SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/21/2014
11:14 AM
My Worship Time Focus: God’s Word
Rejected PT-4
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
38:14-28
Message of the
verses: We will be looking at the
last sub-point under this main point in today’s Spiritual Diary.
“Hide Nothing from Me” (Jeremiah 38:14-28): “14 Then King Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah
the prophet brought to him at the third entrance that is in the house of the
LORD; and the king said to Jeremiah, "I am going to ask you something; do not hide anything from
me." 15 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "If I tell you, will
you not certainly put me to death? Besides, if I give you advice, you will not listen to me."
16 But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in secret saying, "As the LORD lives, who
made this life for us, surely I will not put you to death nor will I give you over to the hand
of these men who are seeking your life." 17 Then Jeremiah said to
Zedekiah, "Thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, ’If you
will indeed go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live,
this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will
survive. 18 ’But if you will not go out
to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given over to
the hand of the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and you yourself
will not escape from their hand.’" 19 Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah,
"I dread the Jews who have gone over to the Chaldeans, for they may give
me over into their hand and they will abuse me." 20 But Jeremiah said,
"They will not give you over. Please obey the LORD in what I am saying to you, that it may go
well with you and you may live. 21 “But if you keep refusing to go out, this is
the word which the LORD has shown me: 22 ’Then behold, all of the women who
have been left in the palace of the king of Judah are going to be brought out
to the officers of the king of Babylon; and those women will say, "Your
close friends Have misled and overpowered you; While your feet were sunk in the
mire, They turned back." 23 ’They will also bring out all your wives and
your sons to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape from their hand,
but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be
burned with fire.’" 24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Let no man know about these
words and you will not die. 25 “But if the officials hear that I have
talked with you and come to you and say to you, ’Tell us now what you said to
the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us and we will not
put you to death,’ 26 then you are to say to them, ’I was presenting my
petition before the king, not to make me return to the house of Jonathan to die
there.’" 27 Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So
he reported to them in accordance with all these words which the king had
commanded; and they ceased speaking with him, since the conversation had not
been overheard. 28 So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guardhouse until the
day that Jerusalem was captured.”
As we read over the things that Zedekiah had been offered
to him by the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah it kind of makes me think of
the things that God offered to Pharaoh through Moses. I think that we could call this the
long-suffering of the Lord, and yet Jeremiah knew that Zedekiah would not heed
the voice of the Lord.
We see here that Jeremiah had a dilemma as he went in and
talked to the king, and by the way this is the last recorded time that he spoke
to the king. His dilemma was if he told
him the truth about what the Lord had spoke to him then the king would kill
him, and we know that Jeremiah would not lie for he was a true prophet of
God. We can read that the offer that
Jeremiah had been given from the Lord for Zedekiah was that if he would go over
to the Babylonians that he would live, but Zedekiah was afraid of the Jews who
had already gone over to the Babylonians would kill him, and the men who wanted
Jeremiah dead would probably kill the rest of Zedekiah’s family so he had a
great dilemma too. Zedekiah was afraid of his own officers and so he would
choose not to go over to the Babylonians thus disobeying the Word of the Lord
again, or might I say rejecting the Word of God again.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section by
writing “Sometimes God judges a sinful nation by sending them weak leaders who
are hesitant and vacillating and whose leadership (or lack of it) plunges the
nation only deeper into trouble. ‘I will
give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them’ (Isa. 3:4
NKJV). The late John F. Kennedy put it
this way: ‘We, the people, are the boss,
and we get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand
and deserve.’ But Judah wasn’t a
democracy; the people didn’t vote on their king. It was God who gave them what they deserved.”
I want to quote a note from John MacArthur’s Study Bible
from verse 27 of Jeremiah chapter 38: “Jeremiah
did not fall into lying deception here.
What he said was true though he did not divulge all details of the
conversation, to which the prince had no right.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I can see similar things happening to the wonderful
nation that I live in because of the weak leadership that God has given us for
reasons I believe are we live in a very sinful way at this time in our history. We are the most powerful nation on earth, and
yet that means nothing to God if we live in a sinful way.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Don’t be a part of the sinfulness that is
going on in our country at this time.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1-2.
1 Therefore if we 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 the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “His thorn in the flesh.”
Today’s Bible
question: “From what did God create
Adam?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/21/2014 11:48 AM
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