SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/3/2014
8:56 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Ignoring God’s Warnings PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
13:1-11
Message of the
verses: We will look at the second
vivid image that depicts the judgment that was about to fall upon the nation of
Judah.
The Marred Waistcloth (Jeremiah 13:1-11): “1 Thus the
LORD said to me, "Go and buy yourself a linen waistband and put it around
your waist, but do not put it in water." 2 So I bought the waistband in
accordance with the word of the LORD and put it around my waist. 3 Then the word of the LORD came
to me a second time, saying, 4 “Take the waistband that you have bought,
which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in
a crevice of the rock." 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the
LORD had commanded me. 6 After many days the LORD said to me, "Arise, go
to the Euphrates and take from there the waistband which I commanded you to
hide there." 7 Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the
waistband from the place where I had hidden it; and lo, the waistband was
ruined, it was totally
worthless. 8 Then
the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 9 “Thus says the LORD, ’Just so
will I destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 ’This wicked people, who refuse to listen to
My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after
other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this
waistband which is totally worthless. 11
’For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household
of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the LORD,
’that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but
they did not listen.’”
I want to begin with an endnote from Warren Wiersbe which
will help explain the possible destination to which Jeremiah went to bury the
waistcloth. “The big question to this ‘action
sermon’ is, where did it take place? The
Euphrates was 350 miles from Anathoth, and that would mean four journeys of
four months each for the prophet (Ezra 7:8-9). Could he make four such trips
during such turbulent times? And how significant
would his actions be to the people of Judah if he performed them hundreds of
miles away? The Hebrew text of Jeremiah
13:4 reads Perath, which is the
Hebrew word for the Euphrates, but some scholars think it refers to the town of
Parah about three miles from Anathoth (Josh. 18:23), or that perhaps it is an
abbreviation for Ehprata, the name of Bethlehem, located only five or six miles
from Jerusalem. However, if Jeremiah did
travel twice to Babylon it would have made a tremendous impression on the people
of Judah when he returned home with his ruined garment. He then could have preached the message that
the garment symbolized.” I am glad for
this endnote because I was wondering whether or not Jeremiah had gone all the
way to Babylon, but if he did I can see why it happened because it would be
Babylon that will conquer Judah.
Dr. Wiersbe writes that “the waistcloth was a
thigh-length undergarment worn next to the skin. This represents the fact that God had brought
the nation close to Him, and now the nation had rebelled against Him and so
their relation was ruined, but we must not forget the long-suffering of the
Lord, and the long-suffering of the Lord is an attribute of the Lord that deals
with the sins that people commit against Him.
As we look a little deeper into this action sermon of
Jeremiah we can see one other thing and that was that the people of Judah and
also Israel before them had put their trust in the other nations around them to
get them out of the mess that their sin had caused them. This was not pleasing to the Lord, as He desires
his people to depend upon Him.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Depending upon
the Lord in situations is a subject that has a bit of mystery to me in the day
and age we live in. I believe that there
are times when the Lord puts me in a position when the only thing that I can do
is totally depend upon Him. There are
times to my disgrace that I depend upon the gifts of the Giver than depend upon
the Giver of the gifts.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trusting the Lord to give me direction in my
life everyday is what I desire for Him to do, for His Word says “5 Trust in the
LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6 In all
thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” I must remember to acknowledge all things to
Him and that is difficult to do at times.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-8
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.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Can anything good come out of
Nazareth” (John 1:46).”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘"May your
silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God
with money?’”
Answer in our next SD.
3/3/2014 10:25 AM
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