SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/27/2014
9:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Reconciliation:
A New People PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Jeremiah 31:1, 27-30
Message of the
verses: In today’s SD we begin a new
chapter in the book of Jeremiah and a new main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s
outline, in which there are three sub-points for us to look at as we go through
this 31st chapter of Jeremiah.
Dr. Wiersbe explains what we can expect as we look at this chapter as he
writes “In this chapter, Jeremiah described the people of God and the new
things the Lord would do for them. He
first spoke to a untied nation (1, 27-30), then to Israel (vv. 2-20), and
finally to Judah 21-26).” Notice that we
will not cover this entire chapter under this main point as we will look at the
remaining verses (verses 31-40) in the next main point from Wiersbe’s outline.
A United People (vv. 1, 27-30): “1 "At the same time," says the
LORD, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be
My people."” “27 "Behold, the
days are coming, says the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the
house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. 28 "And it shall come to pass, that as I
have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy,
and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD. 29 “In those
days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the
children’s teeth are set on edge.’ 30 “But every one shall die for his own
iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.”
It was because of the foolishness of Solomon, (the wisest
man to ever live), and his son Rehoboam that the nation of Israel was divided
into two kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom which made up ten of the twelve tribes,
and the Southern Kingdom which made up the other two tribes, Judah and Benjamin
and was also called Judah. As we read
the history of this in the book of 1 Kings we see that this was the plan of God
for this to happen, and this is one of the mysteries that we just have to take
by faith because it is difficult to understand.
Once this split took place the Northern Kingdom started their own
religion, and it was a false religion, and because of this many of the people
who lived in the Northern Kingdom decided to move to the Southern Kingdom, thus
it actually represented all of the twelve tribes of Israel in the Southern
Kingdom. Therefore the ten tribes from
the Northern Kingdom are not lost as some have said. When the nation of Israel was reborn in May
of 1948 it was decided by the leaders to call it Israel, and this was the plan
of God. “15 The word of the LORD came
again to me saying, 16 "And you,
son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, ’For Judah and for the
sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ’For
Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ 17 “Then
join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one
in your hand. 18 “When the sons of your people speak to you saying, ’Will you
not declare to us what you mean by these?’ 19
say to them, ’Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the
stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his
companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them
one stick, and they will be one in My hand."’ 20 “The sticks on which you
write will be in your hand before their eyes. 21 “Say to them, ’Thus says the
Lord GOD, "Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations
where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them
into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the
mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no
longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms (Ezekiel
37:15-22).”
Okay back to our test and we see that Jeremiah writes
that God compares Israel and Judah to seed, which He will grow them and as we
have seen in Ezekiel God will grow one nation and not two, and this is also seen
in verse 27 of Jeremiah 31: “"At
the same time," says the LORD, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel,
and they shall be My people."””
As we have studied the book of Jeremiah thus far most of
it has been God tearing down the Southern Kingdom because of their many sins,
and the taking of them into exile, as this was three segments of them being
removed from Judah, in 605, 597, and lastly in 586. Now we see in this section that God is going
to rebuild them and rebuild them into one nation as we have looked at. As we look at verses 29-30 we see a proverb
and I want to use the “Message” to help us better understand what this proverb
means as it seems a bit more difficult when looking at the NASB. “29 “When that time comes you won’t hear the
old proverb anymore, Parents ate the green apples, their children got the
stomachache. 30 “No, each person will pay for his own sin. You eat green
apples, you’re the one who gets sick.”
It seems that the children of those who went into exile were saying that
they were paying for the sins that their parents and grandparents did, and they
were not happy about it. However we must
remember the words of Paul who wrote “All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: As we read in verse thirty of the Message it
says that each person will pay for his own sin, and we must remember that this
is a paraphrase version of the Bible, but what he writes there is true for
those who have not asked the Lord to save them from their sins realizing that
He paid for their sins and all they have to do is accept this payment in a
personal way, not in a corporate way as if to say that they do not have to
personally accept sacrifice for them. Romans
10: 9-10 says “9 that if you confess
with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for
with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the
mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
I am thankful that I can trust the Lord to care for my sins and because
of that I have been born into His family, and because of that I can serve Him
all the days of my life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To serve the Lord.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-10.
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 a name which is above every name, 10 so
that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and
on the earth and under the earth,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Hebrews.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Jesus, thou son of
David, have mercy on me?’”
Answer in our next SD. 6/27/2014 10:20 AM
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