SPIRITUAL
DIARY FOR 3/1/2014
My
Worship Time Focus:
A
Theological Crisis Followed
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah 12:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead
with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of
the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? 2 You have
planted them, yes, they have taken root; They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You
are near in their mouth But far from their mind. 3 But You, O LORD, know me;
You have seen me, And You have tested my heart toward You. Pull them out like
sheep for the slaughter, And prepare them for the day of slaughter. 4 How long
will the land mourn, And the herbs of every field wither? The beasts and birds
are consumed, For the wickedness of those who dwell there, Because they said,
"He will not see our final end." 5 “If you have run with the footmen,
and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the
land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in
the floodplain of the Jordan? 6 For even
your brothers, the house of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously
with you; Yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them,
Even though they speak smooth words to you.”
(NKJV)
In
our last two SD’s we see that God had taken care of two conspiracies and now
Jeremiah has a theological crisis with God to deal with. The theological crisis that he is dealing
with is one that we find a number of times in the word of God, in fact there is
one of the Minor Prophets that also deal with a problem similar with this
one. In commenting on this crisis Dr.
Wiersbe quotes the French mystic Madame Guyon who said: “In the commencement of the spiritual life
our hardest task is to bear with our neighbor; in its progress, with ourselves;
and in its end with God.” Wiersbe goes
on to say “Jeremiah couldn’t understand why a holy God would permit the false
prophets and the unfaithful priest to prosper in their ministries while he, a
faithful servant of God, was treated like a sacrificial lamb.” That is a question for the ages but we only
have to look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ to see that the same thing
happened to Him, as He was crucified by His enemies, and yet in His case it was
the very plan of God to have this happens.
John the Baptist said the following in John 3:36 “"He who believes
in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.’”
John is saying that there are two kinds of people in the world, those
who have excepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and those who have
not. The one’s who have not are actually
enemies of God, the ones who have are friends of God. Ever since the fall which took place in the
garden of Eden all people born through the bloodline of Adam and Eve were born
sinners, they are enemies of God. Now
Jesus Christ was the Seed of the Woman mentioned in Genesis 3:15 who was
fathered by the Holy Spirit and not born of the bloodline of Adam and Eve, but
of Eve only. It seems as we live our
lives on planet earth that bad things do happen to good people and this is the
question that Jeremiah is asking to God in this section of Scripture, but we must
remember the words of Roman 8:28 which says “And we know that all things work
together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according
to His purpose.” I am using the NKJV of
the Bible today because of problems with my computer, but in other versions the
verse says that it is God who causes all things to work together for good for
those who love him and those whom He has called. I have to admit that we don’t always see the
results of this verse in our lives, but we can have confidence that this verse
is true and that God will work all things together for good for those whom He
has called for salvation. I have heard
someone say that believers will have all eternity to live a perfect life where
no harm will come to us, but unbelievers only have this life to enjoy the good
things and so that is perhaps why God allows unbeliever to prosper at times.
We
see in this passage that Jeremiah was also concerned for the people of the
land, the innocent people who were being hard pressed because of a drought that
was brought upon the land as a result of the evil people in the land, for this
was part of the covenant with the Lord that if evil persisted and people
worshiped idols and did not follow the Lord that things like this would happen. (See Deuteronomy 28:15-24)
Jeremiah’s
idea was for God to take all the wicked people out and have then slaughtered
like one does to cattle, but God answered him by saying “5 “If you have run
with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with
horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan? 6 For even your brothers,
the house of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you; Yes,
they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, Even though they
speak smooth words to you.” Dr. Wiersbe
writes “God’s focus was not on the wicked; it was on His servant Jeremiah. As most of us do when we’re suffering,
Jeremiah was asking, ‘How can I get out of this?’ God’s servants don’t live by explanations;
they live by promises. Understanding
explanations may satisfy our curiosity and make us smarter people, but laying
hold of God’s promises will build our character and make us better
servants.”
We
will look at how God’s reply to Jeremiah revealed three important truths.
1.
The
life of godly service isn’t easy. Paul
speaks of this in Philippians 3:12-14 where he writes: “12
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press
on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of
me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things
which are ahead, 14 I press toward the
goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Perhaps Jeremiah was pondering over the fact
that if he had remained a priest and not become a prophet at the calling of God
that his life would have been easier, but not as profitable in the end.
2.
The
life of service become harder and not easier is the second thing that God
reveals to Jeremiah. The fact is that
Jeremiah had been running with the foot soldiers and he had kept up with them,
but now God tells him that he would have to begin running with the horses, and
this would take a great deal of faith.
Judah was living in relative peace, but now war was coming, a war that
they would not win so it would take more faith and trust in the Lord for
Jeremiah to continue his walk with the Lord.
3.
We
will see that this third truth comes out of the first two and that is that the
life of service gets better as we grow more mature. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Each new challenge
(horses, jungles, opposition of relatives) helped Jeremiah develop his faith
and grow in his ministry skills. The
easy life is ultimately the hard life, because the easy life stifles maturity,
but the difficult life challenges us to develop our ‘spiritual muscles’ and
accomplish more for the Lord. Phillips
Brooks said the purpose of life is the
building of character through truth, and you don’t build character by being a
spectator. You have to run with
endurance the race God sets before you and do it on God’s terms (Hebrews 12:1-2).
“There’s no
growth without challenge, and there’s not challenge without change. As they get older, many people resist change,
forgetting that without the challenge of change, they’re in danger of
deteriorating physically, mentally, and spiritually.”
God was more
concerned with the spiritual growth of Jeremiah than the things that were going
on with the wicked people of Judah for He could care for them when He wanted
to, but Jeremiah had to continue on in the journey that God wanted him to go
for He indeed had more work for Jeremiah to accomplish for the cause of Christ
and his maturing as a believer had to continue in order for him to do this.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: God has spoken to my heart showing me that
mentally, physically, and spiritually I need to continue to grow in the Lord,
and this will mean that I have to take up the challenge to do this.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Take the
challenge of doing the physical exercise that I have been told to do by the
theorist whom I am working with.
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 the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of man.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “480 years” (1 Kings 6:1).
Today’s Bible question: “Who considered himself to be less than the
least of saints?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/1/2014
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