that they will fight
against him because of what he says. But they won’t overcome him as God
reiterates that he will be with him and rescue him (1v17-19). No doubt Jesus’
promise to be with his apostles had the same intent (Matt 28v20).
Chapter 2
begins the prophecies against Judah, and Jeremiah has to proclaim this one in
Jerusalem itself. God recalls Israel’s initial bride-like devotion in the
Exodus, in which she was set-apart as God’s special portion from humanity, so
that all who came against her faced disaster for their guilt. In the light of
this he then asks what fault the people’s fathers find in him that led them to
stray into their idolatry, without seeking the God who brought them through the
desert into their fertile land. Instead, they defiled the land with their evil,
and even the priests who dealt with the law failed to seek God, but rebelled
and turned to idolatry (2v1-8). The LORD therefore levels his charge against the
people, that whereas nations don’t change their false gods, his people changed
their glory (ie. the excellence of the true God) for worthless idols (2v9-11).
Paul notes that this is a pattern within wider humanity too (Rom 1v21-23). The
heavens themselves are called to reflect how appalling this is: Not only have
the people forsaken the spiritual life of God, but dug their own water pits,
that can never give the life they need. Whereas Israel was not a slave by
birth, he has therefore been plundered. Indeed, Assyria has laid the land waste
like lions, and Egypt (Memphis/Tahpanhes) humiliated Israel. So why, God asks,
does Israel seek to drink from their rivers - ie. look not to him but to them
for life through the protection of military alliances (compare 2v18, 13, 36).
Here God warns that this irreverent forsaking of him will end in bitter
punishment (2v12-19). No matter how good we might start with God, turning from
him ends in judgement.
In what
follows God describes Israel refusing to serve him and engaging with idols like
a prostitute (the trees and hills were places of idolatry). He asks how Israel
became a corrupt vine unable to remove his own guilt. He refutes the people’s
attempt to suggest they are not defiled, describing Israel like a donkey on heat,
or a runner speeding off to the false gods he loves (2v20-25). He then declares
the king and Israel’s leaders are disgraced in crediting idols with their
existence yet calling on him in time of trouble. He understandably asks where
their gods are at such times (2v26-28), and this suggests the charges the
people are bringing against him (2v29) are charges that he doesn’t come to
their aid. So the LORD points out their rebellion and their refusal to respond
to his correction seen in doing violence to the prophets he sent to call them
to repentance (2v30). His word to the people is that it is not as if he had
been a desert, not giving them blessing. Yet the people still assume they are
free to do as they wish and not come to him, forgetting the good he gives like
a bride forgetting her jewellery. So Israel pursue the love of idols like the
loose woman, do violence to the poor for no reason, yet still claim innocence
and that God is not angry. And it is because of this refusal to accept their
guilt that God will pass judgement. The nation will therefore be disappointed
that their alliance with Egypt will bring them no help in the face of Babylon.
Indeed, their envoys will leave Egypt with their hands on their head in
mourning, realising they are unprotected (2v31-37). The lesson is that we need
to accept our guilt before God, as nothing and no-one but him can shield us
from the penalty it deserves.
Praying it home:
Praise God for
providing preachers to confront our sin and call us to repentance. Pray that your
ministers would do that, not fearing man, but in God’s strength.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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(293) October 20: Jeremiah
3-4 & 2 Thessalonians 3
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider how
the people’s sin was expressed.
To ponder:
3v1 refers to Deuteronomy 24v1-4 which forbids remarrying
one’s wife if after divorce they remarry. So God is picturing his covenant with
Judah (the southern kingdom) annulled, and her effectively divorced. But rather
than being with just one new lover, she has been with many – ie. worshipped
many false gods. And because the fruitfulness of the land was tied to Judah’s
obedience (Deut 28-30), this had caused it to be defiled – ie. made unfit for
God’s blessing (3v2-3). However, the key question is whether she would return
to the LORD; and whether he would have her back. Indeed, she calls to God as he
father and friend since youth (her time in Egypt), asking if he will be angry
forever. But at the same time she continues in her evil (3v4-5)!
In the light of all this, God
describes Israel’s (the northern kingdom’s) “adultery” to Jeremiah, and how he
assumed she would return after it (3v6-7). Obviously this is using human
language and ideas for impact, as God would always have known and even purposed
Israel’s responses. The point is that she would not even repent. So God
divorced her and sent her away – a reference to the northern kingdom being
exiled by Assyria. Yet, whereas one would have thought her sister Judah would
have learnt from this as she looked on, she showed no fear and did the same,
only feigning repentance (3v7-10). Perhaps it is this refusal to learn that
made Judah more unfaithful than Israel (3v11). And here God instructs Jeremiah
to call the northern kingdom to return with an acknowledgement of her
rebellion, and with the promise that he will be merciful (3v12-13). The northern
kingdom no longer existed as nation, but this oracle would encourage all of
Israelite descent amongst the nations to return to God. And so as Israel’s
first husband, the LORD promises to choose and bring a remnant of survivors to
Zion, from what were Israel’s towns and clans. He anticipates their numbers
increasing in the land, and the Mosaic covenant (ie. her first marriage to
God), in which the tablets of God’s law were kept in the ark, forgotten. At
that time God will be enthroned in Jerusalem, where the nations will honour him
without stubborn hearts, and those of Israel and Judah will come from their
exile and join together again as one united nation (3v14-18). This is where
Isaiah left off – the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham, in which the
whole earth is blessed with his descendents as they honour God with them (Gen
12v1-3).
In what follows God affirms how
gladly he would have given the land as a beautiful inheritance to Israel like
sons, if only the people had not turned away (3v19-20). Jeremiah then speaks of
their cries under oppression away on barren heights (not the abundant land)
because they forgot God (3v21). At this point he calls on the people of Judah
to return, promising a cure for their backsliding. We will see this is the nature
of the new covenant God will enter into. It will not be about the external law
on stones in the ark, but an internal law written on the heart (see Jer
31v31-34). Nevertheless, in experiencing it the people must respond. An outline
of what that should look like is given: a willingness to repent because the
LORD is their God; a recognition that the idolatry conducted on hills is a
deception and salvation is found in the LORD; a confession of the people’s
history of idolatry, giving their harvests and children to false gods, and of
their own persistent shame and disobedience (3v20-25). This is model of
heartfelt repentance. And God promises the people of Judah and Jerusalem, that
if it is sincere and results in no longer going astray, then God’s purpose for
the nations being blessed will be fulfilled (4v1-2). He therefore calls them to
sow new life within themselves, but not mixed with the thorns of evil and
idolatry. They are to circumcised their hearts – ie. cut off sin at the level
of inner desire and decision, and out of devotion to God. Otherwise they will
face his burning wrath (4v3-4). This all looks to the inner work of the Holy
Spirit in overcoming our tendency to sin (Rom 2v29).
The need for repentance in
Jeremiah’s days was urgent. But the sense is that the people will not do so.
Indeed, God calls the people to sound the alarm, flee to the cities, and repent
in sackcloth, because in anger he is bringing a lion (Babylon) to destroy the
land to the horror of Judah’s rulers (4v5-9). Jeremiah’s comment about God
deceiving the people is probably at how he allowed false prophets to preach
peace to them – perhaps so that they would not repent in time to avoid this
threat (4v10, as 2 Thess 2v9-12). Whatever the case, God was now sending
Jeremiah to speak the truth that judgement is coming not for cleansing but for
punishment (4v11-12). So, as if a watchman seeing an army, Jeremiah declares
the LORD coming as a divine warrior, and urges the people of Jerusalem to
repent and so wash the evil from their hearts. From Dan and Ephraim in the
north, a voice is then said to announce to the nations and Jerusalem the coming
of a real army, to besiege Judah’s cities because of her rebellion against God.
And it is stressed that only the people are to blame (4v13-18). Jeremiah then
expresses his own anguish at the coming disaster, probably witnessed in a
vision, and his despair at the foolishness of his people in not knowing him as
a prophet. He describes a formless heavens and earth with quaking mountains, no
people or birds, and the land ruined by under God’s anger (4v19-26).
The LORD then speaks, declaring
the land will be ruined, but not entirely. And he explains Jeremiah’s vision.
It is a picture of the creation mourning over the certainty of the horrors to
come, and of the people absent because they’ve run and hidden from the enemy
(4v27-29). So God asks Judah why she dresses herself a prostitute seeking
lovers, when they seek her life. The inference is that Judah is seeking an
agreement with Babylon, who will end up destroying her. Jerusalem (the daughter
of Mount Zion) therefore cries out that he life is given over to murderers. But
there is hope: She is likened to one giving birth. New life awaits (4v30-31).
Praying it home:
Praise God for
graciously having folk call you to repentance. Pray that you would not feign
it, but that it would be sincere.
Thinking
further:
To read
the NIV Study Bible introduction to Jeremiah, click
here.
If you receive
this post by email, visit bible2014.blogspot.co.uk
and make a comment.
(294) October 21: Jeremiah
5-6 & 1 Timothy 1
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider how
the people have treated God’s word.
To ponder:
God promises Jeremiah that if he can find one person who
acts honestly and seeks the truth of God in Jerusalem, he will forgive the
city. But he is adamant that they make oaths in his name that are false because
they don’t intend to keep them (5v1-2). And so Jeremiah acknowledges how God
seeks truth, yet the people refused to repent even after being disciplined –
probably referring to their prior oppression by other nations or Assyria (5v3).
Jeremiah put this down to the poor who don’t know God’s word, and so went to
the leaders only to find that they too had rebelliously thrown off the yoke
like an ox who should serve the farmer. In the light of this, Jeremiah predicts
that they will be torn apart by wild animals, referring to Babylon (5v4-6).
God then asks why he should
forgive, when Jerusalem’s children have forsaken him for idols, flocked to
prostitutes, and committed adultery, despite God supplying their needs. So he
declares they no longer belong to him. But in commanding their destruction, he
still limits it so the people are not destroyed completely (5v7-11). Jeremiah
notes how the people falsely declared no harm would really come to them and
that the true prophets were not actually speaking God’s word. They even wished
harm on them. In response, God says Jeremiah’s words will be fire, no doubt in
the sense that they will result in judgement. And so he outlines the
destruction he will bring through a “distant nation” (5v12-17). Yet again, he
also declares that he will not destroy completely, whilst stating that Jeremiah
will explain the people have nevertheless suffered because of their idolatry
(5v18-19). The LORD then tells Jeremiah to announce to the people, who don’t
see or hear, how they should fear God because he forms the boundaries of the
creation, perhaps implying that proves he is able to protect them against the
advancing hoards. But instead, he notes how stubborn and rebellious they e are,
refusing to fear him as the one who provides the seasons and harvests, meaning
that their harvests have suffered (5v20-25). He describes men amongst the
people who are rich and powerful, and who seek to trap others with their
deceit, and who do not uphold the rights of the poor. Again, he asks, “should I
not punish” them for this. Indeed, even their prophets prophecy lies, the
priests go along with them, and the people love it (5v26-31).
Throughout this section God is
displaying how appropriate Judah’s punishment is, but also how merciful he is
in limiting it. Likewise, on the last day none will be able to say that God
acted unjustly, but only marvel at his mercy in saving a remnant through
Christ.
In chapter 7 God again calls the
people to flee Jerusalem as a way of stressing the coming disaster. Jerusalem
is described like a beautiful meadow to which the kings and their armies come
like shepherds with their flocks, so that their flocks can graze on their own
portion of it (6v1-3). 6v4-5 stresses that daylight will not keep the
destruction back. So God speaks to the attacking armies, telling them to build
siege ramps because the city must be punished for her wickedness, which is
described as being poured out like water, and as sickness and wounds. Once more
God calls the people to turn so the land is not made desolate, even though he
knows they will refuse to (6v6-8). 6v9 then seems to call both the armies and
Jeremiah to glean fruit from Israel, and so gather a repentant remnant. But
Jeremiah asks who he can warn as everyone’s ears are closed so they find
offence in the word he speaks. This has always been the way with respect to
those who proclaim God’s judgement. And in response, as God’s prophet, Jeremiah
feels in himself God’s outrage at the people and cannot hold it in. God
therefore instructs him to pour that wrath out, no doubt in his words, on
everyone from children to the elderly – as they will all suffer when their
homes, fields and even wives are handed over to the enemy by God’s hand
(6v10-12). The reason is that everyone is greedy. And the prophets and priests
in particular are deceitful, unashamedly declaring peace and so acceptance by
God, when in reality God is bringing destruction (6v13-15). One cannot but
think of ministers in today’s church who teach that God would never judge, but
instead save all. Here God is clear: Such people will also be punished.
The LORD goes on to urge the
people to seek out and walk in the ancient paths (ie. of faithful obedience)
and find rest for their souls (6v16), just as Christ calls us to come to him
for the same (Matt 11v29). They had refused to listen to the watchman
(prophets) God had put over them and listen to the trumpet (their warnings).
God therefore calls the nations to witness their destruction for rejecting his
law, affirming that because of that he doesn’t care for their offerings of
incense or sacrifices, and will cause the people to stumble. The cause of
stumbling may be temptation to further sin or the coming armies. Either way, it
will lead to all generations perishing (6v17-21). 6v22-26 describes the cruelty
and fearfulness of the Babylonian army the LORD has stirred up, and how this
should lead the people to deep anguish and mourning. God then says he has made
Jeremiah a tester of Judah like a refining fire that is intended to purge
impurities out of ore. But this testing has not caused Judah’s wickedness to be
purged out because, as already stated, she refuses to listen. And so God has
rejected the people like rejected silver that is unfit for use because of its
impurity (6v27-30).
Throughout we are being urged to
seek out and heed faithful Bible teachers, who will be honest about sin and its
consequences. It is utter foolishness to look to those who are not honest about
God’s word.
Praying it home:
Praise God for
faithful Bible teachers within the church. Pray that he would raise up more to
be honest about sin and judgement as well as grace and mercy.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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this post by email, visit bible2014.blogspot.co.uk
and make a comment.
(295) October 22: Jeremiah
7-8 & 1 Timothy 2
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider the
ways truth is distorted.
To ponder:
Jeremiah is instructed to proclaim a message, at the
entrance to the temple, to those from Judah who come in. One can imagine the
impact. He calls them to reform their ways if they are to continue living in
the city or land, and by addressing worshippers he is affirming their worship
is hypocritical. They are not to trust in the mantra that implies that because
God’s temple is there, all will be well. Rather, they will remain only if they
act justly, aid the needy, and reject violence and idolatry. They just cannot
claim they are safe whilst they break the commandments, making God’s house a
den of robbers because it contains such sinful worshippers (7v1-11). Jesus
makes the same point, reminding us that worship without godliness is an affront
to God (Matt 21v13).
