Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Judah's Refusal led to Judgment (Jeremiah 8:13-22)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/19/2014 1:31 PM
My Worship Time                                                Focus:  Judah’s Refusal would lead to judgment
Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Jeremiah 8:13-22
            Message of the verses:  “13 "I will surely snatch them away," declares the LORD; "There will be no grapes on the vine And no figs on the fig tree, And the leaf will wither; And what I have given them will pass away."’" 14 Why are we sitting still? Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities And let us perish there, Because the LORD our God has doomed us And given us poisoned water to drink, For we have sinned against the LORD. 15 We waited for peace, but no good came; For a time of healing, but behold, terror! 16 From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses; At the sound of the neighing of his stallions The whole land quakes; For they come and devour the land and its fullness, The city and its inhabitants. 17 “For behold, I am sending serpents against you, Adders, for which there is no charm, And they will bite you," declares the LORD. 18 My sorrow is beyond healing, My heart is faint within me! 19 Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not within her?" "Why have they provoked Me with their graven images, with foreign idols?" 20 “Harvest is past, summer is ended, And we are not saved." 21 For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?”
            We begin the last sub-section in our main section entitled “False Prophets: the Law” and this final subsection covers the remaining verses in Jeremiah eight.  Dr. Wiersbe wrote the following at the beginning of this second main section:  “He raised a number of questions in this section, but the whole proclamation centers on one major question:  ‘Why did the nation not turn back to God?’  In answering the question, Jeremiah dealt with three aspects of the people’s stubborn refusal to obey God.”
            In these verses we see the blending of three different voices:  God’s voice of judgment, and then the people’s voice of despair, and also the prophet’s voice of anguish as he contemplates the ruin of a once great nation.  In verses 13 and 16 we see God declaring that the fields would be ruined and in verse seventeen we also see God declaring the cities would be destroyed and in verse nineteen we see that many of the people will be slain, as verse fourteen says it will be like drinking poison.  Verse seventeen speaks of poison snakes attacking and in verse twenty-one we see the people will be crushed and broken.
            In verse fourteen we see that the people decide to go to the walled cities to be protected instead of turning back to the Lord to repent and ask for His help.  The people were wondering why the Lord allowed all this to happen, when it was really the sin of the people that has caused all of this to come upon them.  Verse twenty is a proverb “Harvest is past, summer is ended, And we are not saved.”  They knew that it was too late for them as their opportunity had come and gone.
            We know that Jeremiah is known as the weeping prophet and we also know that he lamented a long time over what had come over Judah, but now he laments over what will happen.  I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that in the book of Revelations John is given a book by an angel and was told to eat it and it would be like honey in his mouth and when it got to his stomach it will be bitter.  This is the life of the prophets as they are have the opportunity to see what will happen in the future but it becomes a great burden to them like the bitterness of stomach that John experienced.
            In verse twenty-one we read “For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.”  This is how Jeremiah felt about his people.
            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to have compassion when compassion is needed, and I desire for that compassion come to me from the Lord so I can pass it on to those who are hurting so that will bring glory to the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today:  Pray that the Lord will fill me with His compassion like Jeremiah had for the people of Judah when I am put into a position where compassion is needed.
Memory verses for the week:  Philippians 2:5-6
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,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “Thessalonica” (2 Timothy 4:10).
Today’s Bible question:  “Who recovered an axe head by causing it to swim or float/”
Answer in our next SD.

2/19/2014 2:01 PM

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