SPIRITUAL DIAYR FOR 3/23/2014
8:36 AM
My Worship Time Focus: More on Jeremiah’s Strange Conduct (PT-2)
Bible Reading & Meditation
Reference: Jeremiah 16:10-13, 16-18
Message of the
verses: In today’s SD we will look
at the second sub-point which is a part of chapter sixteen of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah’s Explanation (Jeremiah 16:10-13, 16-18): “10 ‘Now
when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ’For what
reason has the LORD declared all this great calamity against us? And what is
our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the LORD our
God?’ 11 "Then you are to say to
them, ’It is because your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the LORD,
’and have followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law.
12 ’You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers; for behold, you
are each one walking
according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me.
13 ’So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known,
neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and
night, for I will grant
you no favor.’
“16 “Behold, I am going to
send for many fishermen," declares the LORD, "and they will fish for
them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from
every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. 17 “For My eyes
are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity
concealed from My eyes. 18 “I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their
sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with
the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.’”
As I read over this passage of explanation as to why the
Lord is going to do what He says He will do I can see some of God’s attributes
here. God speaks about the fact that the
children of Israel have forsaken Him and gone after other gods, and this speaks
of the Jealously of the Lord. He also
speaks of knowing where all of these people are and this speaks of His
omnipresence. He talks about His
judgment upon these people for not obeying His Law and this speaks of His
justice, and perhaps His wrath.
The people of Judah ask what sin they have committed
against the Lord and this does seem a bit strange, but they had been led astray
by the false prophets, and also the corrupt priests who taught them that God
would never allow the city of Jerusalem to be defeated. This speaks of why it is so important for
believers to understand the Word of God and to not be led astray by false
teachers even in our day and age. There
is much false teaching about how old the earth is, and many Christians believe
this lie. Some think that this does not
matter, but believe me it does for the enemy has crept in and is trying to make
something in the Word of God not believable.
If he can do this on this truth what will be next?
Someone has said when talking about history is that
people continue to make the same mistakes that people in the past have made and
expect the results to be different. This
is true of the people of Judah as they were making the same mistakes that their
forefathers were making and expect that God will treat them different than He
did them.
I see another disturbing statement from the Lord in this
section of Scripture “I
will grant you no favor.” We saw
yesterday that God was going to take His peace from them and not He will grant
them no favor. We can never think that
God is vindictive, for He is not as He does not enjoy punishing the wicked, but
because of His covenant with them His has to do what is right for this is a
part of His character and a part of His attributes.
You can read the metaphors
described in this section which speak of how the Lord was going to judge the
people of Judah. “The Babylonians would
cast out their nets and catch the Jews (Ezekiel 12:13), and not one ‘fish’
would escape. If anyone tried to hide in the hills, the fishermen would become
hunters and track them down. Why? Because
the nation owed a great debt to the Lord for the way they had treated His Law
and His land. Now the note was due. ‘I will repay them double for their
wickedness and their sin’ (Jer. 16:18 NIV) means that God’s judgment would be
ample and complete.” (Warren Wiersbe)
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Even though God
does not enjoy judging and disciplining His people He will for His names sake.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-10
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
has highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven
and on earth and under the earth,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “In the Holy place” (Exodus
37:25-28)
Today’s Bible
question: “What is the fruit of the
Spirit described in Gal. chapter five?”
Answer in our next SD.
3/23/2014 9:34 AM
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