The LORD
proves his point by telling the people to see what happened to Shiloh where the
tabernacle was first pitched more permanently. As part of the northern kingdom
of Israel, it was destroyed because of how wicked the people there were. So God
says, because the people ignored his word through Jeremiah (and perhaps other
prophets) whilst they sinned, he will now do the same to the temple that “bears
his name” (ie. where he is present), thrusting Judah from his presence
(7v12-15) as he did Ephraim (ie. the northern kingdom).
It seems this is now so certain
that nothing will turn God from this. He therefore commands Jeremiah not to
pray for the people, as things are so bad that whole families are baking gifts
for the Queen of Heaven (a Babylonian god) and making offerings to other gods
too, provoking him to anger and shaming themselves (7v16-19). God therefore
says that his anger will be poured out on people, animals, and land – no doubt
through the coming conquest. The note that God’s wrath will burn and not be
quenched suggests not that it is literally everlasting, but that it cannot be
put out and so avoided. But Jesus implies that at the final judgement it will
endure (Matt 25v46).
God adds that the people can go
ahead with their offerings and sacrifices to him, even if not done as
prescribed. It makes no difference, as his concern from the time of Egypt had
always been with obedience; and from that time on, the people had stubbornly
followed evil and refused to listen to his prophets (7v20-26). The point is
that God’s immense patience with what have always been a rebellious people has
run out. And so God has Jeremiah declare to the people when they ignore him
that the nation has disobeyed and truth (as to God’s will) has perished. He is
also to lament that God has rejected his generation. Here, cutting his hair is
a symbol of the people losing their pride or crown. And his lamenting on the
“barren heights” (perhaps the desert outside the city) probably symbolises them
lamenting in exile from their abundant land (7v27-29). The lesson for us,
again, is to listen to those who warn us of God’s justice.
What
follows displays the extremity of Judah’s sin: They have set up idols in the
temple, so defiling it, and built high places on which to burn their children
as sacrifices. It’s even hinted they thought this might be acceptable to God as
he has to stress it was not (7v30-31). Indeed, he declares that because of
this, this place of great evil will become a place of slaughter, in which the
people will die and be fed on by the birds. None will be left to frighten the
birds away, all joy will have gone, and the land will be desolate. The bones of
the people will also be removed from their graves as a humiliation by the
enemy, and exposed to the very heavenly bodies they worshipped. Moreover, those
who survive will wish they had died (7v32-8v3). It’s a picture of how the
justice of God rightly fits the crime. Those who slaughter children are
slaughtered, and those who worship stars exposed before them, showing their
impotence. Likewise, Paul writes that those throughout the world who suppress
God’s truth for sin are handed over to foolish thinking and sinful desire (Rom
1v18-32). And on the last day, those who have chosen to live apart from the
Lord will experience just that by being shut out of his kingdom.
Jeremiah is
told to ask why the people refuse to turn back to God, clinging to the lie that
they haven’t done wrong, and showing that they don’t know God’s requirements.
The suggestion is that obedience should have been as instinctive and natural to
them as migration is to birds. So this is a wilful decision to follow their own
course (8v4-7). And if they are tempted to claim wisdom because they have God’s
law, they should recognize that the scribes who apply it in their writings are
handling it falsely – a warning to all authors of Christian books! So the
so-called wise will end up trapped for rejecting God’s word, losing their wives
and fields to the conquerors. Here God states that all are greedy for gain, but
may mean all scribes, prophets and priests who, perhaps for the sake of
financial support, unashamedly deceive by proclaiming Judah have not provoked
God and so will know peace. He promises they will be punished (8v8-12). An this
teaches us that wisdom is to accept what is true, not spin it to make it more
palatable.
8v13
probably refers to the LORD seeking or scuppering any spiritual harvest, so
there is no fruit of righteousness amongst the people, and they therefore lose
what he had given. Jeremiah therefore calls the people to flee with him to
safety because God has doomed them to destruction and given them poisoned water
(perhaps a reference to their unhealthy alliances, 2v13, 18) because of their
sins. They hoped for peace and healing after past oppression, but face only
terror as they hear battle horses coming from the north, and God promises to
send metaphorical snakes (8v14-17). At this point Jeremiah cries to God as his
comforter, faint with despair at his people crying in exile as they wonder if
God still reigns in Zion. This may be a vision which looks ahead to that day.
Whatever the case, God immediately responds, asking why they so provoked him
with their idolatry. It clarifies that they are not exiled because God is no
longer king, but because he is, and they sinned against him. Jeremiah then
continues with an illustration that implies the opportunity for God finding the
fruit of righteousness or saving the people from what is coming has passed. The
prophet therefore expresses how crushed and horrified he is, in seeing no
possibility of healing for the people (8v18-22). Now is the time for our own
repentance. There will be a time when opportunity has passed.
Praying it home:
Praise God for
delaying Christ’s return and so giving people time to repent. Pray for an
awakening in our day as to the seriousness of sin and reality of judgement.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
If you receive
this post by email, visit bible2014.blogspot.co.uk
and make a comment.
(296) October 23: Jeremiah
9-10 & 1 Timothy 3
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider what
we learn about God’s judgement.
To ponder:
Jeremiah vividly describes the tension within him: He would
weep desperately over the slain of his people whilst desiring to be separated
from them because of their spiritual unfaithfulness, sin and deception even of
friends (9v1-6). God declares that he will refine, test and punish them for
this. The sense is that through their trials they will become purer (9v7-9).
Here God himself states he will weep over the devastation on the land, but lay
waste Judah and Jerusalem (9v10-11). Asking who is wise enough to understand,
he then explains this is because the people forsook his law, stubbornly
following their fathers in worshipping Baals (the Canaanite gods). So God will
bring hardship, scattering them and pursuing them with a sword (9v12-16). He
therefore tells the people to call professional female mourners to wail over
their tears, ruin, shame, death, and destruction even of children (9v17-22). In
the light of all this, he also calls people to boast in nothing, no wisdom,
strength or riches, but only in understanding and knowing him as the one who
exercises and delights in kindness, justice and righteousness (9v23-24). This
is the perspective judgement always brings. It ends all that human beings might
esteem, showing that in an ultimate sense, all that really matters is knowing
and imaging God. In the light of this, Jeremiah can say that without
circumcised hearts (ie. hearts that have cut off sin in devotion to God),
Israel are just like the uncircumcised pagan nations and so will be punished
accordingly. This teaches that circumcision was always intended to signify the
love and obedience towards God that makes someone truly one of his covenant
people (see Deut 6v4-12, Rom 2v29).
With this
likeness to the nations in mind, God goes on to command Israel not to follow
their ways by fearing astronomical occurrences. He declares their customs worthless
as they make idols from wood and metal that can neither speak nor walk, and so
are obviously no more to be feared than a scarecrow (10v1-5). Here Jeremiah
declares God’s unique greatness and power, meaning that he alone should be
revered by all and as king of the nations. He describes how none of the
nations’ wise men are like God. Rather, they are fools, being taught by idols
that craftsmen have made. By contrast, the LORD is the true and living God, the
eternal king, whose wrath causes the earth to tremble and cannot be endured
(10v6-10). This should breed discernment in a culture where intellectuals are
revered who don’t know God, but let their atheistic presuppositions govern
their views, just as these people would have let their idols govern theirs.
Jeremiah
states how such idols will perish because they did not creat the universe,
whereas God did create in power – so he should be feared, and wisdom – so he
should be listened to. Everyone is therefore said to be ignorant, under the
influence of their idols. By contrast, God, as the portion (ie. inheritance) of
Jacob (Israel), is the maker of all, including Israel, which is his
inheritance. The point is that Israel should be looking to him not idols, as he
is not only the creator, but is their God and they are his people (10v11-16).
It is similarly tragic for Christians to turn from the true God who is
committed to them, to the false beliefs of the world, that leave people so
foolish in their thinking (as Rom 1v18-32).
The prophet
continues to call the people under siege to ready their belongings for exile
because God has declared this is what he is bringing about. Jeremiah then
utters a cry of “woe” that represents that of the nation: It is over an
incurable wound or sickness, which is that his tent (dwelling) and sons
(people) are destroyed. The shepherds (religious leaders) lack all sense in not
enquiring of God, and so they don’t prosper and their flock (the people) are
scattered, as the report of commotion from the north is heard – an army coming
to desolate the land (10v17-22). It is when church leaders don’t heed God’s
word, that a church and nation becomes more susceptible to God’s judgement.
Perhaps as
a last attempt to seek mercy, Jeremiah seems to acknowledge that the LORD’s
purpose was behind Israel’s rebellion, as he ultimately governs how someone’s
life spans out. He then prays for justice – which would account for these
circumstances, rather than anger – which responds only to the deeds themselves.
It reminds us that the final judgement will not excuse sin, but will account
for differing circumstances that may have led to it. Jeremiah’s prayer is,
however, that he might survive, and in representing Israel, that it might in
some form too. Nevertheless, he also prays for God’s wrath against the nations
for devouring Jacob and his homeland (10v23-25).
Praying it home:
Praise God that in
justice he accounts for all circumstances. Pray that we would not boast in or
esteem anything but understanding and knowing God.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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and make a comment.
(297) October 24: Jeremiah
11-13 & 1 Timothy 4
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider how
the people’s sin has been expressed.
To ponder:
God’s next word is for Jeremiah to hear and recount the
terms of his covenant in the towns of Judah, telling them that according to
those terms those who do not obey are cursed, and that the promise of the land
was for those would do everything God commanded (11v1-5). He is also to say how
this has been worked out since Israel left Egypt, as those who refused to
listen to God experienced the covenant curses (11v6-8). Likewise, if we
continue to rebel against God we cannot say we have not been warned by his
interactions with Israel.
God goes on
to say that those in Judah and Jerusalem have conspired in following their
fathers’ sin and idolatry in breaking the covenant, which is why God will bring
the coming disaster on them and not listen to their cries. Indeed, the people
will cry out to their many false gods, who will, of course, be no more able to
help than the gods of today’s world religions, or those of materialism, science
or democracy (11v9-13). Once more God tells Jeremiah not to pray for the people
as their sin has reached such an extent that God will not now listen even if
they did seek help – perhaps because he knows their cries would be insincere
anyway. So 11v15 asks what the people are doing engaging in the rituals of the
temple whilst continuing and rejoicing in evil. In the light of this, the
nation, that God planted as a beautiful olive tree, will be destroyed
(11v14-17).
11v18-23 relates to a plot
against Jeremiah’s life, that God revealed to him. It seems he was totally
unaware like a lamb going to slaughter. He was a fruitful tree in the sense
that he obeyed God and ministered his word. Yet his enemies wanted to destroy
him and so his fruit, that so challenged them. Indeed, they said that unless he
stopped prophesying they would kill him. Yet knowing God judges rightly,
Jeremiah doesn’t stop prophesying, but prays for God to act in vengeance
against these opponents and uphold his cause. And it seems there were a lot of
them – the whole town of Anathoth (Jeremiah’s own village, 1v1). Yet God
declared in the year of punishment (probably when Babylon attacked), they and
their children would die by sword and famine (that would inevitably follow) so
that there would not even be a remnant left. Obviously, this wouldn’t rid
Jeremiah of the immediate threat. But it would reassure him that justice would
be done, just as persecuted believers today can be reassured (Rev 6v10-11).
At this
point Jeremiah asks God the age old question over his justice: Why do the
wicked prosper? In bringing this as a case before God, Jeremiah speaks because
he feels hard done by. God plants and establishes people who honour him with
their lips but not their hearts, and they seem to benefit; whilst Jeremiah, who
God knows is righteous, suffers. Jeremiah therefore asks God to drag the wicked
off for slaughter out of concern that whilst they remain in the land, the land
will suffer and not thrive because of God’s covenant promises (12v1-4). Jesus would
affirm the importance of praying for one’s enemies to be blessed and come to
repentance. But Jeremiah’s desire that God would judge the wicked so that his
people and their place could thrive is not wrong.
In 12v5 God seems to be saying
that if Jeremiah can’t cope under his present difficulty, how is he going to
cope when things soon get far worse? God’s ministers must be ready through
faith to cope with any hardship that might come because of their ministry.
Here, God acknowledges that Jeremiah has been betrayed even by family, and he
should not trust them even if they speak well of him. He then describes how he
will forsake Judah as his inheritance, because she roars at him. He therefore
calls metaphorical predators and foreign shepherds (leaders) to ruin this
“pleasant field” with the “sword of the LORD” so the people cannot even gain a
good harvest (12v5-13). But he also states that the neighbouring nations who
had previously sought to plunder the land will also be uprooted, presumably by
Babylon. He then promises to compassionately restore them to their own lands,
which he had given them as their inheritances. Moreover, if they learn from
God’s people how to honour him, they will be established with them – but if
not, be destroyed (12v14-17). As with Isaiah, this looks to the church age and
the final judgement.
13v1-11 describes how Jeremiah
was instructed to buy a brand new linen belt that he hid in rocks until it was
ruined and useless. It was to be a prophetic symbol of how through their exile
(the rocks) God would ruin the pride of Judah and Jerusalem, because of the
people’s stubbornness and idolatry. That pride was to have been chosen to be
bound to the LORD as his own and for his honour. But, now, like the belt, they
will be discarded and ruined. More than that, they are like wineskins, useful
only for being filled with the wine of God’s wrath, so they smash into
one-another like drunkards. And once more, God says he will allow no mercy in
him to keep him from carrying this out (13v12-14). It’s a stark warning to
those who are given the dignity of being members of the church, but who turn
from God.
Despite the fact God won’t
relent, Jeremiah still calls the people not to be arrogant, but to honour the
LORD before he brings the coming darkness. He adds that if they don’t listen,
he himself will weep in secret because God’s flock will be taken away. The king
and his mother may already be in exile at this point (2 Kgs 24v8-12), but it
seems Jeremiah is anticipating that, urging them to humble themselves before
their crowns are removed. Here Jeremiah looks Judah and Jerusalem to the north
from where Babylon will come, asking where the flock God entrusted to them is.
He explains that when they are ruled by those they sought as allies, they will
be in pain like a woman in labour. And if they ask why, Jeremiah declares it is
because of their (their people’s) inability to do anything other than sin
(13v15-23). So he has decreed that they are scattered and have the shame of
their unfaithfulness to God exposed (13v24-27). On the final day of judgement,
the deeds of all will somehow be exposed and God’s justice seen to be right.
Praying it home:
Praise God for his
righteous justice. Pray that any Christians you know tempted to give themselves
to sin would turn from it.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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and make a comment.
(298) October 25: Jeremiah
14-16 & 1 Timothy 5
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider why
God refuses to turn from what he is doing.
To ponder:
As God speaks to Jeremiah about a drought, the implication
is that it had come because of the people’s sins. Judah mourns for the land and
city, with servants weeping as they can’t find water for their masters, farmers
dismayed because of cracked land, and animals impacted too (14v1-6). Jeremiah
acknowledges the people’s sins, but prays God would act for the sake of his
name, glorifying himself as the one who saves those in distress. He
acknowledges God is amongst the people who bear his name, yet asks why he is
like those who lack the desire, disposition or power to act (14v7-9). God
responds that he will not accept the people because of their sinful wandering,
commanding Jeremiah not to pray for their well-being, and stating that he will
not respond to their fasts or offerings, but destroy them with sword, famine
and plague (14v10-12). Here Jeremiah says that other prophets are nevertheless saying
that this will not happen and the people will have peace. God is clear: He has
not sent them, and so they are prophesying lies, whether through false visions,
divination practices, or simply the delusions of their own minds. They will
therefore perish by sword or famine themselves, as will the people of
Jerusalem, who will end up with none to bury them (14v13-6). It’s a strong
indictment of any who claim to speak in God’s name but who speak their own
ideas. We should also ask whether drawing conclusions from circumstances or
coincidences that are then boldly claimed to be God’s word is rather like the
process of divination.
The
description of the people as “my virgin daughter” suggests 14v17-18 may
describe God expressing his own mourning over the destruction that he is
bringing, resulting in Judah’s spiritual leaders being in exile. However, in
context it is most likely Jeremiah weeping as he witnesses the destruction,
probably in a vision. So the people are as precious to him as a young woman
under the protection of her father. He asks God whether he has totally rejected
Judah, as they hoped for peace only to receive terror. Again, he acknowledges
the people’s sin and asks God to act for the sake of his name – ie. to show he
is king and not dishonour his throne, and to remember his covenant and so
display his faithfulness. He acknowledges the people’s hope can only be in the
LORD as he, not the idols, is the creator who brings rain (14v19-22). So there
is no-where else for any of us to turn when in need, but to God. And we too can
pray he would act for the sake of his glory.
Once again,
the irreversible nature of this judgement is stressed, as God responds to
Jeremiah’s request by saying that even Moses or Samuel would not be able to
move him to compassion. He therefore commands the people be sent away from him
to whatever he has destined for them, whether death, sword, starvation or
captivity (15v1-2). His four destroyers (15v3) stress the absolute destruction
and humiliation of the bodies, who will be abhorrent to the nations in the
sense that they will look down on them in their ruin or captivity. Here we see
this is due to the sin they were led into by Manasseh (15v4, see 2 Kgs
21v9-16). What follows implies none will pity Jerusalem. And God reiterates the
destruction God he bring, bringing the sword not just against the men (as in
war) but their mothers too (15v5-9).
This seems to move Jeremiah to
think of his mother, despairing of his birth, because, although he acts
righteously, the whole land contends with and curses him. God responds by
promising to deliver him and cause his enemies to plead with him in the end. He
then promises that no strength that is present in Judah will break that coming
in this army from the north. He adds that his anger will cause the people to be
plundered and enslaved. To this Jeremiah states how God understands him –
presumably his grief in 15v10. He prays God would remember, care for and avenge
him in his patience, because Jeremiah is suffering for his sake. Indeed, he
finds God’s word palatable, rejoicing in it; and he experiences the loneliness
of being apart from revellers, because God constantly fills him with his anger
at the people. And so Jeremiah expresses the unending pain of being God’s
prophet, asking whether God will refresh him or fail him like a brook that
dries up (15v10-18). All this displays the cost that can be felt by those who
stand against the compromises of the church.
God’s love for the likes of
Jeremiah doesn’t keep him from confrontation where it is necessary. So (as with
Elijah) he calls Jeremiah to repent – presumably of his despair and reluctance
with respect to his calling. He promises to restore him to service if he will
speak worthy rather than worthless words. Here the role of the prophet or
preacher is put so succinctly: God’s spokesperson must not turn to the people,
by saying what they want to hear or following their ways. Rather, he must be
unmoveable in declaring the truth, so the people turn to him, accepting his
words and ways. In this, God promises to save and rescue Jeremiah, making him
like a fortified wall so the people will not overcome him (15v19-21).
Next God tells Jeremiah not to
marry and have children because of the horrors that will come on families. Nor
should he attend funerals, because God has withdrawn his pity for the people,
and in what is coming no-one will be buried or mourned – no doubt because there
will be so much death. Jeremiah is also not to join any feast because during
his lifetime God will bring an end to the sort of joy found in wedding
celebrations. The point is that Jeremiah’s actions are to symbolically preach
what is coming. And when the people ask why God is bringing such a disaster, he
is to point out that in their idolatry and breach of God’s law they have acted
even more wickedly than their fathers. Yet he adds that one day people will
speak of God’s reality displayed not in the Exodus but in restoring his people
from exile – a new Exodus. However, God’s present purpose is to bring
“fishermen” and “hunters” to catch and weed out his people - because their sin
is not concealed from him. This is to repay them double (ie. to excess) because
they defiled the land with their idolatry (16v1-18).
At this point, Jeremiah affirms
God as his strength, and how the nations will eventually come to him confessing
the worthlessness of their gods. God responds that he himself will teach the
nations of his power and might so they know that he, the God of Israel, is “the
LORD” - I AM, the one true God (16v19-21, as in 1 Thess 1v9). And so God
teaches the nations through the church as his gospel is preached and the Spirit
brings it home.
Praying it home:
Praise God for
supplying the church with those who like Jeremiah will not flinch from
proclaiming his word. Pray that they would not despair or turn to the ways of
the world.
Thinking
further: The Word of the LORD came
Throughout
we see something of what it means when the Word of the LORD came to a prophet.
It is often visual, but always audible, and of such clarity that it can be
recorded word for word (see 30v2). It is also often in the context of a
dialogue, seen in Jeremiah conversing with God: He hears God speak. He then
responds, sometimes saying things that reflect his human fallibility, as when
he vocalizes his despair, or when he continues to pray for the people despite
being commanded by God not to. We must be careful to recognize that only God’s
words in these oracles are entirely righteous and true. Much that Jeremiah says
is, but God’s own response to him (as with Job) reveals that not all is. So we
need discernment with what we read. And when Jeremiah is showing his sinful
weakness, we can learn about God’s grace in using him nevertheless, and the
traits he displays that we should guard against.
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(299) October 26: Jeremiah
17-19 & 1 Timothy 6
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider how
the seriousness of the coming judgement is stressed.
To ponder:
Judah’s sin is said to be permanently engraved on their
hearts. This is their key problem. In their inner being they cannot but sin.
For it to be on the horns of their altars too, shows how ingrained their
idolatry was. Indeed, even their children are implicated (17v1-2). So God
declares he will give away mount Zion (his mountain), their wealth and high
places of false worship, enslaving them to their enemies in his anger (17v3-4).
God continues in saying that those who trust in man for his strength and turns
from God is cursed to wither without prosperity, but those who trust God are
blessed, and thrives even when trouble comes, like a tree in water even in
heart (17v5-8, see also Ps 1). Yet God can declare how deceitful, beyond
(human) cure, incomprehensible the heart is. Yet God searches the heart and
mind to reward people according to their deeds. And so those who unjustly gain
riches will find them desert him, proving him a fool. Moreover, those who
forsake God will be dust because they turn from living water and God’s glorious
rule (17v9-13). Here Jeremiah, prays for healing and salvation, certain God
will give it. And where people mockingly ask where the fulfilment of God’s word
is, Jeremiah can affirm God knows he did not run from his role as shepherd, nor
delight in what was coming. And on this basis he again asks that his
persecutors be shamed and destroyed, but he himself kept from terror
(17v14-18).
The LORD
then instructs him to stand at Jerusalem’s gates, commanding the kings, people
and city to keep the Sabbath, reminding them that their fathers stubbornly
refused to respond to his discipline, but promising that if they do obey kings,
officials and people will come through the gates victoriously, and the city be
inhabited forever. Indeed, people would come from the whole area around Judah
and Benjamin bringing offerings of true worship to the temple. But if the
people don’t keep the Sabbath by working or carrying loads through the gates,
then Jerusalem will face unquenchable (so irreversible) fire (17v19-27). It all
brings home the importance of true repentance whilst we have time.
God then
sent Jeremiah to the potters house. God’s message was that he can reshape
Israel like clay, as he sees fit. He stresses that with all nations, if he has
warns to uproot or destroy them and they repent of their evil, then he will
relent. And if he announces that a nation is t be built up and it does not obey
him, he will reconsider that intended good. So Jeremiah must say, God is
devising disaster for Judah so the people must reform their ways. Yet God tells
him the people will refuse, saying they want to continue in their stubbornness
(18v1-12). Paul reminds us that similarly, our destiny is in God’s hands to do
with as he sees fit, just like clay in that of the potter (Rom 9v21).
The LORD then declares that it
should be enquired of amongst the nations whether anything has been heard of as
bad as is being done to Virgin (ie. vulnerable) Israel. For whereas snow and
water in Lebanon is constant, the people aren’t. They’ve forgotten him, burned
incense to idols, causing them to stumble in their ways, so their land will be
laid waste in a way that will appal onlookers. They will be scattered by their
enemies and experience the LORD turn away form them (18v13-17).
Here the people determine to
verbally attack Jeremiah, confident that they don’t need him as the various
means of God’s word being passed on would continue (18v18). Jeremiah asks God
to hear them and see the injustice of the good he is doing being repaid with
evil. Reminding God of how he interceded for these very people, he now prays
their children, wives and young men would suffer under famine, bereavement and
the sword respectively, by the coming invaders. Acknowledging God knows their
plots, Jeremiah prays God would not forgive them, but deal with them in his
anger (18v19-23). Again, this seems far from Jesus’ superior sentiments on the
cross. But it is nevertheless a prayer for justice not injustice, and permitted
amongst God’s people as they pass their sense of aggrievement to the LORD
rather than taking vengeance themselves.
Next God tells Jeremiah to buy a
clay jar from the potter, take some elders and priests, and then proclaim to the
kings and people the coming disaster and the sin of idolatry and bloodshed that
provoked it. It’s seriousness is stressed by the fact it will make all ears
tingle, and the fact that Jeremiah is to say the place he proclaims this will
be renamed the valley of slaughter. The nature of the slaughter is outlined as
previously, but what is added is that the siege will lead the people to
cannibalism (19v1-9). Jeremiah is then instructed to break the jar and say this
is how the LORD will smash the nation and city, so that it is beyond repair,
and that the dead will be buried in the valley until there is no more room.
Topheth was a place pagan worship was conducted, leading God to say Jerusalem
will become defiled like Topheth, because people engaged in idolatry there too
(19v10-13). Jeremiah then returned to the temple, where he reiterated that God
would bring the disaster he pronounce because of the people’s refusal to listen
to his words (19v14-15). What we are seeing, is just how certain and terrible
God’s judgement is. And that on Judah pictures that of the last day.
Praying it home:
Praise God for
providing rescue through Christ from such terrible judgement. Pray that we
would display true faith in obedience.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
If you receive
this post by email, visit bible2014.blogspot.co.uk
and make a comment.
(300) October 27: Jeremiah
20-22 & 2 Timothy 1
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider the
sings of Judah’s kings.
To ponder:
Chapter 20 begins with a priest having Jeremiah beaten up
and put in stocks for his prophesying. Jeremiah’s God-given courage is seen in
speaking as soon as released, telling the priest God has given him a name meaning
“terror on every side,” as he will witness his friends being handed over to the
king of Babylon who will take them away and execute them. And he and his whole
household will die in exile too, because he prophesied lies (presumably as one
of those mentioned in 14v13). Again, Jeremiah adds that the city will be
plundered (20v1-6).
Jeremiah is
then surprisingly frank. He wrongly charges God with deceiving him. Perhaps he
feels he was drawn into being a prophet on false pretences, overpowered in the
sense that God ensured he took up the task (20v7). And Jeremiah feels
aggrieved, because he is ridiculed and insulted whenever he speaks, as he
always has to speak violence and destruction. But he cannot stop himself, as
God’s word is like a burning fire that tires him if he holds it in. He
therefore has to live surrounded by people who whisper against him, want to
report him to those who might do him harm, or who are just waiting until he can
be tricked into doing something wrong so they can get their revenge (20v8-10).
It’s a fascinating insight into the psychology of faithful preachers, who by
the Spirit just cannot do anything but speak the truth, no matter how hard -
and into the various means by which they might be opposed.
In all
this, Jeremiah is confident that God is with him, so his persecutors will
stumble and be disgraced, with their dishonour remembered – at least by God,
and, of course, in this book too. Noting God sees his own heart and mind, he
asks him to take up his cause and bring vengeance against his persecutors.
After a sudden outburst of praise that God rescues the needy from the wicked,
Jeremiah then speaks as Job did, cursing his birth with the most vivid poetry,
and wishing God had killed him in the womb so he wouldn’t see such trouble (20v11-18).
This wavering from one emotion to the next reflects the realities of struggling
with one’s hardships in prayer.
Chapter 21
begins with king Zedekiah sending another priest and a man with the same first
name as 20v1, to get Jeremiah to ask God if he would deliver Jerusalem from
Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kgs 25) as he had from Sennacherib a hundred years previously
(21v1-2, see 2 Kgs 19v35-36). It is uncertain whether God responded by saying
Judah’s army would be herded back into the city, or that the enemy army would
come in (21v4). What is clear is that whilst being besieged, shockingly, God
himself would fight against his own people in anger, by sending a plague to
kill both men and animals. He would then hand the king, officials and other
survivors to Nebuchadnezzar who would mercilessly put them to death (20v1-7).
Echoing Moses’ covenant sermon appeal (Deut 30v19), God then says he is putting
life or death before the people. Those who stay in the city will die by these
means, whilst those who surrender will live, as God has determined to do
Jerusalem harm (20v8-10). The LORD adds a particular word to the royal
household. He restates his abiding warning that unless Judah’s kings
administered justice, God’s wrath would break out with unquenchable fire. And
so in line with this, he reiterates that he is against Jerusalem, which thinks
itself impenetrable, punishing her as her deeds deserve (21v11-14). Those who
assume God is for them but do not display true faith in godly living will find
in the end that God is against them, and that they therefore face his burning
anger too.
