SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/8/2014
9:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Agony of
the Prophet
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
18:19-23
Message of the
verses: “19 Do give heed to me, O
LORD, And listen to what my opponents are saying! 20 Should good be repaid with
evil? For they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You To speak
good on their behalf, So as to turn away Your wrath from them. 21 Therefore,
give their children over to famine And deliver them up to the power of the
sword; And let their wives become childless and widowed. Let their men also be
smitten to death, Their young men struck down by the sword in battle. 22 May an
outcry be heard from their houses, When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;
For they have dug a pit to capture me And hidden snares for my feet. 23 Yet
You, O LORD, know All their deadly designs against me; Do not forgive their
iniquity Or blot out their sin from Your sight. But may they be overthrown
before You; Deal with them in the time of Your anger!”
Jeremiah sounds like what we sometimes read in the book
of Psalms, what is called imprecatory Psalms.
When we were studying the book of Psalms we mentioned these different
Psalms that are called imprecatory Psalms.
Dr Wiersbe, in his introduction to the book of Psalms writes the
following about these psalms: “and even
imprecatory psalms calling down God’s wrath on the enemy.” That is exactly what Jeremiah is doing in
this passage we are looking at today, and for good reason. At the end of the Soviet Union there were a
group of Christians who were praying that God would either save their leaders
or cause them to die. Some died and the reason
for their prayers was that if the person who was leading the country continue
to live without being saved then they would face greater punishment in
hell. I must say that there are times
when I pray this way for our leaders in this country. Some believers have trouble with the kind of
statements like this one found in the book of Jeremiah and also in the Psalms
because they forget that God’s attributes include both wrath and also justice
and if God did not possess these attributes then how could we be saved, for God
took out His wrath upon the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross to pay for our sins
and thus His holy justice was satisfied. Now we must remember that Jeremiah was
God’s prophet who was representing God to those he was ministering to and so we
can actually say that it is God who is saying these things for the Holy Spirit
is the author of all Scripture.
Dr. Wiersbe points out that this section is the fifth of
Jeremiah’s private “laments” to the Lord concerning his situation and also his
ministry. The others were found in
Jeremiah 11:18-23; 12:1-5; 15:10-18; 17:14-18; 20:7-18).
We know from reading thus far in the book of Jeremiah
that he is a very passionate man for we have seen his tears before. Jeremiah is now facing an enemy of God who
does not want to hear the truth and they want to destroy Jeremiah from being
able to tell the truth to others. God
called Jeremiah to speak the truth to the people of Judah and he was trying to
do this even though these evil men were trying to stop him. Another of God’s attributes is jealously, and
some may think that this is another difficult attribute to understand, but God
is perfect and deserves all of our worship and when we know this and find
people who want to do things that are evil we also need to be jealous for the
sake of the Lord. However we must leave
the judgment to the Lord for He says “Vengeance is mine.” We are to “Be angry and not sin” and we are
to. “You who love the Lord, hate evil.” We have to understand all of God’s words and
not just take one verse out of context thinking we are doing something that is
right. Dr. Wiersbe writes “Unrighteous
anger takes matters into its own hands and seeks to destroy the offender, while
righteous anger turns the matter over to God and seeks to help the
offended. Anguish is anger plus love,
and it isn’t easy to maintain a holy balance.
If Jeremiah seems too angry to us, perhaps some of us today aren’t’
angry enough at the evil in the world.
Thanks to the media, we’re exposed to so much violence and sin that we
tend to accept it as a normal part of life and want to do nothing about
it. Crusading has given way to
compromising, and it isn’t ‘politically correct’ to be dogmatic or critical of
ideas that are definitely unbiblical.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am to hate
evil, to pray for my enemies, but also leave room for the wrath of God. I am to be jealous for the Lord.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust in the Lord to get me through the
problems I am facing every day.
Memory verse for the
week: Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with
Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life
which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me
and gave Himself up for me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The hope of Salvation:
(Ephesians 6:17).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who did Jesus call a fox?”
Answer in our next SD.
5/8/2014 10:29 AM
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