SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
3/15/2014 10:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: A Message
about the Drought PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
14:7-12
Message of the
verses: We will look at the second
sub-point from Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on the 14th chapter of
Jeremiah.
The Peal of the People (Jeremiah 14:7-12): “7 “Although
our iniquities testify against us, O LORD, act for Your name’s sake! Truly our
apostasies have been many, We have sinned against You. 8 “O Hope of Israel, Its
Savior in time of distress, Why are You like a stranger in the land Or like a
traveler who has pitched his tent for the night? 9 “Why are You like a man
dismayed, Like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet You are in our midst, O LORD,
And we are called by Your name; Do not forsake us!"
“10 Thus says the LORD to this people, "Even so
they have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet in check. Therefore
the LORD does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and call their sins to account."
11 So the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12 "When they fast, I am not going to
listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am
not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the
sword, famine and pestilence.’”
Why do you suppose that God did not answer their prayers
and why do you suppose that the Lord told Jeremiah not to pray for these
people? We have seen this statement from
the Lord before, as He has told Jeremiah not to pray for them. I think that there has to be true repentance
for a person to have the Lord answer their prayers. Jeremiah wrote in chapter seven and verses
nine to ten the following words: “9 "Will you steal, murder, and commit
adultery and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal and walk after other
gods that you have not known, 10 then come and stand
before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ’We are delivered!’-that
you may do all these abominations?” The
people have not changed one bit even thought God has sent a drought upon them
in order to bring them to repentance. I
believe that there must have been true repentance by the people of Israel in
the book of Judges and that was a very bad time in the life of Israel, but this
time is even worse for now the people were proud, and because they were proud
it made it impossible for them to repent, for they were trusting in their
pride, and also the false prophets and bad priests.
Let us look at a couple of verses from the OT that show
us what they needed to do, but did not do:
“12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon at night and said to him, "I
have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of
sacrifice. 13 “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the
locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, 14 and My people who are called by My
name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked
ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their
land. 15 “Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayer
offered in this place (2 Chronicles 7:12-15).”
I will not place the other text on here because it is long, but look up
Deuteronomy 30:1-10 for more info on this subject. We see from the passage in Deuteronomy that
for the sake of the name of the Lord He will bring back the children of Israel
into their land to possess it again. I
believe that this is speaking of the same thing that Ezekiel writes about in
Ezekiel 36-39, but as for the Jews of Jeremiah’s day they were not holding on
to this promise because they were to proud.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “When God disciplines us, it isn’t enough
that we pray and ask for His help;
anybody in trouble can do that. We must
repent of or sins, judge and confess them, and sincerely seek the face of
God. To wee because of the sufferings
that sin causes is to show remorse but not repentance, ‘Rend your heart and
not your garments’ (Joel 2:13) was the
prophet Joe’s counsel to the Jews during another time of great calamity; and David,
when he sought God’s forgiveness, said, ‘The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise’ (Psalm
51:17).”
God’s answer to the prayers of the people was not to send
rain, but to send judgment, and this is the third time God told Jeremiah not to
pray for them. We know that Jeremiah was
still going to weep for these people, but because of God’s covenant with them
He had to judge them, and He did.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Pride is a
terrible thing to have, but humility is a gift from the Lord.
3/15/2014 11:45 AM
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