What
follows seems to be a number of oracles against Judah’s previous kings (see 2
Kgs 23-25), spoken earlier and included here to demonstrate the truth of
21v11-12, and so the appropriateness of God’s impending judgement. He had sent
Jeremiah to preach at the palace itself, declaring to the king, officials and
people that they should do what is just and right, aiding rather than
oppressing the needy. He promised that if they were careful to do his commands,
then kings, officials and the people would come through Jerusalem’s gates in
victory. But if they didn’t, the palace would become a ruin, for although it
had the greatness and grandeur of the forests in Gilead and Lebanon from which
its wood came, God would make it like a desert, with its cedar beams burnt
(22v1-7). So passing foreigners would ask why the LORD had done this, and the
answer would be that the people forsook his covenant and worshipped idols
(22v8-9).
22v10-12 urges the people not to
mourn the death of the righteous king Josiah (see 2 Kgs 23v29-30) as he will
never return, nor will his son (Shallum, or Jehoahaz) who will die in exile.
Jeremiah then declares woe against Jehoiakim (Jehoahaz’s brother and successor)
for building his palace through unrighteousness and oppression of workers,
despite seeing that his father (Josiah) had all he needed by doing what was
right and just. It is this, God declares, that sums what it is to know him
(22v13-17). And so he says Jehoiakim will not be mourned either, but experience
a humiliating death outside of Jerusalem. And he is urged to cry out because
his allies are crushed. And because he would not listen to or obey God, his
shepherds (ie. Jerusalem’s leaders) will be driven away and he will be ashamed
and disgraced, and know pain like in labour (22v18-23).
Next, God speaks against
Jehoiachin (Jehoaikim’s son), saying that even if he were as precious as a
personalized signet ring through which God’s authority was exercised, he would
still discard him to Nebuchadnezzar. He therefore states Jehoiachin and his
mother will both die in exile too. He will be unwanted like a broken pot, and
cast into Babylon with his children. God therefore states that he should be
recorded as if childless as none of his children will ascend to David’s throne.
Astonishingly and tragically, David’s line will therefore seem ended
(22v24-30)! It all shows how desperately the people needed a truly righteous
king, if they were to survive.
Praying it home:
Praise God for
providing the perfect king in Christ. Pray that you would seek through faith to
do what is just and right.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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this post by email, visit bible2014.blogspot.co.uk
and make a comment.
(301) October 28: Jeremiah
23-24 & 2 Timothy 2
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider why
God is opposed to the prophets.
To ponder:
Jeremiah now
speaks woe against Judah’s religious leaders, or shepherds. They are destroying
and scattering (perhaps because provoking the exile) God’s people (sheep) of
his land (pasture). Because they have not cared for God’s sheep, God will
punish them. He will then gather a remnant of his people from the nations they
are exiled to, and bring them back to the land where his intent from creation
will be fulfilled – they will be fruitful and increase in number (23v1-3, see
Gen 1v28). At that time he will put caring shepherds over them so that none are
afraid or lost, and he will raise up a righteous king from David’s house who
will reign wisely and justly, saving Judah from her enemies so the people live
in safety. His name will be “the LORD our righteousness” (23v4-6). So after so
many oracles of judgement, finally we have hope. It is of God giving the people
the leaders and king they need to be kept faithful and secure. Although the
king’s name could just be a way of honouring the LORD, it hints that although
the king will be from David, he could also be the LORD himself. As previously,
it is then said that the people will confess the LORD is God not by reference
to the Exodus, but this return from exile (23v7-8). Obviously this is all
fulfilled in Christ, and the apostles and ministers he commissions to shepherd
his flock. His work should therefore be seen as the ultimate end of exile and
the restoration of Israel (see Acts 1v6-8).
An oracle is now spoken against the
false prophets. Jeremiah is broken and overcome because of God’s words against
them. The land is said to be full of adulterers, presumably because people are
giving their devotion to false gods. So, under the curse promised in the
covenant (Deut 30) the land is dry and unfruitful. Moreover, both prophets and
priests do evil and use their power for injustice. They even act wickedly in
the temple itself. So they will slip and be banished into darkness under God’s
punishment (23v9-12). Jeremiah notes that the prophets in the north (at this
point destroyed) prophesied by the false god Baal and led the people astray,
and now those in Jerusalem are doing similarly in their spiritual adultery and
deception of the people, which only strengthens evildoers and fails to turn
people from wickedness, as prophets should. So the people are like those of the
pagan and immoral Sodom and Gomorrah (23v13-14). This is the most serious of
indictments, as Sodom and Gomorrah were the archetype of a sinful city. And so
God declares in now familiar language that the prophets will eat bitter food
and drink poisoned water (metaphors for suffering). Moreover, he tells the
people not to listen to the false hope they give, for their visions are from
their own minds and don’t reflect God’s word. They tell those who despise God
and are stubborn that they will have peace and not harm. But none has stood (as
the prophet should) in the council of the LORD (ie. in his communicating
presence), seeing or hearing his word in a true vision (23v15-18). This all
seems so contemporary, for in our day too, preachers proclaim a God who accepts
all without repentance, and who would never judge; whilst even everyday
Christians are quick to declare “the LORD says” when imparting what often
proves to be false hope, and that stems from nothing more that their own
thoughts and wishful thinking.
Instead of peace, Jeremiah promises
a storm of wrath on the wicked, that will not be turned back. He tells the
people they will one day understand this, no doubt as it occurs. And he
reiterates that God did not send the prophets. Indeed, if they had stood in his
council they would have spoken his words and turned the people to repentance
(23v19-22). God declares that he is both near and far, filling heaven and
earth, which means none can hide from him. So he has heard the lies of the
prophets, who say they’ve had dreams. They prophesy the delusions of their own
minds, thinking this will cause the people to forget God, presumably to turn to
the gods they now represent, as their fathers’ had done with Baal. God declares
they should tell their dreams, but the one who has his word should speak it
faithfully. He likens this to comparing useful grain with worthless straw.
Indeed, he describes his word like fire and a hammer, in that it has
devastating effects as it comes to pass – as with the coming judgement. It
seems that because these false prophets lacked God’s word, they could only
repeat what each other said. And God is clear that he is against them because
they just wag their tongues whilst saying “the LORD declares.” He states that
they are prophesying false dreams, leading the people astray - and he did not
send them (23v23-32). It’s a reminder to seek out only preachers and minister
who teach God’s word in scripture accurately. Anything else is powerless and
pointless (see 1 Cor 3v11-15).
God then tells Jeremiah that when these people
ask him for an oracle from God, he is to tell them God declares that he will
forsake them, and punish any prophet or priest who says they have an oracle
from the LORD. It seems this is because of a flippancy in seeking God’s word
from just anyone, rather than his appointed spokesmen - so that every man’s own
word becomes an oracle from God, distorting what God actually says. Again, this
resonates with similar flippancy in the church. And to those in Jeremiah’s day,
God promised these people would be cast from his presence into exile, and into
everlasting disgrace without remembrance (23v33-40).
In chapter 24 Jeremiah describes a
vision of two fig baskets he saw in-front of the temple after Jehoiachin and
his officials and craftsmen were exiled. God declared the basket of good figs
represented the exiles who he would watch over for good, replant in the land,
and give new hearts to, so they return to and know him, and are re-establish as
his covenant people, with him as their God. The basket of bad figs that
couldn’t be eaten represented Zedekiah (Jehoiachin’s uncle and successor), his
officials and the survivors – whether in Judah or having fled to Egypt. God
stated they would become offensive to all the kingdoms of the earth, being an
object of ridicule and cursing wherever they were banished, suffering sword,
famine and plague until utterly destroyed (24v1-10). The point is that the
people are so rejected that being in the land no longer ensures God’s blessing,
but his curse.
Praying it home:
Praise God for
revealing truth through Christ and the scriptures. Pray for a reverent
submission to scripture within the church, and a rejection of flippantly
claiming God has spoken when he hasn’t.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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(302) October 29: Jeremiah
25-26 & 2 Timothy 3
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read note the words
of hope Jeremiah declares.
To ponder:
Now we’re in the
year of Jehoiachin’s reign that Nebuchadnezzar ascended to the Babylonian
throne. Jeremiah noted that he had been prophesying for 23 years, but the
people hadn’t listened to him or to other prophets sent to turn them from evil
and idolatry with the promise of remaining in the land. God declared that this
was actually not to listen to him, and that it had provoked him to anger
meaning that they would experience harm. He therefore promised to summon the
peoples of the north with Nebuchadnezzar, who he described as his “servant,” to
destroy the land and its surrounding nations – banishing, joy, festivity,
industry, and life itself; and leaving the land desolate, with the nations
serving the king of Babylon for 70 years (25v1-11). Yet he also promised that
he would then punish the king of Babylon and Babylon itself, making it desolate
forever, bringing on it the things Jeremiah had spoken against other nations,
so Babylon itself is enslaved and repaid for its deeds (25v12-14). It’s another
example of how God’s sovereign use of the evil acts of others to achieve his
just ends doesn’t condone their evil, for which he will hold them accountable.
With God’s wrath against the nations
in mind, God tells Jeremiah to pour it out like a cup of wine that he
presumably saw in a vision. He declares it will cause the nations to stagger in
madness like drunkards, because of the sword he is sending against them. In
making the nations drink, Jeremiah must have acted this out in a symbolic way,
or seen it somehow in the vision. The point is that the nations must drink down
God’s judgement – whether Judah, with her kings and officials, the king if
Egypt and his, with his people, or the kings and peoples of the entire known
world, near and far (25v15-26). The final king mentioned is that of Babylon
(see footnote and 51v41). The relationship we’ve seen throughout between ruin,
scorn and cursing, reflects the fact that a ruined nation implies weakness in
them and their god that might be mocked, but also leads to that nation being
referred to in curses that wish others would become as it is. So with
destruction also comes humiliation.
God commands the nations through
Jeremiah to drink until they vomit and fall like drunkards, to rise no more.
And he adds that if they refuse to drink, he says they must. In other words,
his judgement is not optional. For if he is beginning to punish his own special
city, could they really think they could avoid punishment themselves? This is
God’s commitment to justice. It is not biased. It exempts no-one. So Jeremiah
is to declare that God will roar, thunder and shout against all humanity,
bringing charges and judgement on every nation, pictured by a storm rising from
the ends of the earth and spreading nation to nation, until the whole world is
engulfed. We’re told the slain will then be like refuse lying everywhere,
un-mourned and unburied – no doubt because there will be so many (25v27-33).
This universal judgement in the time of Babylon is a paradigm for the final
judgement of all (Rev 18-20).
Turning again to Judah’s leaders
(shepherds), Jeremiah tells them to mourn in the dust because they will be
slaughtered and shattered, and have no-where to flee to as the land itself will
be destroyed by God’s fierce lion-like anger (25v34-38). We have seen this
image before. It pictures the nobility, majesty and fierce nature of God’s
right anger and justice, and is picked up as a description of Christ (see Rev
5v5).
Chapter 26 takes us to an earlier
time in Jehoiachin’s father Jehoiakin’s reign. God instructed Jeremiah to stand
in the temple courtyard and speak everything he commanded to the people coming
for worship. As earlier in the book, the LORD suggested “perhaps” they might
turn from the evil so he could relent, knowing, of course, that they wouldn’t.
Once more the message was that if they didn’t listen to the prophets and follow
his law, then the temple would be like the destroyed high place in the northern
kingdom (Shiloh), and the city an object of cursing. In response, the priests,
prophets and people seized Jeremiah, saying he must die for saying such things.
The officials then went from the palace to the temple, the two key buildings of
God’s kingdom, and at the temple’s new gate, heard the prophets and priests lay
their charges against Jeremiah (26v1-11). Surely this all prefigures the shock
at Jesus’ words by the leaders in his day, that led them to seek his death and
put him through his mock trial (Matt 23v63-68, Jn 10v31-36).
With Spirit-given Christ-like
courage, Jeremiah didn’t flinch. He told them God had sent him and urged them
to repent, promising God would relent from bringing disaster if they did, and
challenging them to do to him as they see fit, but stressing that if they kill
him they will bring guilt on themselves and the city (26v12-15). We see the
same boldness in Peter, John and Stephen (Acts 4v8-12, and Acts 7). The
officials and people respond to the priests and prophets that Jeremiah
shouldn’t die as he spoke in God’s name. Some elders also refer them to when
king Hezekiah feared God and sought his favour after Micah prophesied similar
disaster (see Mic 3v8-12), which then led God to relent. They therefore warn
that continuing their current course would bring disaster. Finally, Jeremiah
was supported by the son of the influential scribe who penned King Josiah’s
reforms (26v24, see 2 Kgs 22v3), and so was not handed over to death. But we
see this was the only reason, as the case of the prophet Uriah is also told. He
fled Jehoiakim after preaching similar things, only to be pursued, captured in
Egypt and executed (26v20-23). Here we might compare the book of Acts telling
how Paul survived the plots against him, whilst Stephen and James didn’t. The
point is that God is well able to protect his servants, as he promised Jeremiah
he would (1v19). But he doesn’t always make that promise. Moreover, we also see
how violently and irrationally hostile even those amongst God’s people can be
when his word is spoken against them, just as Judah’s king was.
Praying it home:
Praise God that
no-one can hinder his word, as he is well able to ensure his spokesmen remain
free and alive to preach. Pray that he would protect those who are persecuted,
and turn the hearts of their persecutors to himself.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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(303) October 30: Jeremiah
27-28 & 2 Timothy 4
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider what
God was asking of the nations.
To ponder:
Now we come to the
reign of Zedekiah, Jehoiachin’s uncle and successor (27v1, 28v1, see 2 Kgs
24v15-20). God instructs Jeremiah to make and wear a yoke, and then send God’s
word to the nations around Judah through their envoys (perhaps this is how he
passed previous oracles to nations). God said he is the LORD God Almighty of
Israel, who made the earth and all peoples and animals, and who gives it to who
he pleases. He stated that he will cause these various countries and even their
wild animals to be subject to his “servant” Nebuchadnezzar, until the time of
his son and grandson, when many nations and great kings will subjugate him (see
Dan 5v30-31). He continued, that if any nation refuses to bear Nebuchanezzar’s
yoke and serve him, they will be destroyed by him. So they should not listen to
their own prophets or future tellers, as they speak lies that will only serve
to cause their nation to be banished and perish. By contrast, if they serve
under Nebuchadnezzar’s yoke, God will enable them to keep their land (27v1-11).
By bringing all this to pass in accordance with Jeremiah’s word, God would of
course display to the nations that he is the true God. Jeremiah adds that he
gave the same message to Zedekiah, urging him to submit to Babylon’s yoke,
asking why he would choose for him and his people to die for not doing so, and
saying the prophets are not sent from God but prophesying lies (27v1-15).
Christians don’t have a holy land as such on earth, and so are called to serve
the rulers of this world as good citizens (so far as it doesn’t dishonour God),
just as the Jews were to Nebuchadnezzar, until the day God comes in Christ to
bring them to their heavenly Jerusalem. And we should note that refusing to do
this in rebelliousness, will ultimately be to our harm (see Rom 13v1-5).
Jeremiah also told the priests not
to listen to the prophets who were saying that soon the articles take to
Babylon during Jehoiachin’s reign would be returned (see 2 Kgs 24v13). Instead,
he urged them to serve Nebucadnezzar so that they live and Jerusalem is not
destroyed. Indeed, he said that if they truly had the word of the LORD then
they should pray that the remaining furnishings would not be taken from the
temple to Babylon. But he added that God had said that these things would
actually be taken to Babylon, and remain there until the day God himself would
come for them and bring them back to Jerusalem (27v16-22). We should recognize
the shock of losing these items. It signified the end of worship at the temple,
and of the special presence of God himself in protecting Israel. Rather than
preaching peace and freedom from judgement irrespective of repentance, false teachers
today would also do better to pray for the maintenance of true and godly
worship.
Chapter 28 begins with a record how
the “prophet” Hananiah spoke to Jeremiah in the temple and in front of the
priests and people that God. He declared that God had said he would break the
yoke of Nebuchadnezzar within two years and bring back the articles of the
temple, all who had so far been exiled, and king Jehoiachin himself. With some
sarcasm, Jeremiah replied “Amen,” may God do it, but added that from early times
prophets had prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries, but
the one who prophesies peace will be recognised only if his prediction is
fulfilled (28v1-9). The point is probably that because there is nothing to be
gained in negative prophesies, and because messages of judgement have
historically been the primary (although not total) message of true prophets,
those speaking them are much more likely to be genuine. But it is easy, often
beneficial to oneself, and against the grain of God’s previous messages to
preach peace. The key issue for those who do is therefore whether they are from
the LORD, and so whether their message comes to pass. It’s another reminder to
be particularly cautious of those whose message is always encouraging.
It seems Jeremiah was still wearing
the yoke he had made, so Hananiah took it off him and broke it to symbolise his
message that God will break the yoke of Babylon from the neck of the nations
within two years. Jeremiah went on his way, but sought Hananiah out shortly
afterwards, with a personal message from God to him: It was that in place of
the yoke of wood, he would put a yoke of iron on the necks of the nations so
they serve Nebuchadnezzar. And because Hananiah persuaded Judah to trust lies
and rebel against God’s word to serve Nebuchadnezzar, that very year he would
die – as he did just two months later (28v10-17, 28v1). This is the seriousness
with which the LORD views those who give people false hope.
Praying it home:
Praise God that he
restrains evil so that believers can often live peacefully under unbelieving
rulers. Pray that Christians would be good citizens, setting their hope firmly
on the return of Christ.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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(304) October 31: Jeremiah
29-30 & Titus 1
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider what
wisdom we have for how we should await the return of Christ.
To ponder:
Chapter 29 records
the letter Jeremiah sent to the elders, priests, prophets and people amongst
the exiles in Babylon, after Jehoiachin was deported and before the later
destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. It was entrusted to two of king
Zedekiah’s envoys that he was sending to Nebuchadnezzar (29v1-3, see 2 Kgs
24v12-17). In it Jeremiah records God’s word, telling the exiles to build,
settle, plant, marry, have children, and pray for and seek the peace and
prosperity of Babylon, because that will mean prosperity for them. As before,
it’s a model for how the church should be within the world as it awaits the
return of Christ. We are not to withdraw from culture or give up work or
marriage, but seek the good of our society and settle in for what might be a
significant time.
Again, Jeremiah urges the people not
to listen to the dreams and lies of the false prophets and future tellers,
which they themselves encouraged these “prophets” to have – no doubt because
they wanted to hear that God would immediately destroy Babylon (29v4-9). On the
contrary, God declares that only after 70 years will he come and fulfil his
gracious promise to bring them home. Similarly, Christ will return only when
God has determined, and we cannot hurry that. 29v11 is often quoted out of
context. In it God states that he plans a prosperous future for the people in
their land. They will call on him for help, seeking him with their whole heart,
and he will listen, bringing them out of captivity from all the nations they
have been banished to (29v10-14). It’s a promise partially fulfilled after the
70 years, but only ultimately fulfilled as Jews come to repentance, call on
Christ for deliverance, and are restored as a kingdom in the new creation. The
letter ends with God speaking against two specific prophets, stating they will
be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar and burned before the eyes of the exiles, so
that their names then become a curse. Their indictment is that they committed
adultery and spoke lies God did not command (29v20-23).
29v24-28 records a subsequent charge
against a third prophet for responding to Jeremiah’s letter by sending a letter
to the people and priests in Jerusalem, and specifically to Zephaniah. It
stated God had appointed Zephaniah to be in charge of the temple, and so he
should put any who act like a prophet into the stocks and neck irons. It then
asked why he had not therefore reprimanded Jeremiah for his letter to the
exiles. Zephaniah, however, showed this letter to Jeremiah, whom God then told
to send a further message to the exiles: Because the false prophet had not been
sent by God and had led the people to believe a lie, he and his descendents
would be wiped out and he would see none of the good things God would do
(29v29-32).
30v1-2 records God instructing
Jeremiah to write down all his oracles – sanctioning the idea of
inscripturation. It begins a new section of the book, dealing with renewal and
restoration. So God immediately declares days are coming when he will bring
from captivity not just the people of Judah, but those of Israel too, and
restore them to the land given their forefathers. This is a promise of the
reunification of God’s people beyond the return from Babylon of those from
Judah (30v3). Of these two groups, God notes their cries of fear and not peace
as men experience pains like those of labour. Of that day, God says it will be
more aweful than any other, but Jacob (ie. the whole nation descended from him)
will be saved out of it. The yoke on their necks will be broken as they are
released from their slavery to foreigners, and serve the LORD and David as
their king, who God will raise up for them (30v4-9). This should rightly be
seen as a promise of God raising to power the long awaited Davidic descendent
who was to reign forever (see 30v21, 2 Sam 7v10-16). It’s a picture of a
righteous kingdom flourishing under God’s rule mediated through his chosen
ruler.
In the light of this God urges Jacob
(his servant) not to fear or be dismayed in exile, as his descendents (ie. the
people descended from those in both the northern and southern kingdoms) will be
saved from their captivity and then known peace, security and freedom from
fear, under his rule and protection. Although God will utterly destroy the
nations he won’t therefore totally destroy Jacob – although he will justly
discipline and punish him (30v10-11). Here he declares Jacob’s wound (the
exiles of Ephraim and then Judah) is incurable from a human perspective, as all
Jacob’s allies have forgotten him and God has struck him as a cruel enemy would
because of his sin and guilt. But God also declares that those who, under God’s
sovereign hand, so devoured and plundered Jacob, will receive just what they
did to him. Moreover, God will heal Jacob’s wounds, in context, by
compassionately re-establishing him in the land, with people’s homes restored
and thriving, and Jerusalem and the palace rebuilt. From these places there
will be song and thanksgiving, the people will increase and be honoured as they
are established before God in security as they always should have been, with
those who oppress them being punished (30v12-20). It is now that we hear more
of their leader or king. He is not said to be David, but one who will “arise”
from amongst the people – ie. not be expected to be king. God will bring him
close, so that he enjoys an intimate relationship with him. And the king will
enjoy this relationship because he is prepared to devote himself wholly to God,
and so be the righteous king the people always needed (30v21). One cannot but
think of Jesus coming from ordinary Nazareth, devoting himself even to death
for his Father, and so rising and ascending to be as close as his right hand
from where he now reigns.
30v22 quotes the phrase that sums up
God’s covenant relationship with his people. The point is that having restored
the people to their land and given them this leader, they will belong to God in
the way always intended. It is in this context that God also promises a storm
of wrath on the wicked as his means of accomplishing these purposes, which are
of his “heart” and so precious to him. He states this will be understood in the
future, and in hindsight we do understand. His wrath on Babylon was his means
of bringing an empire to power which would decree the return of the Judean
exiles, and no doubt some from the northern tribes that were exiled by Assyria
too. And this is a paradigm of his final wrath, which will remove all evil so
his people can forever thrive in the new creation.
Praying it home:
Praise God that he
acts through wrath to save in Christ. Pray that Christians suffering oppression
would take comfort in these truths.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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(305) November 1: Jeremiah
31 & Titus 2
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider the
elements of hope Jeremiah gives.
To ponder:
We begin at the
time of the restoration promised in chapter 30. Then God will be God to the
entire unified people as he comes with favour to the survivors of the exile in
the desert of their captivity, giving “rest” to Israel - “rest” referring to
their enjoyment of the land in all security, like the seventh day in Eden. Here
Jeremiah notes God’s past appearances where he declared his everlasting love,
and the fact that he will rebuild this Virgin (denoting an unmarried and so
vulnerable daughter, 18v21-22) Israel, so she will rejoice like the new bride.
As Samaria was in the north, it was a promise that she would enjoy the fruits
of the whole land again, and then the watchmen of northern cities will call the
people to go to Zion for worship (31v1-6). So God calls the people to sing with
joyful shouts to celebrate because Jacob is still the foremost of nations. They
are to call on God to save the remnant. And he calls them to look and see him
bringing them not just from the north (Judean exiles in Babylon), but the ends
of the earth (northern Ephramite exiles amidst the nations). It will be such a
miraculous deliverance that even the blind and pregnant, who would usually be
unable to travel, will be able to come. They will come with weeping and praying
– perhaps in repentance and thankfulness, and the language implies they will be
provided for and nothing will be allowed to hinder them. This is all because
the LORD is the nation’s father, and so cares for them (31v7-9). This is the
wonder of what we have in Christ. He makes returning to God easy, levelling the
mountain of our sin and its just punishment, so all, no matter who they are can
come.
God then calls the nations to
proclaim that God who scattered his people will now gather and watch over them
like a shepherd, redeeming them from those who are stronger than them so they
come to rejoice in Zion at God’s bountiful provision in the land, which will be
like a garden (ie. Eden), and in which there will be no more sorrow but only
joy, amongst all people. The reference to the priests being satisfied refers to
them being given adequate tithes – a sign that the people will then be
righteous (31v10-14). 31v15-17 refer to Rachel, the mother of Joseph and so the
key northern tribes descended from Joseph’s sons, and of Benjamin, the second
southern tribe after Judah. She is at Ramah, bordering the northern and
southern kingdoms, weeping for her children – ie. those of the north and south
that had been taken into exile. God declares to her that she can stop crying as
her work (presumably of labour) will be rewarded, as her children (the people)
will return meaning she has hope for her future. Matthew applies these words to
Herod’s massacre of the innocents (Matt 2v18), confirming it is appropriate to
see all Israel’s subsequent oppression as an aspect of their exile. But there,
God’s rescue of his people is seen in taking Jesus from Israel to Egypt and to
Israel again, where the restoration of the kingdom would then take place
through faith in him.
With Jeremiah, the focus remains on
the northern kingdom (Ephraim). God promises that he has heard Ephraim’s
moaning over how he (Israel) had been disciplined. He is pictured praying that
God would restore him, ie. reconcile him to himself, promising he would then
return as the LORD is his God. It is only having pardoned us that God to the land
he has for us. Ephraim speaks of how he repented in shame having understood
what he had done. God then declares that Ephraim is his son in whom he
delights, and that his hearts still yearns for him in compassion, despite the
fact he had to so often speak against him. It reveals the tension in all
parental discipline, and looks to the image of God as the prodigal’s father
(31v18-20). And because of this feeling, God calls for the way home to be made
clear for Israel as God’s unfaithful daughter, so she can return (31v21). It is
unclear what the new thing in which a woman surrounds a man is (31v22), but it
may refer to the female daughter Israel’s dominance over the nations, or to the
people surrounding the dwelling place of God in Zion.
God then describes how those in
Judah will then pray blessing on mount Zion (Jerusalem), and live in unity,
being refreshed by the LORD. It seems Jeremiah saw this in a dream, and his
note that he awoke and recognized his sleep had been pleasant stresses how
different this is from his oracles of judgement. At this point, perhaps asleep
again, God declares how he who uprooted Israel and Judah will in days to come
build and plant them with offspring and animals. Then people won’t imply they
are unjustly suffering for the sins of their fathers. Rather, people will die
for their own sins, so there will be no fear of the land being lost because of
the unfaithfulness of others (30v23-30). 31v31-34 are famously quoted in
Hebrews 8v8-12 as referring to all that is had in Christ: God declares a coming
time when he will make a new covenant agreement with Israel (north) and Judah
(south), that is unlike the Mosaic covenant that they broke, despite God being
their husband. In this one, God will actually put his law in their minds and
hearts so they truly obey him in love, and he can therefore be their God and
they his people. Then, there will be no need to exhort the wayward to “know the
LORD” as all the people will know him. And the reason is that he will fully
forgive them sins. The point is that the people were exiled because their
sinfulness meant they just could not love, obey and know God on the basis of
the external law written on stone, and their sacrificial system meant that any
atonement for that sin even when united with faith, was only ever external. But
now, God is going to enable his people to obey with sincerity, and provide full
atonement where they have sinned. And so they will never need to face his
judgement again. He stresses this by adding that the continuance of the nation
is therefore as certain as the continuance of the sun, moon and stars appearing
and the waves roaring – as these too, happen by God’s mighty decree. More than
that, only if the heavens can be measured or the foundations of the earth
found, will God ever reject the people (31v35-37). The chapter ends with God
then promising the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the valley that was unclean in
being filled with corpses (and also perhaps used for false worship) now being
holy. It’s a picture of a fully restored Jerusalem, that will never again be
demolished (31v38-40). The fact that it was destroyed in 70AD would have been a
shock to the Jews who knew this prophecy, but helped those with eyes to see,
recognize that the prophecy had not been fulfilled in the return from Babylon.
It looked to the gathering of Israel through faith in Christ that had begun
from 30AD and would continue until he returns.
Praying it
home:
Praise God that he
does for us in Christ what due to sin we could never do for ourselves. Pray
that you would know something of the joy at this Jeremiah speaks of.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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(306) November 2: Jeremiah
32 & Titus 3
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider how
Jeremiah stresses the justice of the exile.
To ponder:
Chapter 32 takes us to Zedekiah’s
tenth year as king, and Nebucadnezzar’s eighteenth (588/587BC).
Nebuchadnezzar’s army was besieging Jerusalem just as Jeremiah had predicted
(see 2 Kgs 25), and Jeremiah imprisoned in a courtyard in the palace because he
was saying the LORD was about to hand the city and king over to Nebuchadnezzar.
