SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/24/2014
8:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God’s Word
Fulfilled PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
39:11-18
Message of the
verses: We will be looking at the
last sub-point from the last main point in the tenth chapter of Warren Wiersbe’s
commentary on the book of Jeremiah, which has three more chapters in it. I have mentioned in many of my Spiritual
Diaries that I do follow the “Be” series that Warren Wiersbe has written on
each book of the Bible to help me to better understand what the Word of God has
to say. I have also mentioned from time
to time that I love reading Wiersbe’s commentaries for it has been said of him
that he puts the cookies on the shelf where one can reach them. Now it looks like that we will do one more
chapter in following his writing on Jeremiah which will cover six chapters in
the book of Jeremiah which will take around twelve days to complete and then we
will spend the rest of the month looking at the 5th (the last)
chapter of the book of 1 Thessalonians, a book that I have been following both
Warren Wiersbe and John MacArthur, and hopefully we can complete that chapter
by the end of August where we will then go back to the book of Jeremiah and
also look at the first chapter of 2 Thessalonians.
God’s care for His servant (Jeremiah 39:11-14): “11Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave
orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, saying,
12 "Take him and look after him,
and do nothing harmful to him, but rather deal with him just as he tells
you." 13 So Nebuzaradan the captain
of the bodyguard sent word, along with Nebushazban the Rab-saris, and
Nergal-sar-ezer the Rab-mag, and all the leading officers of the king of
Babylon; 14 they even sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the guardhouse
and entrusted him to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take
him home. So he stayed among the people.”
First I want to mention that we will look briefly at the
remaining four verses after we look briefly at these four verses that have to
do with the welfare of Jeremiah after Jerusalem has fallen.
Let us look at a few verses from the earlier part of the
book of Jeremiah that show us that God had promised to care for him even
through the Babylonian conflict: “17 "Now, gird up your loins and arise, and
speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I
will dismay you before them. 18 “Now behold, I have made you today as a
fortified city and as a pillar of iron and as walls of bronze against the whole
land, to the kings of Judah, to its princes, to its priests and to the people
of the land. 19 “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you,
for I am with you to deliver you," declares the LORD (Jeremiah 1:17-19).” “20 “Then I will make you to this people A
fortified wall of bronze; And though they fight against you, They will not
prevail over you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you," declares
the LORD. 21 “So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, And I will
redeem you from the grasp of the violent’ (Jeremiah 15:20-21).” Now we have been looking at in this last
section from Jeremiah how God’s Word was fulfilled, and this is another example
of it being fulfilled in His care for Jeremiah.
Dr. Wiersbe has this endnote on this section: “The contradiction between Jeremiah 39:11-14
and 40:1-6 is only on the surface. When
the Babylonians entered the city, they released Jeremiah and took him under
their protective custody. He was free to
move about and minister to the people.
Apparently through some blunder, he was taken captive with the prisoners
going to Ramah, but when the mistake was discovered, he was released and
allowed to do as he pleased.” The following
is Jeremiah 40:1-6 which will help us understand what Dr. Wiersbe has written
about: “1 The word which came to
Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan captain of the bodyguard had released
him from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all the exiles of
Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon. 2 Now the captain of the
bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, "The LORD your God promised
this calamity against this place; 3 and the LORD has brought it on and done
just as He promised. Because you people sinned against the LORD and did not
listen to His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you. 4 “But now,
behold, I am freeing you today from the chains which are on your hands. If you
would prefer to come with me to Babylon, come along, and I will look after you;
but if you would prefer not
to come with me to Babylon, never mind. Look, the whole land is before you; go
wherever it seems good and right for you to go." 5 As Jeremiah was still
not going back, he said, "Go on back then to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan,
whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with
him among the people; or else go anywhere it seems right for you to go."
So the captain of the bodyguard gave him a ration and a gift and let him go. 6
Then Jeremiah went to Mizpah to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam and stayed with him
among the people who were left in the land.”
Dr. Wiersbe closes this tenth chapter of his commentary
with a quote from G. Campbell Morgan, which is from his commentary on
Jeremiah. “We in our security need to be
reminded that for us also there may come the eleventh year, and the fourth
month, and the tenth day of the month, when God will hurl us from our place of
privilege, as He surely will, unless we are true to Him.”
Now let us look at verses 15-18 of Jeremiah chapter
39: “15
Now the word of the LORD had come to Jeremiah while he was confined in
the court of the guardhouse, saying, 16
"Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, ’Thus says the
LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold, I am about to bring My words on
this city for disaster and not for prosperity; and they will take place before
you on that day. 17 “But I will deliver you on that day," declares the
LORD, "and you will not be given into the hand of the men whom you dread. 18
“For I will certainly rescue you, and you will not fall by the sword; but you
will have your own life as booty, because you have trusted in Me," declares
the LORD.’"”
We have meet Ebed-melech earlier as he was the man with great
courage who went into see King Zedekiah and secured Jeremiah’s release from the
well where he was left to die. God surely
remembered this man for his faithfulness and also because he knew the Lord and
feared and trusted Him.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Ebed-melech is a
man that is good to emulate as He loved the Lord and as he stood firm on his
convictions and as he had the courage to follow out his convictions. I have a great deal of respect for him and
will one day when I am in heaven want to meet him to tell him how much I
respect him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to give me the courage to do
as He desires me to do. Yesterday I had
the great opportunity to speak to a man about the Lord. I prayed to the Lord and told Him that if He
opened a way for me to talk to him that I would do so, and I must admit that I
also told the Lord that I did not really feel like doing it as I was under some
stress, but I was faithful to the Lord as He opened up a way to talk to him and
I pray that the Lord will no bring this man to our church where I can continue
to minister to him.
Memory verses for the week: Colossians 3:1-2.
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. 2 Set
you mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “By our fruits.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘Arise, and take the
young child and his mother, and flee to Egypt’?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/24/2014 9:42 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment