SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/19/2014
10:00 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Jeremiah
Wears a Yoke
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
27:1-22
Message of the
verses: “1 In the beginning of the
reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah
from the LORD, saying- 2 thus says the
LORD to me-"Make for yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your neck,
3 and send word to the king of Edom, to
the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre and to
the king of Sidon by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of
Judah. 4 “Command them to go to their masters, saying, ’Thus says the LORD of
hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters, 5 “I have made the earth, the men
and the beasts which are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My
outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight.
6 "Now I have given all these lands
into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the wild
animals of the field to serve him. 7 “All the nations shall serve him and his
son and his grandson until
the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him
their servant. 8 "It will
be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon, and which will
not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish
that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence," declares the
LORD, "until I have destroyed it by his hand. 9 “But as for you, do not
listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers or your
sorcerers who speak to you, saying, ’You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10
“For they prophesy a lie to you in order to remove you far from your land; and
I will drive you out and you will perish. 11 “But the nation which will bring its neck under the
yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let remain on its land,"
declares the LORD, "and they will till it and dwell in it."’" 12 I
spoke words like all these to Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, "Bring your necks under the yoke
of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live! 13 “Why
will you die, you and your people, by the sword, famine and pestilence, as the
LORD has spoken to that nation which will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 “So
do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ’You will
not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they prophesy a lie to you; 15 for I have
not sent them," declares the LORD, "but they prophesy falsely in My
name, in order that I may drive you out and that you may perish, you and the
prophets who prophesy to you."”
The first thing that I want to do is to show verse one of
chapter twenty-seven in the KJV of the Bible and then explain why there is a
difference in the NASB, and also many other translations of the Bible. “1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim
the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD,
saying.” We see the name of the king as
Jehoiakim in the KJV, while in the NASB the name is Zedekiah is found. Now let us look at verse one of chapter
twenty-six in the NASB “In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of
Josiah king of Judah came this word from the LORD, saying.” Dr. Wiersbe has an end note stating that this
is a scribal error, and that is why we do not see the name Jehoiakim in the
first verse of chapter twenty-seven. It
is believed that the scribe used copied the name Jehoiakim believing it was in
the 26th chapter. The name
Jehoiakim is not found in any other place in the 27th chapter even
in the KJV and this is the main reason that it is believed that this is a
scribal error.
As we begin to look at the 27th chapter of
Jeremiah we can see that we are now half way through the book of Jeremiah and
are now starting on the second half of the book.
As we begin this 27th chapter we can see that
Jeremiah is involved in another action sermon.
We see that there are leaders from different countries who were allied
with Judah talking about what they should do about the continued threat of Nebuchadnezzar
who has already taken captives from Judah and threatens the whole region. Jeremiah is told to put on a yoke and then go
and talk to these leaders what the Word of the Lord was. Why should he wear a yoke? Well a yoke speaks of submission and that is
what the Lord wanted those nations to do, be submitted to Nebuchadnezzar, but
history has shown us that this did not happen.
We see that in the first eleven verses that Jeremiah was speaking to the
envoys of the Gentile nations saying that they should go back to their leaders
and tell them what the Word of the Lord is and then Jeremiah tells them in
verse five the following “I
have made the earth, the men and the beasts which are on the face of the earth
by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it to the one who
is pleasing in My sight.” God is
saying to these men that He is in control and He will do what He desires to do,
and if they listen to them then they will be able to stay on the land they are
living on, but if they don’t listen to Him they will be killed and driven off of
their land. We live in a day now where
people do not believe that the Lord is in control, for they think that man is
in control of the developments that are seen going on around the world. We have learned in earlier SD’s that God judged
sin more rapidly in the OT times than He is doing in the NT times, but that
surely does not mean that God is not in control and will judge sin at some
point later on in history. The book of
Revelations shows that God will judge every person’s sins who was ever born as
it speaks of the “Great White Throne Judgment,” and this judgment is for those
who have not trusted the judgment of their sins to the Lord Jesus Christ when
He took upon Himself the sins of those who would believe in Him so that God His
Father was pleased with His sacrifice and thus raising Him from the dead. Yes it is true that God is still in control,
and for that matter always has been and always will be, but these nations that
Jeremiah was talking to, including Judah did not believe this, but believed
their false prophets.
After giving the message to the envoys Jeremiah gave the
same message to Zedekiah King of Judah as seen in verses 12-15.
We will now look
at verses 16-22 “16 Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying,
"Thus says the LORD: Do
not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying,
’Behold, the vessels of the LORD’S house will now shortly be brought again from
Babylon’; for they are prophesying a lie to you. 17 “Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and
live! Why should this city become a ruin? 18 “But if they are prophets,
and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them now entreat the LORD of hosts that the vessels
which are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah and
in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon. 19 “For thus says the LORD of hosts
concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the stands and
concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, 20 which
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried into exile Jeconiah
the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the
nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. 21
"Yes, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning
the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD and in the house of the king
of Judah and in Jerusalem, 22 ’They will
be carried to Babylon and they will be there until the day I visit them,’
declares the LORD. ’Then I will bring them back and restore them to this
place.’"”
Jeremiah now speaks to the priests and the people of
Judah regarding the articles that were found in the temple. In an endnote from Dr. Wiersbe we see: “There were three deportations—6-5, 597, and
586—during which both people and treasures were taken to Babylon. Since Zedekiah ruled from 597 to 586, the
false prophets were referring to the deportation in 605, when Daniel and his
friends were taken to Babylon along with some of the temple treasures (Daniel
1:1-2).” We can see in the first two chapters
of Ezra that the articles were brought back to Israel when the remnant was
allowed to come back some seventy-years later.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “The important thing wasn’t to rescue the temple
furnishings but to save the people from death and the city from
destruction. This could be done only if
the nation submitted to the king of Babylon.
Jeremiah tells these false prophets to pray to the Lord,
as seen in verse eighteen: “let them now entreat the LORD of
hosts that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of
the king of Judah and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.” It seems that Jeremiah is taunting these
prophets, for after all if they were true prophets prayer should be something
that they should be doing.
Dr. Wiersbe ends this section saying “Jeremiah ended his
message to the priests and people with a promise of hope: At the end of the seventy years of captivity,
God would visit His people in Babylon and bring them back to their land. Even in wrath, God remembers mercy (Hab. 3:2).” “LORD, I have heard the report about You and
I fear. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the
years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.”
“LORD, I have heard the report about You LORD, I stand in
awe of Your deeds. Revive /Your work/ in
these years make /it/ known in these years. In /Your/ wrath remember mercy! (Hab. 3:2 in
the HSCB version.)
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As I look at this
verse from the prophet Habakkuk I pray that this will be true of our nation,
for I see our nation is a similar place as to what Judah was before they were attacked
by the Babylonians. I pray that in God’s
wrath He will remember His mercy on our country.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to guide my steps today.
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 which is above every name,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The Word of God” (Ephesians
6:17).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who went to Bethlehem with
his wife Mary to be taxed?”
Answer in our next SD. 6/19/2014 11:31 AM
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