Indeed, Jeremiah says Zedekiah would speak to him face to face and be taken to
Babylon until God deals with him there – presumably by bringing about his
death. Because Zedekiah refused to recognise Jeremiah as a prophet he would
have felt such a message terrible for morale. But Jeremiah’s point was that it
was pointless fighting against the Babylonians, as God had willed they be
conquered. If listened to, his message would therefore have saved many Jewish
lives (32v1-5). God’s word is always for our good. And our readiness to listen
to and obey it protects us against much harm.
God’s word to Jeremiah was that his
cousin would come and ask him to buy his field according to the law (Lev
25v25-31), which required him to buy it as the nearest relative. Most likely in
context (see 32v15) the cousin recognized that he was about to lose it to the
besieging army, or that he would die, wanting the land to remain in the family
as was intended in the law. Whatever the case, it was not good business sense
to buy land when about to be conquered. Nevertheless, the cousin came exactly
as God had predicted, and Jeremiah bought the field, giving the deed of
purchase to Baruch, in the presence of his cousin, witnesses, and all the Jews
in the courtyard with him (32v6-12). In their presence he then spoke God’s word
to Baruch, instructing him to put the sealed and unsealed copies in a clay jar
that will last a long time, as God declares houses, fields and vineyards will
be bought again in the land (32v13-15). Jeremiah’s actions were therefore those
of faith and hope, speaking powerfully to those present that although God had
given them over to Babylon, this wasn’t the end of his purposes.
Jeremiah then prayed to God as
sovereign ruler and creator who can do anything, and who shows love to thousands
but, on the principle of solidarity, does punish people for sin in such a way
that implicates their children. He acknowledged God’s great purposes and power,
and the fact that he sees all and rewards everyone according to their desert.
This principle still applies in the gospel, as he gives eternal life to those
who seek to glorify him through faith, and everlasting wrath to those who are
unrepentant (see Rom 2v6-11). Jeremiah continues acknowledging the history of
great wonders God has done for Israel in the face of all mankind, gaining
renown: He brought the people from Egypt, gave them the abundant land as he had
promised, but they did not obey him so that he brought this disaster on them.
So Jeremiah calls God to see the siege ramps, noting that because of the sword,
famine and plague, Jerusalem wouldn’t be able to hold out, and so will be
handed over just as God said it would. Yet despite this, Jeremiah notes that
God had told him to buy the field (32v16-25). The implication throughout is
that this is because God intends to do more wonders in restoring the people
after exile.
At this point God speaks, declaring
he is the God not just of Israel, but all mankind, and so nothing is too hard
for him – he can moved nations to do as he pleases. He then predicts how the
city will not only be handed over, but burnt down along with the houses where
idolatry was engaged in. He continues that the people, priests, prophets,
officials and kings of Israel have done nothing other than provoke him with
their evil and idolatry from their youth and from when Jerusalem was first
built. They turned their back on God, refused to listen to or respond to his
discipline, building their high places and even sacrificing their children to
Molech (32v26-35). He adds that although by his word Jeremiah is saying the
people will be handed over, God will surely gather them from where he banishes
them in his wrath, and bring them back to Judah to live in safety. Again he
uses the covenant formula that they will be his people and he their God – as
opposed to the idols. He continues that he will give them a singleness of heart
and action so they always fear him for their good and that of their children,
that he will enter into an everlasting covenant with them in which he never
stops doing them good, inspiring them to fear him so they never turn away,
rejoicing in the good he does them and planting them in the land. Indeed, he
will do this with all his heart and soul – so without reluctance and with
absolute determination and so certainty (32v36-41). Again we see the new
covenant outlined, in which God will work within his people so that they fear
and don’t veer from him as they did before. So just as he has brought calamity,
he will bring prosperity in which fields throughout the land that were once
regarded as desolate after the conquest by Babylon, will again be brought as
the people’s fortunes are restored (32v42-44). The concepts here are of course
tailored to Jeremiah’s ancient audience. But the point is that a future in a
physical land will be enjoyed by God’s people. It reminds us that we must
continually keep in mind that the final state isn’t a spiritual heaven but a
literal new or renewed creation in which people will live together and before
God (perhaps even spanning out from a literal Jerusalem and Israel), enjoying
all that creation has to offer.
Praying it
home:
Praise God that
for this hope that you have in Christ. Pray that he would forgive and keep you
from your own tendency to evil and idolatry.
Thinking
further:
None today.
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and make a comment.
(307) November 3: Jeremiah
33-35 & Philemon 1
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider what
God condemns and commends.
To ponder:
Still imprisoned, God's word comes to Jeremiah again. Once
more he affirms himself as the creator, promising to tell great things if
Jeremiah asks. He says the houses of the people and kings torn down to build
defences will be filled with the dead from the city who God will strike down in
wrath. Yet he will also bring health, healing, prosperity and security,
restoring Judah and Israel, and
cleansing them from all their sin. Jerusalem will then be a city God rejoices
in and something bringing praise and glory to him from all nations, when they
hear of the good he does it. They will fear him because if this too (33v1-9).
All this patterns the praise and fear brought him as he forgives and draws together
his people in Christ. So the cities of Judah will move from being desolate, to
being places marked by the joy of marriage that is then worthwhile as it has a
future, and the joy of praise and thanks in God's goodness and love. Shepherds
will also again tend their flocks in the region (33v10-13).
Here God declares that he will
fulfil his promise in causing the long awaited Davidic king to rule in justice
and righteousness, in fulfilment of his covenant with David to grant him an
everlasting throne. What is added is an enduring priesthood. The point is
probably just that with a righteous king right worship will be ensured, just as
the church offer their lives as living sacrifices. God adds this is as certain
as his agreement with the day and night to come when they do. And we read too
that the line of kings and priests will become as numerous as the stars and
sand - a hint that all Abraham's children through faith will be a royal
priesthood In Christ. Those who display a lack of faith by claiming God has
forgotten his commitments to the clans stemming from Levi and David therefore
no longer regard Israel as a nation, assuming it is totally finished. Whereas
God promises mercy and restoration (33v14-26). We should remember that because
Jesus reigns, the church has a glorious future no matter hown things may at
time seen.
Chapter 34 records God's word
when Babylon and all their allies were fighting against Jerusalem, and only a
couple of fortified cities were left in Judah. God tells Zedekiah that the city
is given over to Babylon and will be burned, and he will be captured, speak to
Nebuchadnezzar face to face and be exiled to Babylon. Yet in kindness the LORD
tells him he will die in peace, and be properly mourned. After Zedekiah then
covenanted with Jerusalem in the temple that people should free their Hebrew
slaves, only to find them free and then re-enslave them, God recounted his law
about freeing such slaves after 7 years in response to his freeing them from
Egypt. He then said their what they did profaned his name - no doubt by making
him look unrighteous. And so he proclaimed liberty to them to die by the sword,
plague and famine. He said the various categories of people would become a
horror to the watching kingdoms, being like the calves cut in two at covenant
making ceremonies, with their dead bodies being bird food, and Zedekiah given
into Nebuchadnezzar's hand. To this end Gid promised to bring the Babylon army
back to the city. The sense in covenants was that it should be to the
covenant-breakers as to the calf. And so Christ was killed in the place of our
covenant breaking.
Chapter 35 returns us to the time
of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah is to bring a clan known as the Rechabites to a chamber
in the temple and offer them wine. When there they refused it on the basis of
their ancestor's vow that they neither drink nor settle, but always live in
tents. They explain they are only in Jerusalem for safety against the
Babylonians. The anscestor's commitment may have been made out of zeal for God,
as it was so that his descendents would live long in the land - a covenant
blessing. Perhaps his desire was that they live apart from the rest of God's
people so they are not led astray from God's commands. We know nothing more of
this vow. God's point was simply that the people should have similarly obeyed
his commands through the prophets to repent and not follow false gods so they
too could live in the land. But because they didn't God is bringing on them the
impending disaster. No doubt there is a hint here too that the king should have
ensured such faithfulness in the people. Yet God promises the Rechabites that
they will always have someone before God as a reward for their faithfulness in
keeping their commitments (34v1v19). It is just such repentance and concern not
to be drawn away from the Lord that means we will be with him forever.
Praying it
home:
Praise God for the
future Christ gaurantees. Pray that you would remain godly even if those even
in the church fail to.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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and make a comment.
(308) November 4: Jeremiah
36-37 & Hebrews 1
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider how
you would describe the attitudes to God’s word that are displayed.
To ponder:
Still during
Jehoiakim’s reign, God’s word came again: Once more (as 30v2) Jeremiah was to
write all God had said to that point so that the people could hear about every
disaster the LORD planned. And God speculates whether they would then turn from
their wickedness so that he could forgive them. Of course this is a rhetorical
point, as he already knows and has foretold their general response, although
what follows shows that some individuals would respond more appropriately
(36v1-3). Jeremiah dictated God’s words to Baruch. It seems he was banned from
the temple area, so he told Baruch to go there on a fast day when there would
be many about, and read the scroll. Echoing God’s words, Jeremiah also wondered
whether they might then petition God for mercy, turning from their sin, as
God’s anger was so great (36v4-7). It’s yet another reminder to give Christ’s
teaching on the coming judgement the weight it deserves.
Baruch did as asked on what seems to
have been the next fast day. A man called Micaiah told the officials who then
asked Baruch to come and read the scroll to them. On hearing it, they looked at
each other in fear, saying that they must report it to the king. Finding out
from Baruch that the words had come from Jeremiah however, they told them both
to hide, put the scroll in the secretary’s room, and told the king. He sent for
the scroll and had it read to him with the officials present, systematically
cutting off and burning each section until it was all gone. He and his
attendants showed no fear or mourning, and did this despite being urged by the
officials not to. He even commanded that Jeremiah and Baruch be arrested
(36v8-26). The word of the LORD then came to Jeremiah again, telling him to
write the words on another scroll, and speak against the king. He was to state
how the king had burned the scroll whilst asking why Jeremiah had written that
the king of Babylon would destroy the land, including both men and animals.
Jeremiah was then to say that God’s word was that Jehoiakim will have no son
sitting on the throne, and will himself die and have his body left exposed to
the elements. Indeed, he, his children and his attendants will all be punished
for their wickedness as God brings on them and all in the city every disaster
predicted, because they would not listen (36v27-31). So Jeremiah again dictated
all the words God had previously given him to Baruch, who wrote them on a
scroll (36v32). Even in the church today some effectively do as the king did,
sidelining the Bible out of refusal to heed its teaching. The point throughout
is that such a refusal to listen to God’s word won’t stop it from taking place.
And so the contemporary assumption that truth can depend on personal preference
is shown not only to be foolish but dangerous.
Chapter 37 begins recounting how
Zedekiah was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar to replace Jehoiakim’s son, and
neither he, his attendants or the people paid any attention to Jeremiah’s
words. Nevertheless, the king did send two messengers to ask Jeremiah to pray
for the people – showing he recognized that Jeremiah did walk with God
(37v1-3). At this point we’re told the Babylonian army withdrew from besieging
Jerusalem in order to face the Egyptian army, which was advancing to help
Judah. Then God told Jeremiah to tell the king that Pharoah’s army will return
to Egypt, and the Babylonians will then return to Jerusalem, capturing and
burning it. They should not therefore deceive themselves with false hopes of
deliverance. Indeed, God said that even if they were to defeat the Babylonians,
God would enable their wounded to burn down the city. The point is that its
destruction is certain as it is ultimately from God not the merely human army
(37v4-10). For us, this keeps us mindful that no matter how unlikely a future
judgment might seem – no matter how secure the world, it is certain because God
has declared it.
After the Babylonian withdrawal, we
read Jeremiah sought to leave the city to get some property that belonged to
him from the land of Benjamin (perhaps as 32v1-15). However, when at the gate,
he was arrested and charged with deserting to the Babylonians, despite his
protesting his innocence (37v11-14). Perhaps in their paranoid refusal to recognise
God spoke through him, his enemies reasoned to themselves that he was
sympathetic to the enemy, if not planted by them. Likewise, those who oppose
Christians do sometimes rationalize it to themselves, just as the religious
leaders in Jesus day told themselves he was on league with Beelzebub.
On being brought to the officials,
they had Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned in a cell (probably cistern) beneath
someone’s house, where he was kept for a long time. King Zedekiah then had him
brought to the palace and asked if he had any word from the LORD.
Astonishingly, he seems to think that he can bully Jeremiah into giving a
favourable message as if God’s word can depend on that. Courageously and
faithfully, Jeremiah immediately replies that he does have a word, and it is
that the king will be handed over to Babylon. Jeremiah then asked what crime he
had committed to be imprisoned, and where the king’s prophets were who
prophesied that Babylon would not attack. His point is that the siege had
already proved that their messages were false. So Jeremiah humbly asks the king
as his LORD to hear his petition not to be sent back to his prison as he feels
he will die there. In response, Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah instead be kept
in the courtyard of the guard and given bread right until there was none left.
So God fulfilled his promise to rescue Jeremiah (37v14-21, see 1v19).
Praying it
home:
Praise God that
his word is certain and sure. Pray that you would treat it as such, and guard
against assuming it is subject to our preferences.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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and make a comment.
(309) November 5: Jeremiah
38-39 & Hebrews 2:1-9
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider why
the detail of Jerusalem’s fall is being recorded.
To ponder:
The story
continues as some prominent men hear Jeremiah’s message that those who stay in
the city will die, those who go over to the Babylonians will live, and the city
will be handed over to he enemy. They tell the king Jeremiah must die for
discouraging the soldiers and people left in the city and so bringing about
their ruin by encouraging surrender (38v1-4). Patterning Pilate, the king
weekly gives Jeremiah into their hands saying he cannot oppose them. So they
kept Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guard, but imprisoned him in a cistern
there, with him sinking into the mud at the bottom. However, Ebed-Melech interceded
with the king, stating these men acted wickedly and would cause Jeremiah to
starve. So the king told Ebed-Melech to take 30 men and free Jeremiah. He did
so with a detail included that showed his concern for the prophet (38v5-13).
The event shows how those who speak God’s word divide God’s people,
demonstrating the realities of their hearts by whether they stand against him
or for him, just as was the case with Christ.
