SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/27/2014
8:08 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Conspiring
Against God’s Authority PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Jeremiah 11:9-17
Message of the
verses: As we begin the second main
point in Dr. Wiersbe’s outline of his forth chapter we read the following “The
Lord revealed to His servant a twofold conspiracy in the land: a conspiracy of the men of Judah to disobey
the covenant and resist the reforms led by King Josiah (11:9-17), and a
conspiracy of the people in Jeremiah’s hometown to kil the prophet and silence
God’s Word (11:18-12:6). Both led to a
third crisis that threatened Jeremiah’s own faith in the Lord.”
The conspiracy against the king (Jeremiah 11:9-16): “9 Then the LORD said to me, "A
conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of
Jerusalem. 10 "They have turned
back to the iniquities of their ancestors who refused to hear My words, and
they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the
house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.’
“11 Therefore thus says the LORD, "Behold I am
bringing disaster on them which they will not be able to escape; though they will cry to Me,
yet I will not listen to
them. 12 "Then the cities of
Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they
burn incense, but they
surely will not save them in the time of their disaster. 13 "For your gods are as many as your
cities, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you
have set up to the shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal. 14 “Therefore do not pray for this people,
nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to
Me because of their disaster. 15 “What right has My beloved in My house When
she has done many vile deeds? Can the sacrificial flesh take away from you your
disaster, So that you can rejoice?" 16 The LORD called your name, "A
green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form"; With the noise of a great
tumult He has kindled fire on it, And its branches are worthless. 17 The LORD of hosts, who planted you, has
pronounced evil against you because of the evil of the house of Israel and of
the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me by offering up
sacrifices to Baal.”
We have mentioned that the revival that came under King
Josiah was not a true revival, although the king actually experienced revival
and brokenness in his heart the fact is that most of the people were actually
faking it and their worship of false gods proved this. Dr. Wiersbe writes: But what we worship and the way we worship
are not incidentals in life; they’re essentials that determine the character of
life itself. ‘A people’s lives are only
as good as their worship,’ writes Eugene Peterson. ‘Worship defines life. If worship is corrupt, life will be corrupt.’ God gave His people the covenant so He might
bless them and keep the good promises He made to them, but His people preferred
to trst the gods of their pagan neighbors.”
The nation of Israel was given many privileges that the
nations around them were not given, for the covenant that God had with them was
a marriage covenant, for God loved them and wanted them to do His will. The people of Israel tested the Lord and they
thought that they were better than the nations around them because of all the
gifts that God had given them. Let us
look at some of those gifts that God gave to Israel from the pen of the Apostle
Paul as he writes to the Romans: “1 I am
telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in
the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3
For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the
sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites,
to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the
giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the
fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all,
God blessed forever. Amen (Romans 9:1-5).”
We not only see the gifts that God had given to His people, but we also
see the true beating of Paul’s heart for the people that he loved so much, loved
them with such a great love that he was will to give up his salvation to have
them all saved even though this was impossible.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “the greater the privileges we have form Him, the
greater the responsibility we have to Him.”
In verses 15-18 we read “15 "What right has My beloved in My house
When she has done many vile deeds? Can the sacrificial flesh take away from you
your disaster, So that you can rejoice?" 16 The LORD called your name, "A green
olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form"; With the noise of a great tumult
He has kindled fire on it, And its branches are worthless. 17 The LORD of
hosts, who planted you, has pronounced evil against you because of the evil of
the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done to provoke
Me by offering up sacrifices to Baal. 18
Moreover, the LORD made it known to me and I knew it; Then You showed me their
deeds.” We see in these verses two
pictures of the people of Judah and how they reveal how futile their religious
faith really was. First we see one of
them who worship in the temple and we can see that God tells them that they
really have no business worshiping in His temple because of their sins. We see in verses 17-18 an olive tree, which
is a picture of the nation of Israel, and we see that there is a great storm
coming that will do great damage to that tree which pictures the coming
invasion of the Babylonians.
As we look at the many sinful things that the people of
Israel and Judah did we can condemn them or we can do as Paul writes about the
reason we have the OT, and that is that we may learn from the mistakes that
these people made so that we do not make them ourselves. While living in another state my wife and I
went to church and heard a sermon in which the Pastor said that every age group
in the church was important and he proceeded to go through all of the different
age groups beginning with the small children and going all the way to the older
saints who were a part of the Church. He
told us that one of the reasons that the older people were important was
because others can learn from them through the mistakes that they have made so
that the younger people would not make the same mistakes. One of the younger married ladies in the
church began to laugh very loudly to which the Pastor told her that this was no
laughing matter that she could learn from the older generation many
things. It seems that in today’s church
culture that the younger people don’t seem to want to have much of a relationship
with the older saints for many of them have all the answers on their cell
phones and the only thing they need from the older saints is to care for their
children when they want to go out. Dr.
Wiersbe comments with the following statement:
“Before we condemn the people of Judah, however, let’s examine our own
hearts and churches. Are there idols in
our hearts? Do we give wholehearted
devotion to the Lord, or is our devotion divided between Christ and
another? When unsaved people visit our
worship services, are they impressed with the glory and majesty of God? (1 Cor.
14:23-25). Do the worldly lives and questionable
activities of professed believers disgrace God’s name? Remember, God’s ‘last word’ to the church isn’t
the Great Commission: it’s ‘Repent, or else!’ (Rev. 2-3).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: It’s easy to
point fingers at the people of Judah and Israel, but remember when we point a
finger at a person we have nine more point back at us. I desire to learn from the mistakes that
these people made and not make them myself.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Jesus said in Mark 14:38 “Keep watching and
praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak.”
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-7
5 Have this attitude in
yourself which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form
of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied
Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness
of men.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Daniel.”
Today’s Bible
question: “How many books are in the New
Testament?”
Answer in our next SD.
2/27/2014 9:42 AM
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