SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/18/2014
10:52 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Jeremiah
Risks His Life
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
26:1-24
Message of the
verses: I know that just because I
don’t understand what something is in the Bible, and is put in the place where
it is, that just because I don’t understand it does not mean that I should not
trust the Holy Spirit who put it where He wanted it to go. That is what we see in this chapter as Dr.
Wiersbe points out that this chapter should be studied in connection with
chapter seven, because they both deal with Jeremiah’s courageous sermon given
in the temple. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The
sermon is summarized in verses 3-7, and you will note the emphasis on hearing the Word of God (see
25:3-8). There is a difference in what
the false teacher’s preached and what Jeremiah preached to the people for the
false prophets preached what the people wanted to hear while Jeremiah preached
what they needed to hear, and many of them did not like it.
It was because of this reason that the people in the
temple area wanted to kill Jeremiah, but as we remember when we first started
to study the book of Jeremiah that God told him that he would continue to
preach to these stiff necked people.
These people thought it was blasphemous for Jeremiah to say that God was
going to destroy the city and the temple because of their sin, but that is
exactly what God did. This is what the
false prophets were teaching the people and they forgot to read to them what
the Lord had Moses write in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy.
After the officials came to see what this riot was all
about they gave Jeremiah time to speak in order to defend what he had
said. Dr. Wiersbe points out that
Jeremiah presented three arguments in his defense: (1) God had commanded Jeremiah to say what he
said, and he did this because the Lord sent him to say the Words He wanted him
to say. The truth is that if they
decided to kill him they would actually be killing one of the Lord’s
prophets. (2) Jeremiah made it clear
that they were the ones in trouble, and they were the ones who needed rescued
from this trouble. “13 “Now therefore
amend your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the
LORD will change His mind about the misfortune which He has pronounced against
you (Jer. 26:13).” Dr. Wiersbe writes “If
they repented and obeyed God’s Word, the Lord would relent of His plans to
judge the nation and would deliver them.”
John Gill writes the following on the “relenting” part of verse
thirteen: “will do as men do when they
repent, change their method of acting, and manner of behaviour; so the Lord is
said to repent or turn, when he changes the method and conduct of his
providence towards men, though he never changes his mind or counsel.” As I thought about this subject of God “relenting”
it made me think of the attribute of God that is “immutable” which of course
means God cannot change His mind. God
had made a covenant with Israel, a conditional covenant with them that is found
in the book of Deuteronomy which stated that if the people would not do right
then God would punishment them, and if they did do right then He would bless
them. We find here in verse thirteen
that God told them the same thing that was written in the conditional covenant
and so this makes it clear to me what the Lord was telling them through
Jeremiah. (3) Jeremiah tells these people that if they killed him that they
would be shedding innocent blood and that would only make their impending
judgment worse.
There are three factors according to Dr. Wiersbe that
caused Jeremiah to be released and we will look briefly at them: (1) After the officials heard the evidence
they determined that it was false. (2)
Some of the wiser elders cited things that happened before that would show that
Jeremiah was not guilty. This reminds me
of when the apostles were taken to the leaders of Israel and they wanted to
kill them, but a wise man Gamaliel told the leaders “"Men of Israel, take
care what you propose to do with these men. 36 “For some time ago Theudas rose
up, claiming to be somebody, and a group of about four hundred men joined up
with him. But he was killed, and all who followed him were dispersed and came to
nothing. 37 “After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census
and drew away some people after him; he too perished, and all those who
followed him were scattered. 38 "So
in the present case, I say to you, stay away from these men and let them alone,
for if this plan or action
is of men, it will be overthrown; 39 but
if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them; or else you may even be
found fighting against God."”
(Acts 5:35b-39) (3) “Ahikam, one of the officials, proved a
friend to Jeremiah and effected his release (Jer. 26:24). Ahikam had served King Josiah (2 Kings
22:11-14) and was the father of Gedalish, the future governor of Judah (Jer.
25:22).”
“20 Indeed, there
was also a man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of
Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim; and he prophesied against this city and against
this land words similar to all those of Jeremiah. 21 When King Jehoiakim and
all his mighty men and all the officials heard his words, then the king sought
to put him to death; but Uriah heard it, and he was afraid and fled and went to
Egypt. 22 Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan the son of Achbor and
certain men with him went into Egypt. 23 And they brought Uriah from Egypt and
led him to King Jehoiakim, who slew him with a sword and cast his dead body
into the burial place of the common people (Jer. 26:20-23).” Dr. Wiersbe writes “On first reading, the
illustration of Uriah seems out of place as a defense of Jeremiah, for the king
had executed Uriah the prophet after he had fled to Egypt and been brought back
to King Jehoiakim. On the other hand,
Jeremiah stayed in the land of Judah and even ministered in the precincts of
the temple! Jeremiah gave every evidence
of being a loyal citizen, even though he disagreed with the politics of the
leaders of the government. Although we can’t
fault him for trying to save his own life, Uriah had broken the law while
trying to prophecy God’s truth, and this led to his own death.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have come to
the conclusion a long time ago that the Word of God has no errors in it and if
I think something is wrong then I have to continue to study to better
understand what it is really saying.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue to study the Word of God.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-9.
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
highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name above every name,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Flies” (Exodus 7:12).
Today’s Bible
question: “What is the Spirit’s sword?”
Answer in our next SD.
Just a note on why I did
not include all of Jeremiah chapter 26 and that is because it was a lot of
verses to include.
6/18/2014 11:43 AM
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