King Zedekiah then brought Jeremiah
to the temple and asked him to honestly answer a question he would ask. But
Jeremiah stated that the king would not listen, and would even kill him if he
responded as requested. The king then swore by the LORD who gives breath that
he would not kill Jeremiah or hand him over to those who sought to. The vow
implies he was saying that God should remove his own breath if he broke his
word. Jeremiah then stated again that if the king surrendered he and his family
would be spared and the city not burned, but if he did not surrender the city
would be burned and he would not escape. Zedekiah responded that he was afraid
if he surrendered that the Babylonians would hand him over to the Jews that had
already surrendered to them, and that they would ill treat him – no doubt,
because he had them. Jeremiah reassured him this would not happen and urged him
to obey the LORD as Jeremiah had instructed, adding that if he didn’t, the
women remaining in the palace would be brought to the enemy officials, and
declare how his friends had misled and deserted him so his feet were stuck in
the mud as Jeremiah’s had been – a prophetic act. Moreover, his wives and
children would be brought out to the Babylonians too. Zedekiah told Jeremiah
that if he told anyone about their conversation he might die, presumably
because they would not want him to influence the king. He even said that if
officials told Jeremiah to reveal what he said or be killed, then he should say
he was pleading with Zedekiah not to be sent back to his previous prison.
Exactly this happened, and so no-one found out, and Jeremiah remained in the
courtyard until Jerusalem was finally captured (38v14-28). This whole event
highlights how strongly people, and especially those of power, can be
influenced against obeying God’s word because of fear of opinion. Here Jeremiah’s
courage contrasts the king’s timidity.
Chapter 39 recounts how Jerusalem
was taken. In 588BC Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem with his “whole” army. A
year and a half later the city wall was penetrated, and Babylonian officials
took seats in the middle gate signifying their conquest. Zedekiah and his
soldiers fled at night through his garden, but were pursued, with the king
being captured and taken to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah in Syria. There he was
sentenced, with his nobles killed, and his sons also killed before his eyes.
Moreover, his own eyes were put out and he was taken to Babylon in bronze
shackles. The Babylonians then burnt the palace and houses in Jerusalem and
broke down its walls, with the people from the city and area, together with those
who had gone over to the enemy, all carried into exile in Babylon itself.
However, they left the poor behind., giving them vineyards and fields
(39v1-10). This is all recorded to show how God’s word came true. The note
about the poor may also be to show how he governed things in such a way as to
right some of the injustices within Judah as the meek inherit what the mighty
lost. This patterns the meek inheriting the earth through their faith in
Christ.
As for Jeremiah? Nebuchadnezzar
ordered his commander to look after him and do whatever he asks, so with a
chief officer, official and all the officers, he had him taken from his
confinement in the courtyard of the guard, given into the care of Gedaliah who
seems to have been made governor in Judah, so that he could be returned to his
home where he remained amongst the people who were left in the land. The
chapter ends telling us that whilst confined, God’s word came to Jeremiah,
telling him to tell Ebed-Melech that he was about to see God fulfil his words against
the city, but to reassure him too, that God would rescue him because he trusted
in God (39v15-18, see 39v1-13). It’s an important note that when God’s people
refuse to listen to him, the few who go against the flow and keep trusting,
will be saved from the final judgement that will fall on the rest.
Praying it
home:
Praise God that he
remembers those who trust and obey him. Pray that you would do so no matter
what pressure you may face not to.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
If you receive
this post by email, visit bible2014.blogspot.co.uk
and make a comment.
(310) November 6: Jeremiah
40-42 & Hebrews 2:10-18
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider the
lessons the remnant from Judea should be learning.
To ponder:
Although Jeremiah
had been freed to remain amongst his own people (see 39v14), some time later he
was wrongly taken captive, so the Babylonian commander had to rescue him
(40v1-2). When he did, he told Jeremiah how the LORD had decreed and brought
about the disaster because the people sinned, but that he was freeing Jeremiah.
He then invited Jeremiah to accompany him to Babylon, promising that he would
look after him. But he also stressed Jeremiah didn’t have to, and could go
wherever he pleased, suggesting he return to the care of the governor over
Judah and live amongst the people. He then gave Jeremiah provisions and a
present, and the prophet followed his suggestion, living amongst the people of
the land (40v3-6). The event stresses that the destruction was God’s judgement,
whilst highlighting his readiness to care for the faithful. It also shows
Jeremiah’s concerns were with God’s people not his own comfort.
The governor was called Gedaliah.
When the Jewish officers heard he had been appointed over the poor families who
were to remain in the land, they came to him, and he reassured them and their
men that they shouldn’t fear the Babylonians, but settle down and serve
Nebuchadnezzar so it would go well with them. He even promised to stay in
Mizpah and represent them to the Babylonians, but also urged them to go about
the work of harvest and live in the towns they had taken over with their troops
after the ceasefire. We then read that the Jews in the surrounding countries
who saw the remnant remaining under Gedaliah’s governorship, also returned, and
enjoyed an abundant harvest (40v7-12). This proved the truth of God’s promise
that those who settle would thrive, and foreshadowed the return and restoration
of the kingdom under a Davidic king.
At this point all the officers from
the open country came saying that the king of the Ammonites had sent a man
called Ishmael to assassinate Gedaliah. But Gedaliah didn’t believe them.
Nevertheless, Joahanan offered to kill the assassin, for fear that if Gedaliah
died the remnant would scatter and be perished. However Gedaliah commanded him
not to do this, saying the charge against Ishmael was untrue (40v13-16).
Sometime later, however, having been made one of the king’s officers and eaten
with his soldiers, Ishmael killed Gedaliah and the Babylonian soldiers with him
at Mizpah (41v1-3). Before this was known, he also killed and put in a cistern
70 men from the northern kingdom who were in mourning (no doubt because of
Israel’s sin) and had brought offerings to God (40v17-41v7). Ten, who remained,
pleaded and bargained for their lives with the abundance of their fields. Their
lives were spared (41v8-9). Ishmael captured adults and children in Mizpah,
including the king’s daughters, and then set out to cross to the Ammonites. On
hearing this, some army officers went to fight Ishmael. All those not caught at
Mizpah went over to this army, whilst Ishmael and eight men escaped to the
Ammonites. Johanan then led the survivors away, past Benjamin and towards
Egypt. This was to escape the Babylonians, who they were afraid of as Ishmael
had killed Gedaliah, who Nebuchadnezzar appointed, and so might bring his wrath
on the people (41v4-17). These events may be written to highlight that even
with the wicked were destroyed or deported, sin remained. The fulfilment of
God’s promises would have to deal with the source of sin.
Jonahan, the Jewish army officers
and people, then approached Jeremiah, asking him to pray that God would show
the remnant where to go and what to do, as so few were left. Jeremiah agreed,
saying he would relate everything the LORD said. They respond that the LORD can
be a witness against them if they don’t obey everything he says, whether favourable
or not – so that it will go well with them (42v1-6). Ten days later, God’s word
came to Jeremiah so he called all these groups together, and told them that if
they stayed in Judea, God would plant and not uproot them, for he was grieved
over the disaster he inflicted on them. They shouldn’t therefore be afraid of
the king of Babylon as God was with them and would save them, showing
compassion on them so Nebuchadnezzar would also show compassion and restore
them to the land (42v7-12). Yet Jeremiah added, that if the people disobeyed
God and left the land, saying that they would go to Egypt in order to be free
from war and famine, then the sword, plague and famine would overtake them
there, and not one who went there would escape death. Indeed, God’s anger would
be poured out on Jews there just as it was those in Jerusalem, so they would be
an object of cursing and horror (42v13-18). 42v19-21 reveal that Jeremiah
recognised the people would not obey. Indeed, he says it was a fatal mistake to
ask him to pray to God, as that led him to relate a command from God that they
were not obeying, so they would die in the very place they wanted to settle.
The issue here is that by going to Egypt the people are refusing to trust and
obey God, showing themselves to have learnt nothing from the destruction of
Jerusalem, and proving themselves as faithless as those destroyed then. This is
why receiving the same penalty in Egypt is the just penalty. We would therefore
do well to ensure we have learnt from all these events, trusting God for our
salvation and seeking to obey him, not affirming him one moment, only to
disobey him out of fear of man the next.
Praying it
home:
Praise God that
trusting him secures our ultimate safety. Pray that you would not be swayed by
fear of man to disobedience.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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this post by email, visit bible2014.blogspot.co.uk
and make a comment.
(311) November 7: Jeremiah
43-45 & Hebrews 3
Ask God to open your
mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider how
the hardness of heart in the Jews is expressed.
To ponder:
After God warned
the people through Jeremiah not to go to Egypt, Johanan and other arrogant men
accused him of being enticed by Baruch to lie so the people would be handed
over to the Babylonians and exiled. They therefore disobeyed God’s command to
stay in Judah. Instead, Johanan and the army officers led away the entire
remnant – including those who had returned from having been previously
scattered amongst the nations, the kings daughters, and Jeremiah and Baruch
themselves. This implies they must have used force. And so we read they entered
Egypt in disobedience to the LORD (43v1-7). In Taphanhes God then told Jeremiah
to bury some large stones in clay, within the brick pavement at the entrance to
Pharaoh’s palace – and all in view of the Jews. He was then to declare that God
said he would send for his servant Nebuchadnezzar and set his throne over the
stones, attacking Egypt, and so fulfilling God’s purposes in which some are
destined for death, some for captivity, and some for the sword. He said
Nebuchadnezzar would burn down the Egyptian temples, demolish their sacred
pillars, and take their gods captive, wrapping Egypt around himself like a
cloak around a shepherd (43v8-13). The point is that the refugees cannot escape
God’s purposes. The Egyptian gods are false and unable to help them, and
Pharoah’s power nothing compared to God’s servant’s. So if the people are
destined for death, captivity or the sword, that’s what they will suffer. It’s
a reminder that there is no escaping God’s judgement on sin.
Chapter 44 records God’s word about
the Jews in Egypt. He refers them to the disaster he brought in Judea because
of the people’s evil idolatry. He recounts how he repeatedly sent prophets to
tell them not to do this because he hated it. Yet he notes that they did not
listen and this is why he poured out his anger on Judah and Jerusalem (44v1-6).
In the light of this he asks why they would bring disaster on themselves by
cutting people off from Judah and so leaving themselves without a remnant in
the land. The sense is that by leading those who returned to Judah to Egypt,
they are in danger of leaving Judea without any of God’s people. It’s a
challenge to church leaders not to lead their flock astray, to the detriment of
the broader church.
God also asks why the Jews in Egypt
would provoke him to anger, destroying themselves and becoming an object of
cursing before the nations by worshipping false gods they have made for
themselves. He asks if they have forgotten the wickedness their fathers, kings
and queens, and they themselves had committed in Judah and Jerusalem; adding
that they have not humbled themselves, or reverently followed God’s law that
was given to their fathers (44v7-10). The LORD then declares this has made him
determined to bring disaster on them and destroy Judah – ie. the remnant from
Judah who were determined to go to Egypt. He promises to make them an object of
horror, and punish them with sword, famine and plague as he did Jerusalem, so
that none who escaped to Egypt survive to return - except a few (44v11-14). In
response, all those who knew their wives were burning incense to false gods,
the women who were present when Jeremiah spoke, and those from throughout
Egypt, all said that they would not listen to what he had spoken in God’s name
(implying it may not have been from him), but continue offering worship to the
“Queen of Heaven.” They even stress they will do this because it is what their
fathers, kings and officials did in Judah and Jerusalem. And by saying they
then had food and were well off, but have perished since stopping doing this,
they imply that their idolatry was blessed. The women even add that their
husbands knew what they were doing and didn’t stop them – as if this justifies
their actions (44v15-19). This was utterly defiant, showing how spiritually
blind people can be, and how far they can go to excuse themselves. In
particular, there is challenge here to husbands to take responsibility for the
spiritual wellbeing of their wives and families.
In response Jeremiah points out that
it was when God could no longer endure this sort of wickedness that he caused
the desolation of the people’s land, and the disaster they had experienced. He
then tells all the people that God says they have shown by their actions that
they meant it when they said they would carry on with their vows and offerings
to the “Queen of Heaven.” Moreover, they should continue to do so. But they
should also hear God’s own vow by his great name that none from Judah living in
Egypt will ever invoke his name, because he is watching over them not to bring
good, but harm - so that they perish by
the sword and by famine, with only a few managing to return to Judah. By this
means the whole remnant in Egypt will know God’s word stands. Indeed, he
predicts that the Pharaoh would be handed over to his enemies as Zedekiah was
to Nebuchadnezzar, and says this will be a sign, proving Jeremiah speaks from
him and so that the rest of his prophecy will come to pass (44v20-30). The
fulfilment of OT prophecy in general similarly acts as a sign that what has yet
to be fulfilled and that was spoken by OT prophets will come to pass. Likewise,
the “sign of Jonah” in which Jesus was in the belly of the earth for three
days, confirms his wider words – as do his predictions of his own death and
resurrection.
Chapter 45 records a brief word to
Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe. God states that he knows how Baruch despaired at the
sorrow he said the LORD had given him because of the trials and opposition he
faced with Jeremiah. He says that Baruch should not seek great things for
himself (presumably comfort or status) when considering how God is bringing
disaster on the people. Nevertheless, he promises he will always enable Baruch
to escape whatever he faces (45v1-5). In all the talk of judgement, this is a
reassuring note that God knows and watches over those who seek to serve him,
even if their life might be hard because they live in a day when God is acting
against their nation or church.
Praying it
home:
Praise God that he
sees and acknowledges those who seek to serve him. Pray that you would do so no
matter how isolated this might make you.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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(312) November 8: Jeremiah 46-48 & Hebrews 4
Ask God
to open your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you
read.
To
discover:
As you
read consider what we learn about the LORD.
To
ponder:
So far
the focus has been on Judah and Israel.
Now God looks to the nations. First God speaks against the Egyptian army that
was defeated by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish on the river Euphrates. His words may have come
just before the defeat, predicting it, or just after, describing it. He calls
the army to prepare and march out to war. God sees them terrified, retreating
and defeated, and declares neither the swift or strong can escape. He describes Egypt like the surging Nile who
says she will rise and cover the earth destroying peoples. To this God urges
her mercenaries on, but declares that the day actually belongs to him and is a
day of vengeance against his foes – ie. Egypt,
in which she will be offered like a sacrifice and the sword devour until
satisfied. He then tells the “virgin daughter of Egypt” (stressing vulnerability) to
get healing ointment for her wounds, but says she can multiply remedies but
will not be healed. Rather, the nations will hear of her shame and hear her
cries as her warriors fall (46v1-12).
What follows is God’s message about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar to attack Egypt. Jeremiah is told to proclaim in
three key areas of Egypt that they are to prepare as the sword
devours those around them – presumably the army at the Euphrates. He states that their
warriors will not stand because God will push them down. And as they stumble
they will tell one-anther to get up and return to their own people and lands away
from their enemy, whose ambitions are just a loud noise and now a wasted
opportunity. The sense here is that mercenaries are in mind who would return to
their countries. At this point God declares that he is the king, the Almighty,
and that one is coming who is like two high mountains in Israel (ie.
