SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/18/2014
9:15 AM
My Worship Time Focus: A Message
about the Coming Captivity PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
15:1-9
Message of the
verses: We begin to look at chapter
fifteen of Jeremiah in today’s SD. We
follow Warren Wiersbe’s outline and we are looking at the second main point
from the fifth chapter of his commentary on Jeremiah.
When Israel left Egypt it did not
take them too long to sin against the Lord and to break the covenant that He
made with them. It was at
Kadesh-Barnea that Israel
decided to send out spies to spy out the land and ten of them came back with
the wrong answer that God was looking at, for they came back with an answer
that was void of faith in the Lord so God allowed all people who were over the
age of twenty to die as Israel marched around the wilderness for forty
years. Before the entered the land forty
years later Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy, which means the renewing of
the Law. We read of the covenant that
God made with Israel in chapter 28 , and in verses 63-68 we read “63 "It shall come about that as the LORD
delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight
over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are
entering to possess it. 64 “Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among all
peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you
shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not
known. 65 “Among those
nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for
the sole of your foot; but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart,
failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 “So your life shall hang in doubt
before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance
of your life. 67 “In the morning you shall say, ’Would that it were evening!’
And at evening you shall say, ’Would that it were morning!’ because of the dread of your
heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will
see. 68 "The LORD will bring you
back to Egypt in ships, by the way about which I spoke to you, ’You will never
see it again!’ And there you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as
male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.’” Verse sixty-eight was fulfilled after 70 AD
when Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews offered themselves as slaves, but no
one would buy them.
When Joshua and his generation all
died the nation went into idolatry and God punished them by bringing nations
into Israel to conquer them, however in Jeremiah’s day God would take them out
of the land and send them to Babylon.
Dr. Wiersbe writes: “Two responses are recorded in this chapter:
the Lord’s response to Jeremiah’s prayer (Jer. 15:1-9) and Jeremiah’s response
to the Lord’s answer (vv. 10-21).”
The Lord’s
Response to Jeremiah’s Prayer (vv. 1-9): “1 Then the LORD said to me, "Even
though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with
this people; send them away from My presence and let them go! 2 “And it shall
be that when they say to you, ’Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them,
’Thus says the LORD: "Those destined for death, to death; And those
destined for the sword, to the sword; And those destined for famine, to famine;
And those destined for captivity, to captivity."’ 3 “I will appoint over
them four kinds of doom," declares the LORD: "the sword to slay, the
dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to
devour and destroy. 4 “I will make them an object of horror among all the
kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of
Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. 5 “Indeed, who will have pity on you, O
Jerusalem, Or who will mourn for you, Or who will turn aside to ask about your
welfare? 6 “You who have
forsaken Me," declares the LORD, "You keep going backward. So
I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am tired of
relenting! 7 “I will winnow them with a winnowing fork At the gates of the
land; I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people; They did not
repent of their ways. 8 “Their widows will be more numerous before Me Than the
sand of the seas; I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,
A destroyer at noonday; I will suddenly bring down on her Anguish and dismay. 9
“She who bore seven sons pines away; Her breathing is labored. Her sun has set
while it was yet day; She has been shamed and humiliated. So I will give over
their survivors to the sword Before their enemies," declares the LORD.”
I must say that we have looked at
some very harsh words from two different sources in today’s SD, as we looked at
the covenant in Deuteronomy and not looked at these verses from Jeremiah
chapter fifteen. I have mentioned many
times before that I have read a number of books on the attributes of God and in
one of those books the author states
that when we find out something about God we have to accept it. The wrath of God and the justice of God are
seen in this passage, along with the verses in Deuteronomy and we have to
accept them. There is no person who has
ever been alive could ever be accepted by God without His attributes of wrath
and justice. Here is why: When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross and
Jerusalem became dark it was so that no one could see God’s wrath and God’s
justice being taken out on His Son. It
was because His wrath and justice were taken out on His Son that we can be born
again, for Jesus paid it all while on the cross.
God mentions Moses and Samuel in
verse one, and we can remember that when both of these men interceded for
Israel that God heard their prayers and did not destroy Israel, however this
time was different for them as God would not allow anyone to intercede for
them. God’s mind was made up and
judgment was coming for Judah.
As we read from this section we
learn that the people faced four possible judgments: death from disease, war,
starvation, or if they survived these calamities, exile in Babylon. As we read these verse we understand that it
was not a bright future for them, and as we have already read from Deuteronomy
the Jews faced a difficult time from the time that they went into Babylon until
the time when the Lord Jesus would return as described in the 19th
chapter of Revelations. The movie “Fiddler
on the Roof” is a movie that depicts how life would be for the Jews, and until
May of 1948 Israel did not have a home of their own. Even in the world of today we read that there
are nations who do not recognize Israel as a state, including people from our
country.
In Genesis 12:1-3 we see that God
had chosen Israel to be a blessing to the nations, but because of sin they did
not fulfill this. However we know that
it was through the Lord Jesus Christ that this prophecy is being fulfilled even
today, for Israel gave us the Messiah, and also the Word of God, and these are
blessings to all who live in the world today.
Jer 15:4 "I will make them an object of horror
among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah,
the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.” Manasseh was born to Hezekiah, who was a great
king, but Manasseh was not and we see from verse four that this was one of the
reasons that God would judge Judah. The
interesting fact is that we read from 2 Chronicles that at the end of his life
he became a believer, but the damage he did still caused Judah to be judged by
God.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary
on these verses by writing: “We must not
think that God enjoyed sending judgment to His people. If He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23, 32), He certainly
has no pleasure in the death of His own
people! God is long-suffering, but
when His people resist His gracious call and rebel against His will, He has no
alternative but to send chastening.” 3/18/2014
10:00 AM
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