SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/14/2014
7:22 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The plight
of the land
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah 14:1-6
Message of the verses: “1 That which came as the word of the LORD to
Jeremiah in regard to the drought: 2 “Judah mourns And her gates languish; They
sit on the ground in mourning, And the cry of Jerusalem has ascended. 3 “Their
nobles have sent their servants for water; They have come to the cisterns and
found no water. They have returned with their vessels empty; They have been put
to shame and humiliated, And they cover their heads. 4 “Because the ground is
cracked, For there has been no rain on the land; The farmers have been put to
shame, They have covered their heads. 5 “For even the doe in the field has
given birth only to abandon her young, Because there is no grass. 6 “The wild
donkeys stand on the bare heights; They pant for air like jackals, Their eyes
fail For there is no vegetation.”
I thought it best to begin doing two Spiritual Diaries a
day as long as I have the time to do so that we do not get too far behind in
the book of Jeremiah. I did not totally
realize that working through the book of 1 Thessalonians was going to take as
long as it is. Now I am not complaining about
this for that study has brought joy and better understanding to me as I go
slowly through that wonder book. We will
begin looking at chapter five in Warren Wiersbe’s commentary on Jeremiah a
chapter he entitles “Sermons, Supplications, and Sobs” which covers chapters
14-17 of the book of Jeremiah.
Wiersbe begins his introductory commentary on this
chapter by quoting a British preacher, John Henry Jowett who said “Preaching that
costs nothing accomplishes nothing.” I
have heard from our youth pastor’s sermon last Sunday that without pain there
is no gain and I believe him, as I have heard this statement before. I injured my leg a couple of years ago while
working in Hawaii. I began bowling this
year after not bowling for fifteen years and bowling has aggravated this injury
again and so I go to therapy a couple times a week and the person doing it
rolls my leg and it hurts. No pain no
gain. Jeremiah knew this as Dr. Wiersbe
points out that “If ever an OT servant had to ‘take up his cross’ in order to
follow the Lord, it was Jeremiah.”
He writes the following to help us better understand what
we will be studying in these four chapters of Jeremiah: “In these chapters, the prophet delivered
four messages, and interspersed with these messages were his own prayer to the
Lord and answers he received. Jeremiah
bold before men, but broken before God, and yet it was his brokenness that gave
him his strength.”
The first main section we will be looking at over the
next few days is entitled “A Message about the Drought” and it will cover all
of chapter fourteen of Jeremiah. To help
us understand this section let us look at Deuteronomy 11:10-12: “10
"For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not
like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and
water it with your foot like a vegetable garden. 11 "But the land into which you are about
to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven,
12 a land for which the LORD your God
cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning even
to the end of the year.” This shows how
the Promised Land is watered, but this has to do with how the children of
Israel obey the Lord as to whether or not God will give them rain. “18 ’If also after these things you do not
obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 ’I will also
break down your pride of power; I will also make your sky like iron and your earth like bronze.
20 ’Your strength will be spent uselessly, for your land will not yield its
produce and the trees of the land will not yield their fruit.” These verses from Leviticus 26 show the
results of when there is no rain in the Promised Land. As we go thought the book of Jeremiah we will
see and have seen that there were more than one drought in the land and
Jeremiah uses this topic to preach to the people. We will now look again at the six verses from Jeremiah 14. “1 That which came as the word of the LORD to
Jeremiah in regard to the drought: 2 “Judah mourns And her gates languish; They
sit on the ground in mourning, And the cry of Jerusalem has ascended. 3 “Their
nobles have sent their servants for water; They have come to the cisterns and
found no water. They have returned with their vessels empty; They have been put
to shame and humiliated, And they cover their heads. 4 “Because the ground is
cracked, For there has been no rain on the land; The farmers have been put to
shame, They have covered their heads. 5 “For even the doe in the field has
given birth only to abandon her young, Because there is no grass. 6 “The wild
donkeys stand on the bare heights; They pant for air like jackals, Their eyes
fail For there is no vegetation.”
It did not matter whether or not you looked at the cities
(vs. 1-3) or the farms (v.4), or the open country (vs. 5-6) there was deviation
in the land of Judah. I want to quote a
verse from Romans 8 that speaks of how the land can morn: “Ro 8:22 For we know that the whole creation
groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Paul is showing his readers in this verse
that because of the original sin it has caused even all creation to mourn,
however this particular drought was caused by the disobedience of the people of
Judah and also because God was keeping his covenant promises to Israel.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes this sub-point with these
words: “It is a serious thing to enter
into a covenant relationship with God, because He will always keep His Word,
either to bless or to chasten. If we are
the recipients of His love, then we expect to be the recipients of His
chastening if we disobey Him (Proverbs 3:11-12). God is always faithful.”
“11 My son, do not
reject the discipline of the LORD Or loathe His reproof, 12 For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as
a father corrects the son in whom he delights.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I know that the
church is not under the covenant that Israel was under, but there are
principles that we can see from them that do effect the church. The writer to the Hebrews spends much of
chapter twelve talking about how God disciplines His children. 3/14/2014 8:01 AM
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