Nebuchadnezzar). So he urges the Egyptians to back their belongings for exile,
and describes Egypt like a beautiful heifer about to be
stung by the large gadfly, with her mercenaries fleeing like calves that have
been fattened for the killing – the day of disaster and punishment. He adds
that she is like a fleeing serpent (implying she is evil) and one whose forest
will be chopped down (implying her humiliation). The Babylonians are described
as innumerable like locusts (46v13-24).
46v25-26 gives the implication: God is punishing Egypt’s gods and kings, and all who
rely on Pharoah. He is therefore showing how impotent they are before him, and
by predicting these things through Jeremiah revealing himself as the true God.
No doubt by this means, a number of Egyptians put their faith in him. But the
key thing is that it showed the Jews who had fled there for safety how
misplaced their trust in Egypt was. So although God promises the
Egyptians that Egypt would be inhabited again as in the
past, the oracle ends addressing the Israelites who had not fled to Egypt but been taken to Babylon. God tells them not to fear,
promising he will save them from the place of their exile so they enjoy peace
and security, and all because he is with them. He declares that even if he
completely destroys the nations they have been scattered amongst, he will not
completely destroy them. Nevertheless, he will discipline them with justice
(46v27-28). It is here that we can be confident that God the gates of hell will
not prevail against the church, and all God’s people will be saved on the last
day.
Chapter 47 is a word against the Philistines, looking to Pharoah’s attack on Gaza. It describes the waters of Egypt coming from the north like a torrent
that will overflow the land causing people to cry out in terror, and fathers
not even to help their children. God declares this the day to destroy all the
Philistines, and the survivors of Egypt’s
attack on Tyre and Sidon.
The towns are described as mourning and silent, cutting themselves – perhaps in
mourning or to gain the favour of their gods. Jeremiah imagines them asking how
long till the sword of the LORD rests, but states that it cannot as the LORD
has commanded it. Again, the point is that God’s judgement is certain and
terrible.
To Moab, God declares ruin,
disgrace, conquest, silence and anguish. Instead of being praised by other
nations, the inhabitants of the Israelite city of Heshbon will plot her downfall (48v1-5). The
Moabites are urged to flee, as they, their god and his priests and officials
will be taken captive for trusting in their deeds and riches. Every town will
be laid waste, never to flourish again like when salt is put on ground, and all
because the LORD has spoken (48v6-9). Jeremiah doesn’t shirk from the
implications of what he is saying. He even curses those in the enemy army who
refrain from bloodshed as being lax in God’s work (48v10)! These oracles reveal
God as quite different from the sentimentalized God of so much modern
Christianity.
Jeremiah continues stating that Moab will be poured out like previously
unchanged wine, and will be ashamed of her god because he proved false. The
reference to Israel trusting in Bethel may be their trust in an idol they
worshipped at Bethel (48v11-13). Again, God declares
himself king, undermining Moab’s confidence in being worriors, stating their
best will be slaughtered, and the mighty sceptre who once wielded some power
will be broken with those around her mourning (48v14-17). So God commands her
people to come down from their glory, and other stand by the road asking those
escaping what happened, and announce with wailing that Moab is
destroyed under judgement (48v18-25). God calls for her to be made drunk and
wallow in her vomit – images of her reeling and falling under the cup of God’s
wrath. And this is because she defied the LORD and ridiculed Israel when she suffered God’s wrath,
treating her like a thief in need of punishment (48v26-28). God tells her to
leave her towns to find refuge in rocks, and denounces her pride and boasting
as accomplishing nothing. Astonishingly, the LORD who wreaks such destruction
then states how he weeps over it, as he causes the joy of the vine harvest to
cease, and cries rise up as he puts an end to Moab’s
idolatry. He adds that his heart laments as he considers their lost wealth,
mourning and brokenness, as the nation becomes an object of ridicule
(48v29-39). This is the balance of God’s character we have seen throughout. His
judgement is more terrible than we imagine because sin is. Yet his love is more
extreme too, as he grieves over the justice he must execute.
As with previous oracles, God declares that as the eagle of Babylon swoops down, the hearts of Moab’s warriors will be like those of
women in labour. The nation will be destroyed for defying God, and any who seem
to be escaping will only fall into another danger so that Moab’s year of
punishment is received. 48v45 pictures fugitives standing in the shadow of the
Israelite city of Heshbon, and
suffering fire from the people there. This alludes to Num 21v21-31, implying
perhaps that just as the Amorites once conquered Moab so Babylon now would, possibly with Heshbon as
their base. Whatever the case, God declares the Moabites will be taken into
exile, but that he will one day restore the fortunes of Moab as
he would Egypt (48v46-47, see 46v26).
Praying
it home:
Praise
God that he is both extremely just and extremely loving. Pray that you would
grasp something of the seriousness of sin an the extent of his grace.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
(313) November 9: Jeremiah
49 & Hebrews 5
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider why
each oracle might be included.
To ponder:
Against the
Ammonites, God asks whether Israel has no heirs (ie. people of its own) for
them to take possession of the Israelite region of Gad in the name of the
Ammonite god Molech. However, God predicts a day Israel will drive out of the
Ammonite region of Rabbah the Ammonites who drove her out. The people of the
area are therefore called to mourn and panic as Molech will go into exile with
his priests and officials. God asks why the Ammonites boast of their fruitful
valleys and trust their riches in false confidence that they won’t be attacked,
promising instead to bring terror from the nations around them, so they will
all be driven away. But, again, he also promises that afterwards the Ammonite’s
fortunes would be restored (49v1-6). It is unclear how Israel ever drove the
Ammonites out. 49v2 may refer to them being so weakened by Babylon, that Israel
could do this. Whatever the case, the oracle again shows God calls nations to
account for their wickedness, as a foretaste of the final accounting. And then,
whatever humanity may boast or trust in will be proved nothing.
Regarding Edom, Israel’s ancient
enemy, God asks if wisdom has disappeared as the people are not fleeing. So he
urges them to run and hide from the disaster he is bringing as punishment on
these descendents of Esau. He stresses he will strip the land bare, so that
none can hide and all perish – except for the widows and orphans, who God is
always concerned for. Next he acknowledges that the general judgements Jeremiah
deals with inevitably impact those who don’t deserve that punishment alongside
those who do. But his point is that if those who don’t deserve it have to drink
the cup of God’s wrath (here, probably, the devastation throughout the known
world wrought by Babylon), then why should Edom, who is particularly guilty, go
unpunished. And so God declares that the Bozrah region will become a ruin and
reproach. Jeremiah describes this as an envoy from God going to the nations
telling them to assemble and attack Edom. And God declares that the terror Edom
inspires together with her pride have deceived her into thinking herself
secure. Yet, despite having strongholds in mountain passes like eagle’s nests,
he will bring her down like Sodom and Gomorrah, and those who pass by will be
appalled at her wounds. The enemy (probably Nebuchadnezzar) is here described
like a lion and eagle chasing and swooping down on Edom. As before, he is the
one God has appointed for this, and no shepherd (ie. ruler) can stand against
God in what he is doing. So the young of the flock of Edom will be dragged
away, their pasture destroyed, and the earth tremble on hearing how devastating
it will be. Moreover, as before Edom’s warriors’ will like those of a woman in
labour (49v7-22).
About Damascus, we read that two of
its regions are similarly dismayed, panicking and in anguish. And God asks why
the city has not been abandoned because of what is coming, noting her young men
will fall, soldiers be silent, and the walls burned down (49v23-27). Next is an
oracle concerning two Arab tribes which Nebuchadnezzar attacked. It seems to
precede this event. God calls Nebuchadnezzar to arise and attack this confident
nation that doesn’t live in cities with gates. He declares that their tents,
livestock and goods will be taken as people cry terror, and they will be
scattered with disaster on every side, leaving the land desolate. So Jeremiah
urges them to flee and stay in caves, as Nebuchadnezzar has plotted against
them (49v28-33). The chapter ends with God’s word about Elam, east of Babylon.
God declares he will break their military might, metaphorically bringing
against them the four winds, and scattering them to the four winds in exile.
The winds here are a picture of God’s power and universal rule. So he will
shatter Elam before her enemies in his fierce anger, setting his own throne in
Elam (a sign that he reigns), and promising to restore them in days to come
(49v34-39). The point of this oracle may have been to make clear when Zedekiah
reigned in Jerusalem that the Babylonian threat wouldn’t be removed by this
rival power. Rather God would remove it, leaving Babylon in power to do his
bidding. It reminds us that when we can’t see why an evil remains, God has some
purpose in not removing it.
Comparing the various oracles, it is
striking that God doesn’t promise each will be restored again. This reveals
that he deals with nations individually as he sees fit, removing some for good,
whilst causing others to fall only for a time.
Praying it
home:
Praise God that he
governs all nations working out his righteous purposes. Pray that you would
boast and be confident only in him and his salvation.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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and make a comment.
(314) November 10: Jeremiah
50-52 & Hebrews 6
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read note what God
has to say about his people.
To ponder:
Finally God’s word
now comes to Babylon. Although this people have been the agent he has used in
bringing judgement on others, and their king his servant, he will still hold
them accountable for the evil this entailed. So he urges Jeremiah to proclaim
amongst the nations that Babylon will be captured and her idols metaphorically
shamed and filled with terror. The description of what will come from the north
(the Medo-Persians and their allies) is similar to previous oracles against
other nations. But what is key here, is that this is God’s means of delivering
his people. So we are told in those days the people of Israel (the northern
kingdom) and Judah (the southern) will seek God with tears (of repentance), ask
the way to Zion, and bind themselves to God with an everlasting covenant that
will not be forgotten (50v1-5, see 31v31-35). As with Isaiah, the return from
exile and the new covenant established in Christ are compacted together as the
one act of God in which he restores his people as one nation.
God describes his people like lost
sheep led astray by their shepherds (leaders), forgetting their resting place
and devoured by those (the Babylonians) who consider themselves without guilt
because the Israelites sinned against God – their true pasture, ie. their place
of rest (50v6-7). Yet now he urges them to feel Babylon (50v8-10). He declares
that the city will be destroyed because she rejoiced in pillaging his
inheritance – ie. Judah. So he calls the nations to take up positions and
attack, executing his vengeance (50v11-16). Noting Israel was first oppressed
by Assyria and then Babylon, he declares he will punish Babylon as he did
Assyria, but bring Israel back to graze in both the north and south of the
land, promising her guilt and sin will not be found, as the remnant will be
forgiven (50v17-20). This of course looks us to the gospel.
50v21-30 speak of God in wrath and
vengeance calling the enemy to attack and destroy Babylon, repaying and
punishing her for defying him, whilst the refugees from the city declare in
Jerusalem how the LORD has taken vengeance for their destruction of his temple.
This vengeance was warranted, as the temple was the heart of Israelite religion
and the very place of God’s presence. To destroy it was to destroy the very
means of maintaining God’s covenant relationship with his people and so the
fulfilment of his promises. Likewise, God’s most serious judgement is for those
who stand against his Son as the focal point of his relationship with his
people.
What follows is clarification that
despite their captivity, Israel’s redeemer is strong and will defend their
cause. So Babylon will fall and never again be inhabited because God is against
her in her arrogance and idolatry (50v31-40). With a repetition of previous
language, God then describes the army approaching and the terror gripping the
Babylonians. He stresses none can resist him, and that the earth will tremble
at the sound of Babylon being captured, because of its significance (50v41-46).
This same divine strength means we can be sure that nothing will hinder God’s
final exclusion of all evil from his kingdom.
51v1-5 reiterates that this complete
destruction of Babylon is because God has not forsaken Israel and Judah.
Despite their guilt, he is still their God. And so, once more, he urges them to
flee Babylon so they are not destroyed because of her sins. Babylon is pictured
as a gold cup from which God’s wrath was poured out on the nations, but now she
will fall and be beyond healing. God’s people seem gracious in saying that
would have healed Babylon – a reference perhaps to their role in bringing the
knowledge of God to the nations. But recognising this is impossible, they
determine to return to their homeland, desiring to tell in Zion how God has
vindicated them as his, by delivering them from such a superpower (51v6-10).
Yet again, as the LORD calls the Medes against Babylon, we are told it is
vengeance for his temple (51v11-14).
God’s power and wisdom displayed in
creation is then outlined as a means of contrasting his reality with the
worthless and fraudulent Babylonian idols (51v15-18). As the maker of all
things, and especially Israel, the tribe of his inheritance (ie. his special
possession), he is also the maker of Babylon who he had used as a war club
against all categories of people (51v19-23), but who he will now repay for the
wrong they have done in Zion. Once more therefore, he stresses he is against the
city, will totally destroy it, and calls the nations against it (51v24-29). The
exhaustion of the Babylonian warriors is the described, as is the messenger
telling the Babylonian king the city is captured (51v30-33). A prayer is then
put in the mouth of the Israelites, calling for their blood to be upon
Nebuchadnezzar. And God responds that he will defend their cause and avenge
them, punishing the city and its gods (51v34-44). He then calls the people to
run from Babylon, and not lose heart in hearing rumours that could imply
Babylon will not fall. No, he is clear: Because of Israel’s slain, no matter
how fortified she might seem, he will punish her idols, disgrace her land, and
heaven and earth will rejoice over this. So the effort the captive nations put
in to building the city will come to nothing, as it simply burns (51v45-58).
All this reminds us that people will be judged not only for their rejection of
Christ, but their oppression of his people.
51v59-64 gives us the context to all
these words. They were to be read by a Seraiah on arriving in Babylon with king
Zedekiah, adding a prayer that would acknowledge it was the LORD who had said
he would do all these things. Seraiah was then to tie the scroll to a stone and
throw it into the Babylonian river Euphrates, no doubt as a symbolic action for
the fall of Babylon itself.
The book ends with an account of the
fall of Jerusalem, how Zedekiah was taken to the king of Babylon, the temple,
palace and walls of Jerusalem destroyed, and the people exiled. It can be found
in 2 Kings 24v18-25v30 (see notes there). It’s a fitting conclusion because the
entire book explains why this happened. It was not because of any weakness in
the LORD, but because of his anger at the people’s evil and idolatry (52v3). It
also explains God’s future for the people – that he will destroy Babylon, bring
them home, and reunite them in the context of a new covenant. The king of
Babylon’s kindness towards Jehoicahin (52v31-34) was a hint at this future,
demonstrating that whatever could be thought, God had not forsaken his people.
Praying it
home:
Praise God that he
does not forsake his purposes, and will ensure they are fulfilled. The theme of
judgement is extremely strong in the book of Jeremiah. Pray that you would not
forget what you have learnt about it.
Thinking
further:
Well done
for finishing Jeremiah. It is not an easy book.
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