SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/28/2014
9:30 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
God Exposes the Sins of the False
Prophets PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
23:9-15
Message
of the verses: Perhaps a little
review before we move into what we will be looking at in Today’s SD. Warren Wiersbe wrote the following at the beginning
of his commentary for his seventh chapter in which he entitled “Kings on
Parade.” “In these pivotal chapters,
Jeremiah delivered four important messages to the leaders and to the people.” We will be looking at the third message over
the next three days, (Lord willing).
Verse fourteen is a capsule of what
we will be looking at in this section: "Also
among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: The committing of
adultery and walking in falsehood; And they strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one has turned
back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like Sodom, And
her inhabitants like Gomorrah.”
Their Disgraceful Conduct (The False
Prophets) (Jeremiah 23:9-15: 9 As for the prophets: My
heart is broken within me, All my bones tremble; I have become like a drunken
man, Even like a man overcome with wine, Because of the LORD And because of His
holy words. 10 For the land is full of adulterers; For the land mourns because
of the curse. The pastures of the wilderness have dried up. Their course also
is evil And their might is not right. 11 “For both prophet and priest are polluted; Even in
My house I have found their wickedness," declares the LORD. 12 “Therefore their way will
be like slippery paths to them, They will be driven away into the gloom and
fall down in it; For I will bring calamity upon them, The year of their
punishment," declares the LORD. 13 “Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an
offensive thing: They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray. 14 “Also
among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: The committing of
adultery and walking in falsehood; And they strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no
one has turned back from his wickedness. All of them have become to Me like
Sodom, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah. 15 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning
the prophets, ’Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood And make them drink
poisonous water, For from the prophets of Jerusalem Pollution has gone forth
into all the land.’"”
We see in verse nine that because of
what the false prophets were doing in Jerusalem it caused Jeremiah to have a
broken heart and act as if he were drunk.
Dr. Wiersbe has an endnote to explain how he was feeling: “The Hebrew word refers to the hot desert wind
that smothers you, leaving you lifeless and ready to give up. In the KJV, the word is translated ‘terrible’
in Lamentations 5:10 (‘Our skin was black [hot] like an oven because of the
terrible famine’) and ‘horrible’ in Psalm 11:6 (Upon the wicked he shall rain…an
horrible tempest).” Jeremiah was a true
prophet of the Lord and because of this he loved the Lord and thus hated what
the Lord hated, and the Lord hated the words of the false prophets because they
were leading the people astray.
In chapter five and verse seven we
read: ‘"Why should I pardon you? Your sons have forsaken Me And sworn by
those who are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, They committed
adultery And trooped to the harlot’s house.”
These false prophets were going to the house of the harlots and
committing sexual sins with them and then going to the temple to give their
offerings as if nothing was wrong with that.
This goes along with what is written in verse ten of chapter 23. We have gone over this in earlier SD’s that
the word adultery also means the worship of idols and this goes against the
first commandment: “5 "You shall not worship them or serve
them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who
hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to
thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus 20:5-6).
When we look at the word Samaria in
verse 13 we know that Jeremiah is speaking of the Northern Kingdom of Israel
and all the people had to do was look at how the false prophets of that kingdom
led the people astray and then what God did to them and they should have
learned that they should not listen to them.
In verse fourteen we see the god Baal spoken of and this is the god
(idol) that caused much of the trouble in both kingdoms of Israel. We also see Sodom and Gomorrah spoken of and
we know from our previous study in the book of Genesis that God destroyed these
two cities because of their great wickedness of sexual sins. By the way God has not changed His mind as
far with how He will eventually deal with these types of sins even though we haven’t
seen God destroy cites like He did in Genesis 20.
Some of the results of Judah’s sins
can be seen from verse ten where we read that there was a famine in the land
and God spoke about this in Deuteronomy 28 when He gave them the covenant. “24 “The LORD will make the rain of your land
powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.’” (Deu. 28:24)
Dr. Wiersbe concludes this section
with these words: “Whenever a nation
needs healing, it’s usually because God’s people aren’t’ obeying and serving
Him as they should. We like to blame
dishonest politicians and various purveyors of pleasure for a nation’s decline
in morality, but God blames His own people.
‘If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and
pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from
heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land’(2 Chron. 7:14).”
Spiritual
meaning form my life today: Our
nation is surely on the decline and I agree with Warren Wiersbe that it is
because the people of God are not living in a way that is pleasing to the Lord.
Salvation is more than an escape from
hell, it also has responsibilities that go along with it and one of them is
living a life that is pleasing to the Lord, along with telling others about how
they too can receive this gift of salvation.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Fear the
Lord, and live a life that is pleasing to Him.
Memory
verses for the week: Philippians 2:5-7
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.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “The
disciples” (Luke 18:15).
Today’s
Bible question: “Peter said that Jesus
was ordained of God to be the judge of whom?”
Answer
in our next SD. 5/28/2014 10:13 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment