SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/22/2014
9:13 AM
My Worship Time Focus: A Message
about Jeremiah’s Strange Conduct PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
16:1-9
Message of the
verses: In today’s SD we begin
looking at the third main point from Warren Wiersbe’s outline by looking at the
first sub-point “Jeremiah’s prohibitions.”
In light of some of God’s prophets doing strange things
in order to get the attention of the people we will see Jeremiah doing some
strange things, similar to the action sermons that he has already done.
Jeremiah’s Prohibitions (Jeremiah 16:1-9): “1The word of the LORD also came to me saying, 2 “You shall not
take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place." 3 For
thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and
concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in
this land: 4 “They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be lamented or
buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by
sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky
and for the beasts of the earth." 5 For thus says the LORD, "Do not
enter a house of mourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace
from this people," declares the LORD, "My lovingkindness and
compassion. 6 “Both great men and small will die in this land; they will not be
buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave his
head for them. 7 “Men will not break bread in mourning for them, to comfort
anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s
father or mother. 8 “Moreover you shall not go into a house of feasting to sit
with them to eat and drink." 9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of
Israel: "Behold, I am
going to eliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the
voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the
voice of the bride.”
I can only say that this is a very depressing way to wake
up on a Saturday morning, but it is a part of God’s Word, and justice and wrath
are a part of God’s attributes, so I guess the best thing to do is to try and
understand what we have read in this paragraph from the book of Jeremiah.
There are three things that God forbid Jeremiah to do,
things that were normal and expected for him to do, and they were getting
married, mourning for the dead, and attending feasts. Dr. Wiersbe points out that the Pharisees pronounced
a curse on any who refused to marry and to have children. I suppose that the point in all of this, at
least one of the points, is that when people would ask Jeremiah why he did not
get married or go to where people mourned for the dead, or not go to feasts, he
could reply why he was not doing these things and perhaps the people would
understand that the Lord was about to judge Judah.
One of the things that is very depressing from this
passage is found in verse five where the Lord is saying “for I have withdrawn My peace
from this people.” Whenever we look
at many of Paul’s letters to different churches or people we read “grace and
peace,” early in the letters. I don’t
think that we as believers truly understand the meaning of grace and peace and
since we are also studying the book of 1 Thessalonians I thought that I would
quote from the writing of John MacArthur on what he has to say about grace and
peace: “Grace is God’s undeserved favor
to the sinner in the form of complete forgiveness of sin and the granting of eternal
life, and peace is the result of that amazing gift of love. Paul desired that the Thessalonians would
continually experience the fullness of God’s grace. The would then possess not only an unending
peace with God, but an experience of peace in their hearts that always
surpassed their human understanding (Phil. 4:7). Grace and peace are Christians’ daily portion—every
day they receive divine grace to cover their sins and divine peace to assuage
their guilt.” In order to have salvation
from the Lord we must experience peace with God and in order to walk in a way
pleasing with the lord we must experience the peace of God. I remember my first “real” pastor would say
that there is a verse, the only verse in the Bible that has both peace and
blood in it: “Col 1:20 and through Him
to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His
cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” This little phrase found in the 5th
verse of Jeremiah 16 seems very important to me, for peace from God is something
that I need every day of my life, and for God to take away His peace from the
people of Judah was something very important for us to understand.
We see not only did God remove his peace from Judah but
He also tells them that judgment was coming to them, judgment that would be
very harsh, and for that matter a part of this judgment is still going on to
the people of Israel as we have seen in our study of the book of Daniel.
Judah’s judgment was going to be so harsh that they would
not even be able to get married or to bury their dead and this is a very harsh
judgment God is about to put on them.
Jeremiah would live through this judgment and write about it both in the
book of Jeremiah and also the book of Lamentations.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful for
the peace of God and also having peace with God through the blood of His cross. I never want to forget this, and always praise
the Lord for it.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
Remember the great salvation that the
Lord has provided for me, and be thankful for it.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-9
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. 8 Being found in appearance as a
man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death
on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God
highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Hi the name which is above every name,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The northern kingdom
(Israel).”
Today’s Bible
question: “Where in the tabernacle was
the incense altar placed?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/22/2014 10:04 AM
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