SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/31/2014
10:07 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: More
of the Pictures from Jeremiah
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah 3:11-20
Message of the
verses: We will begin by looking at
verse 11-13 and then look at verses 14-20.
Promises (Jeremiah 3:11-13): “11 And the LORD said to me, "Faithless
Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go and
proclaim these words toward the north and say, ’Return, faithless Israel,’
declares the LORD; ’I will not look upon you in anger. For I am gracious,’
declares the LORD; ’I will not be angry forever. 13 ’Only acknowledge your
iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God And have
scattered your favors to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not
obeyed My voice,’ declares the LORD.”
We see in these verses that the Lord promises to bring
faithless Israel back to be forgiven by Him if they would repent, and that is
the key. Let us look at a promise from
the book of Leviticus “40 ’If
they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers, in their
unfaithfulness which they committed against Me, and also in their acting with hostility
against Me- 41 I also was acting with hostility against them, to bring them
into the land of their enemies-or if their uncircumcised heart becomes humbled
so that they then make amends for their iniquity, 42 then I will remember My covenant with Jacob, and I will remember
also My covenant with Isaac, and My covenant with Abraham as well, and I will
remember the land. 43 ’For the land will
be abandoned by them, and will make up for its Sabbaths while it is made
desolate without them. They, meanwhile, will be making amends for their
iniquity, because they rejected My ordinances and their soul abhorred My
statutes. 44 ’Yet in spite of this, when they are in the
land of their enemies, I
will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them,
breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. 45 ’But I will remember for them the covenant
with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of
the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.’” (Lev. 26:40-45)
There are other promises that we can site, for there is
one in the 30th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy, and also in 1
Kings 8:46-53, “46 "When they sin
against You (for there is
no man who does not sin) and You are angry with them and deliver them to
an enemy, so that they take them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off
or near; 47 if they take thought in the
land where they have been taken captive, and repent and make supplication to
You in the land of those who have taken them captive, saying, ’We have sinned
and have committed iniquity, we have acted wickedly’; 48 if they return to You with all their heart
and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who have taken them
captive, and pray to You toward their land which You have given to their
fathers, the city which You have chosen, and the house which I have built for
Your name; 49 then hear their prayer and
their supplication in heaven Your dwelling place, and maintain their cause,
50 and forgive Your people who have
sinned against You and all their transgressions which they have transgressed
against You, and make them objects of compassion before those who have taken
them captive, that they may have compassion on them 51 (for they are Your people and Your
inheritance which You have brought forth from Egypt, from the midst of the iron
furnace), 52 that Your eyes may be open
to the supplication of Your servant and to the supplication of Your people
Israel, to listen to them whenever they call to You. 53 "For You have separated them from all
the peoples of the earth as Your inheritance, as You spoke through Moses Your
servant, when You brought our fathers forth from Egypt, O Lord GOD.’” This passage is from Solomon’s sermon and
prayer when he dedicates the temple of the Lord that was just completed by
Solomon.
Now let us look at verses 14-19 of the 3rd
chapter of Jeremiah: “14 ’Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the
LORD; ’For I am a master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two
from a family, And I will bring you to Zion.’ 15 “Then I will give you
shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.
16 "It shall be in those days when you are multiplied
and increased in the land," declares the LORD, "they will no longer
say, ’The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ And it will not come to mind, nor
will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. 17 “At that time they will
call Jerusalem ’The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem,
for the name of the LORD; nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of
their evil heart. 18 “In those
days the house of
Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together
from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an
inheritance. 19 “Then I said, ’How I would set you among My sons And give you a
pleasant land, The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ And I said, ’You
shall call Me, My Father, And not turn away from following Me.’”
I surely seems the Jeremiah has fast-forward to the millennial
kingdom, the 1000 year Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ as He reigns from
Jerusalem after He conquers the earth at His second coming. In this passages
Jeremiah mentions that at this time the house of Judah and the house of Israel
will walk together. There is a passage
in one of the OT prophets that talks about the joining of two sticks, and this
speaks of the joining of Judah and Israel.
I have been told that when the nation of Israel was reborn in May of
1948 that those who were in charge were wondering what to call this reborn
nation for there were two kingdoms when the people of Israel actually had
control of their land. The leaders said
that because of the passage of the two sticks that they would call the nation
Israel. We see this happening in our
day, but I believe that this passage from Jeremiah is speaking of the Kingdom
age that will happen after the tribulation period as I have already mentioned.
Dr. Wiersbe writes the following in an endnote: “The NIV translates Jeremiah 3:14 ‘for I am
you husband,’ for the Hebrew word for ‘husband’ is the same as baal and means ‘lord.’ Baal was the Canaanite rain god that the Jews
worshiped so as to have good crops.
Therefore, there’s a play on words here.
‘You are worshiping the false god Baal, ‘says the prophet, ‘ when your
true baal—husband—is the Lord.’”
Let us look at Jeremiah 3:16 again “. 16 "It shall be in those days when you are multiplied
and increased in the land," declares the LORD, "they will no longer
say, ’The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ And it will not come to mind, nor
will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again.” Do you think that the people that Jeremiah
was speaking this sermon to were shocked when they heard these words, that the Ark
of the Covenant would be gone, forgotten, and never missed? This was one of the things that they put
their trust in and actually one of the reasons why they did not believe that
the Lord would have Jerusalem destroyed, and yet it was what the Ark of the
Covenant represented that they should have been looking at and not the Ark
itself. The Ark of the Covenant pointed
to the Lord for it was made of wood overlaid by gold and this speaks of the
humanity and the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been told that the type
of wood that was used in the construction of the Ark of the Covenant is the
Hebrew word for carpenter.
There would come a day when the circumcised and the
uncircumcised would be the same as seen in Jeremiah 9:25-26, and there would
come a day when the temple would no longer be needed as seen in Jeremiah
7:1-15, and also John 4:20-24, and there would also be a new covenant as seen
in Jeremiah 11:1-5 and 31:31-40. Dr.
Wiersbe writes “Like Jesus, Jeremiah saw beyond external religion and taught
that God was seeking the devotion of the heart.
No wonder both of them were accused of being traitors and persecuted for
opposing the ‘true religion,’ which God had given to Israel.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Ephesians 2:8-9
says “8 For by grace you
have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works,
so that no one may boast.” This verse is often used in evangelism, and I
am not saying that it should not be used that way, but the verse is telling
those early believer how they were saved, and it was not by their works, and
this is what those Jews in Jeremiah’s day and also in the days when the Lord
Jesus was walking on the earth believed.
As Dr. Wiersbe points out they were both persecuted for this. Both were also put to death too.
It is the heart that has to be right with the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I want to have my heart right with the Lord
each day. I know that my heart was made
right with the Lord as soon as He saved me, but I want it right with Him each
day that I walk with Him.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Psalms 150 chapters.”
Today’s Bible
Question: “How did Joseph treat his
brothers after their father died?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/31/2014 10:59 AM
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