SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/13/2014
8:32 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God’s Word
Dishonored PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
34:8-22
Message of the
verses: We will look at the second
of three sub-points from this first main point in chapter ten of Warren Wiersbe’s
commentary on the book of Jeremiah.
The Treachery of the People (Jer. 34:8-22): “8 The word which came to Jeremiah from the
LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in
Jerusalem to proclaim release to them: 9 that each man should set free his male
servant and each man his female servant, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman; so
that no one should keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage. 10 And all the officials and all the people
obeyed who had entered into the covenant that each man should set free his male
servant and each man his female servant, so that no one should keep them any
longer in bondage; they obeyed, and set them free. 11 But afterward they turned
around and took back the male servants and the female servants whom they had
set free, and brought them into subjection for male servants and for female
servants. 12 Then the word of the LORD
came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 13
"Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ’I made a covenant with your
forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the
house of bondage, saying, 14 "At
the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has
been sold to you and has served you six years, you shall send him out free from
you; but your forefathers did not obey Me or incline their ear to Me. 15 "Although recently you had turned and
done what is right in My sight, each man proclaiming release to his neighbor,
and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name.
16 "Yet you turned and profaned My
name, and each man took back his male servant and each man his female servant
whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into
subjection to be your male servants and female servants."’ 17 “Therefore thus says the
LORD, ’You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release each man to his brother
and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am proclaiming a release to you,’
declares the LORD, ’to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine; and I
will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 ’I will give the men
who have transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the
covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed
between its parts- 19 the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem,
the court officers and the priests and all the people of the land who passed
between the parts of the calf-
20 I will give them into
the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. And
their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the
earth. 21 ’Zedekiah king of Judah and
his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of
those who seek their life, and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon
which has gone away from you. 22
’Behold, I am going to command,’ declares the LORD, ’and I will bring
them back to this city; and they will fight against it and take it and burn it
with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without
inhabitant.’"”
Before we look at these verses I want to go back to the
book of Genesis and the 15th chapter to look at a covenant that God
had made with Abraham, which is a part of the Abrahamic covenant. Now as we look at this section I want to
point out that it was God who made this unconditional covenant with Abraham and
He swore on Himself to keep it, which is unlike the covenant that the people in
Jeremiah’s day made. It came about when
the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking
oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces (Gen. 15:17).” Now in the beginning of this chapter there
were a number of animals that were cut into and this was how a covenant was
made in those days. Two people would cut
an animal or animals into and put half on one side and half on the other side
and then walk through the middle of the animals and the covenant that they made
with each other would then be binding, but if either of them did not keep the
covenant then what they were saying is that the same thing that happened to the
animals would happen to them.
Now we need to go back to the books of Exodus and
Deuteronomy to see another covenant that God had made with Israel after they
came out of Egypt and this covenant was part of the Law of Moses. “12 "If your kinsman, a Hebrew man or
woman, is sold to you, then he shall serve you six years, but in the seventh
year you shall set him free. 13 “When you set him free, you shall not send him
away empty-handed. 14 “You shall furnish him liberally from your flock and from
your threshing floor and from your wine vat; you shall give to him as the LORD
your God has blessed you. 15 “You shall remember that you were a slave in the
land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this
today. 16 "It shall come about if
he says to you, ’I will not go out from you,’ because he loves you and your
household, since he fares well with you; 17
then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door,
and he shall be your servant forever. Also you shall do likewise to your
maidservant. 18 "It shall not seem
hard to you when you set him free, for he has given you six years with double
the service of a hired man; so the LORD your God will bless you in whatever you
do (Deuteronomy 15:12-18).” Now this
covenant of this part of the Law had not been fulfilled by the children of
Israel for many years, but they decided to let the slaves free and therefore they
cut a cow into and passed through the parts stating that they would let the
slave go free. Were they trying to
bargain with the Lord? Perhaps, but they
also may have wanted to get rid of the slaves so that they would not have to
care for them, or perhaps they felt that if they were free that they would be
more apt to fight in the battle. At any
rage they reneged on the covenant and so God told them that they were going to
receive the just reward for breaking this covenant they had made with the
slaves.
Dr. Wiersbe writes:
“Before we condemn these dishonest masters too much, let’s admit that
God’s people often make promises to the Lord when they’re in tough times, only
to repudiate them when things get better.
In my pastoral ministry, I’ve heard more than one suffering saint on a
hospital bed promise to be the best Christian in the church if only God would
give healing, and when He granted the request, he or she immediately forgot
Him.”
We see in verses 12-22 that Jeremiah took this opportunity
of the men breaking their covenant with their slaves to preach a sermon to them
and telling them that after God had freed the children of Israel from Egypt
where there was much idol worship going on that the children of Israel began to
worship idols again, just as these men had changed their minds. Things had not changed that much during those
long years between the exodus and the chastening that God was about to give His
people. Dr. Wiersbe writes “They hadn’t
really proclaimed freedom to their slaves, but God would proclaim ‘freedom’ to
the nation—freedom ‘to fall by the sword, plague, and famine’ (V. 17,
NIV). The prophet predicted a terrible
death for all the treacherous people who had participated in the covenant, and
his prediction came true (vv. 19-20).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I try not to make
bargains with the Lord. I remember a friend
of mine who was out on his boat when a storm came up and he told me how much he
prayed to the Lord to get him back to shore.
I am not sure if he made any promises with the Lord, but he finally got
back to shore and he acted the same as before.
When I went into the army by being drafted I made a vow to the Lord that
I would not swear anymore, because I knew it displeased the Lord. Three days after being in the army I was told
I would be going back home due to a medical problem that I have never had since. I stopped swearing for at least two or three
weeks. In January of 1974 when the Lord
saved me He took away my filthy mouth.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to see me through a difficult
problem that I am facing and have been facing for a while.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1.
1 Therefore if you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Martha” (Luke 10:41).
Today’s Bible
question: “Which books in the Bible
furnish us with some insight into the period of captivity of the Jews?
Answer in our next SD.
7/13/2014 9:12 AM
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