SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/22/2014
8:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
God Opposes the Leaders of Judah PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
21:11-14
Message of the
verses: We move into the fourth and last sub-point under this first main
point from the commentary of Warren Wiersbe, as we follow the outline he has in
his book to help us better understand the book of Jeremiah.
A Pronouncement to the House of David: (Jeremiah
21:11-14): “11 "Then say to the household of the king
of Judah, ’Hear the word of the LORD, 12
O house of David, thus says the LORD: "Administer justice every morning; And
deliver the person who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor, That My
wrath may not go forth like fire And burn with none to extinguish it, Because
of the evil of their deeds. 13 “Behold, I am against you, O valley dweller, O
rocky plain," declares the LORD, "You men who say, ’Who will come
down against us? Or who will enter into our habitations?’ 14 “But I will punish
you according to the results of your deeds," declares the LORD, "And
I will kindle a fire in its forest That it may devour all its
environs."’"”
As we go back into the book of 2 Samuel, chapter seven we
find that this was the chapter that David decided that he wanted to build a
house for the Lord, however the Lord told Nathan the prophet to tell David that
His son would be the one to build the temple for the Lord. God went on to tell David that He would build
a dynasty for him through the kings that would come out of David. There was one of the kings that was so wicked
in the line of David that it would have seemed that God had changed His mind,
something He does not do, in continuing the dynasty of David. Here is where it gets kind of tricky, that is
in my mind. When we go to the book of
Matthew we find the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ through what is believed
to be Josephs genealogy, and it goes back to Abraham. When we get to the book of Luke, most believe
that this genealogy goes through David’s son Nathan, which is where Mary’s line
is and this genealogy goes all the way back to Adam. As we get to this portion of Jeremiah and see
that it would seem that the kingly line of David would stop because of Judah’s
sin of idol worship and other sins we kind of wonder how God would work all of
this out for we read “That My wrath may not go forth like fire And burn with
none to extinguish it, Because of the evil of their deeds (Vs. 12).” Even when the people would go into captivity
into Babylon there would be a record of where the line of David followed, all
the way up until the Messiah would be born.
The problem was that the empire of Judah would be shortly gone into
captivity. I have always wondered how
those men who came out of David’s line who did not have the opportunity to
serve as kings would feel since they missed the opportunity to serve as a
king.
I want to copy an end note that has to do with the phrase
“Administer justice every
morning.” “The phrase ‘execute
judgment in the morning’ (KJV) (Jeremiah 21:12) reminds us that court was held
in the mornings at the city gates when it was still cool outside. But the phrase also suggests that the king
needed to make justice the first priority of his day.” It is oblivious that this was not happening
in Judah at this time that Jeremiah lived.
One of the problems that the
leaders had, other than not administering justice was that they believed the
false prophets who told them that this city was impregnable, and it was because
of the line of David ruling from that city.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “Surrounded on three sides by valleys—Hinnom
on the south and west, and Kidron on the east—the city had to defeated itself
only on the north. Jerusalem’s
inhabitants saw themselves enthroned on the rocky plateau, but God would soon
dethrone them and cause them to lose their crown. Since the Babylonian army did set fire to the
city, God did ‘kindle a fire in the forest’ (Jer. 21:14). The phrase ‘the forest’ probably refers to
the structures in the city, especially to the king’s palace, the house of the
forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 7:2; 10:17, 21).
The cedars of Lebanon were used to construct various buildings in the
city.
“This chapter begins with a king’ cry for help and ends
with a prophet’s pronouncement of doom.
What a tragedy!”
Spiritual meaning
for today: I was listening to a
series of messages the other day entitled “Ten Lies about God.” The speaker was talking about the first lie,
and that is that there are more than one way to get to God. As he was near the end of his message he
stated that the reason we have to do certain things to get to God is because
God is the One who set it up that way.
Paul writes to the Corinthians that 1Co 1:25 “Because the foolishness of
God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” As I look at these leaders of Judah during
Jeremiah’s day I can see that they were not doing things the way that God had
shown them to do, for what He demanded of them was written in the covenant He
made with them. The same problem exists
today as people think that the things that God requires in order to have a
relationship with the Lord is foolish they will find out one day that it is not
foolishness. It is my desire to follow
the things that God has written in His Word, for I know in my heart that they
are anything but foolish.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Proverbs 3:5-6.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-6
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,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “For a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘The Lord is my
rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/22/2014 9:17 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment