SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/16/2014
7:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God’s Word
Protected PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
36:5-26
Message of the
verses: We will look at the third
sub-point in this Spiritual Diary.
God Declared His Word (Jeremiah 36:5-26): “5 Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, "I
am restricted; I cannot go into the house of the LORD. 6 “So you go and read
from the scroll which you have written at my dictation the words of the LORD to
the people in the LORD’S house on a fast day. And also you shall read them to
all the people of Judah who come from their cities. 7 “Perhaps their
supplication will come before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil
way, for great is the anger and the wrath that the LORD has pronounced against
this people." 8 Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that
Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the book the words of the LORD
in the LORD’S house.
“9 Now in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the
son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem
and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a
fast before the LORD. 10 Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah
in the house of the LORD in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the
scribe, in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’S house,
to all the people. 11 Now when Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan,
had heard all the words of the LORD from the book, 12 he went down to the
king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber. And behold, all the officials were
sitting there-Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and
Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the
son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. 13 Micaiah declared to them all
the words that he had heard when Baruch read from the book to the people. 14
Then all the officials sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah,
the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, "Take in your hand the scroll from
which you have read to the people and come." So Baruch the son of Neriah
took the scroll in his hand and went to them. 15 They said to him, "Sit
down, please, and read it to us." So Baruch read it to them. 16 When they had heard all the
words, they turned in fear one to another and said to Baruch, "We will
surely report all these words to the king." 17 And they asked
Baruch, saying, "Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? Was
it at his dictation?" 18 Then Baruch said to them, "He dictated all
these words to me, and I wrote them with ink on the book." 19 Then the
officials said to Baruch, "Go, hide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and do not
let anyone know where you are."
“20 So they went to the king in the court,
but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and
they reported all the words to the king. 21 Then the king sent Jehudi to get
the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And
Jehudi read it to the king as well as to all the officials who stood beside the
king. 22 Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with
a fire burning in the brazier before him. 23 When Jehudi had read three or four
columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire that
was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in
the brazier. 24 Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, nor did
they rend their garments. 25 Even though Elnathan and Delaiah and
Gemariah pleaded with the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to
them. 26 And the king commanded
Jerahmeel the king’s son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of
Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD hid
them.”
As I read, and re-read these words in this section of the
book of Jeremiah I have several thoughts about what is said here. I have highlighted some word in verse 24 that
to me show the problem that the people of Judah had during this time of their history,
and that is that there was no fear of the Lord in them. Now as I look at what is going on in our
country and not only our country, but many countries around the world I see the
same problem, that is there is no fear of the Lord. When we go back to the founding of our
country we saw that there was much fear of the Lord by the majority of the
people who founded our country. As the
years passed the fear of the Lord was still seen in our country as we went
through two spiritual revivals, one right before the Revolutionary War and then
one right before the Civil War, and then as the different wars came about
people still had a great fear of the Lord, even those who did not have a
personal relationship with the Lord. In
my opininion when Darwin began to write his theory of evolution that things
began their downward spiral to where we are now. Now I have stated many times in different
Spiritual Diaries that the theory of evolution is impossible, there is no way
it can or could happen, but what it did do was, in a sense “kill God,” or that
is what people think happened. This
theory is taught as fact in all of our public schools and colleges in our
country even though it has been proven that it is not true. So why do they continue to teach it? People do not want to be accountable to God,
and so they believe a lie, just like our first parents believed a lie and thus plunged
the entire world into sin.
I have also stated that I do believe that we are near the
end-times that the Bible teaches us about and one of the things that will
happen in the end times is that people will not have a fear of the Lord. All true believers will be removed from this
earth at what we know as the Rapture of the Church, and so only unbelievers are
left and they will be happy that all of these true believers are gone so that
they can go about their business without anyone telling them about the Lord,
and how they must confess that they are sinners and turn to the Lord Jesus
Christ for forgiveness of their sins and be saved. During this time there will be no fear of the
Lord and we can see this happening now.
Lord willing we will soon begin the study of 2 Thessalonians, an
exciting book that has much to say about the end times. Here is an example of what Paul writes to
these people as he tells them about the end times and what will happen to those
who live during this time: “11 For this
reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe
what is false, 12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the
truth, but took pleasure in wickedness (2 Thess. 2:11-12).” People will have rejected the light that they
have been given and so God will judge them.
This is exactly what happened in the verses that we are looking at for
today’s SD as Jeremiah’s scroll was read to the king of Judah he was hearing
the very Word of God and what did he do?
He burned it with fire. He had no
fear of the Lord unlike other kings in the past.
John MacArthur writes the following on verse five: “Restricted:
The word means ‘confined, hindered, shut up,’ and is the same term used
for imprisonment in 33:1 and 39:15. The
fact that princes allowed Jeremiah to depart into hiding (v 19) may indicate
that he was curtailed in some ways without being in prison. There is no record of his being imprisoned in
Jehoiakim’s rule.”
As we go through this section there were some that were
in fear when they heard what Jeremiah had written, which was the Word of God,
but we don’t know if they were fearful because of what they heard of fearful of
what the king would do when he heard it.
Hopefully there were some there that believed the Word of God and did
fear Him as they heard about what the Lord was going to do to the nation of
Judah. The scroll was read three times,
the last time it was burned by the unbelieving king who had no fear of God’s
Word of God otherwise he would not have burned it.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section with
these words: “Over the centuries, God’s
enemies have tried to destroy the Word of God but have always failed. They forget what Jesus said about the
Word: ‘Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but My words shall not pass away’ (Matthew 24:35). ‘The grass withers and the flowers fall, but
the word of our God stands forever’ (Isa. 40:8 NIV; quoted in 1 Peter
1:24-25). Translators and preachers of
the Word have been persecuted and martyred, but the truth of God still stands.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have a desire
to tell others about the Word of God so that the Holy Spirit of God can use His
Word to convict them of their sins and turn to the Lord to be saved.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Read His Word and fear the Lord.
Memory verse 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: “Blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit.”
Today’s Bible
question: “In Malachi 3:1, how shall the
Lord come to his temple?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/16/2014 8:27 AM
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