SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/25/2014
8:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Redemption:
A New Beginning PT-2
My Worship Time Reference: Jeremiah
30:12-17
Message of the
verses: In today’s SD we will be
looking at Jeremiah 30:12-17, which is the second main point from Warren
Wiersbe’s outline on the 30th chapter of Jeremiah. He entitles the ninth chapter of his
commentary “The God Who Makes Things New.”
Every person who has been born again through the blood of Jesus Christ,
through His sacrifice on the cross, through His death and resurrection has been
made new as they have received a new spirit from Him at the time of their
conversion. Although we are not speaking
of a spiritual rebirth in this section of Jeremiah we are speaking of a rebirth
of the nation of Israel which would take place after 70 years of their exile
into Babylon. This was so very important
in the scope of God’s plan for the salvation of those who would accept what
Christ had done for them because the Messiah would come through the nation of
Israel, through the tribe of Judah, and through the family line of King David,
and so all of this had to be preserved.
Jeremiah is also writing about the end-times in this section of his
book, a time when Israel would be brought back into their land as described in
chapters 36-37 of Ezekiel, and a time when Jesus Christ would rule from the
throne of David in Jerusalem after a period which is called the tribulation
period, a period which will last for seven years in which the unholy trinity of
Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet will have control of the whole
world. At the end of that time there
will be a great battle in which the Lord Jesus will return to planet earth as
described in Revelations chapter 19 and will slay th antichrist and false
prophet and chain Satan and put all into the lake of fire. Jesus Christ will then make the earth a place
similar to what it was made after God created it and will rule for 1000 years
at which time Satan will be unchained and allowed to lead a group of people in
a short battle where they will swiftly be defeated and thrown into hell. At this time the heavens and the earth will
be burned as described in 2Peter 3:10-12.
The great white thrown judgment will then take place where all
unbelievers will stand and be judged and then thrown into the lake of
fire. Jesus Christ will then bring down
the New Jerusalem which is the place where believers will dwell as they go into
eternity serving the Lord Jesus Christ with works that are not described, but
we know will be wonderful. Now back to
Jeremiah.
The healed wound (vv. 12-17): “12 “For thus says the LORD, ’Your wound is
incurable And your injury is serious. 13 ’There is no one to plead your cause;
No healing for your sore, No recovery for you. 14 ’All your lovers have forgotten you, They do
not seek you; For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, With the
punishment of a cruel one, Because
your iniquity is great And your sins are numerous. 15 ’Why do you cry
out over your injury? Your pain is incurable. Because your iniquity is great
And your sins are numerous, I
have done these things to you. 16 ’Therefore all who devour you will be devoured; And
all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity; And those who
plunder you will be for plunder, And all who prey upon you I will give for
prey. 17 ’For I will
restore you to health And I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the LORD,
’Because they have called you an outcast, saying: "It is Zion; no one
cares for her."’”
Habakkuk asked the Lord whey He did not judge Israel
(Judah) for all of her many sins and God answered that He would judge them as
He was raising up the Chaldeans to be His instrument to judge them. Habakkuk
did not like the answer that he got from the Lord because he said that they
were more wicked than the children of Israel and in this case the Southern
Kingdom of Judah. Well we learn in this
section of Jeremiah that God will judge all the nations who have treated Israel
wrongly and in particular Babylon for they are the nation who destroyed
Jerusalem and the temple of God. Now we
must remember that we have been looking at two horizons in this section of
Jeremiah (chapters 30-33), for part of his prophecy will take place right away,
and part will take place at the end of the age.
God did judge Babylon as seen in the fifth chapter of Daniel, but as we
read chapters 17-18 of Revelations we will see that God will judge Babylon
again, the religious Babylon and the economic Babylon during the tribulation
period.
Let us take a look at the 3rd chapter of the
book of Joel to see that God will punish the Gentile nations who have punished
Israel. We also see this in the 16th
verse of Jeremiah 30. “1 Yes, in those
days and at that time, when I restore
the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I
will gather all the nations and take
them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I
will enter into judgment with them there
because of My people, My inheritance Israel. The nations have scattered the
Israelites in foreign countries and divided up My land. 3 They cast lots for
My people; they bartered a boy for a
prostitute and sold a girl for wine to
drink. 4 And also: Tyre, Sidon, and all the territories of Philistia--what are
you to Me? Are you paying Me back or trying to get even with Me? I will quickly
bring retribution on your heads. 5 For you took My silver and gold and carried
My finest treasures to your temples. 6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem
to the Greeks to remove them far from their own territory. 7 Look, I am about
to rouse them up from the place where you sold them; I will bring retribution
on your heads. 8 I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the
people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation,
for the LORD has spoken.” This is from
the HCSB version of the Bible and I have only copied the first eight verses of
the last chapter of the book of Joel to give a flavor of what the Lord will do
to the nations who have done great wrong to the nation of Israel. This chapter amplifies what Jeremiah wrote in
Jeremiah 30:16.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: What we see in
this section of Jeremiah, along with the 3rd chapter of Joel is the
justice of God in action. God punished
Israel, then He punished the nations and will punish the nations in the future
who have treated Israel in a way that is sinful. We also see the plan of God in action as His
plan is to use Israel to bless the world as He said to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3,
and He has blessed the world by brining the Messiah through the people of
Israel. I can learn that God is a God
whom I am to fear, but also love because He first loved me. God’s justice has been taken out on the Lord
Jesus Christ for my sins and for all those who will come to Him in repentance
asking for His forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Fear the Lord.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-10.
5 Have this attitude in
yourself that was 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, 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: “Cedar trees” (1 Kings 5:6,
6:19).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who was stoned after
defending himself before the Sanhedrin?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/25/2014 9:45 AM
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