SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/25/2014
10:28 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Jeremiah the Faithful Shepherd
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
40:1-6
Message of the
verses: We begin to look at the 40th
chapter of Jeremiah and also begin the 11th chapter of Dr. Wiersbe’s
commentary on Jeremiah. He entitles this
chapter “Tragedy Follows Tragedy,” and it covers chapters 40-45 of the book of
Jeremiah. We will first look at the
introduction and then began to do the commentary on the first six verses of
Jeremiah chapter 40.
As we begin to look at these six chapters in the book of
Jeremiah we are looking at the post war Judah, as the nation has already been
beaten by the Babylonians and Nebuchadnezzar has allowed a remnant to stay in
Judah. Now he may have done this in
order to feed his soldiers that were there, but as I read through this it seems
to me that the leaders he left in charge were trying to do right for the
people, but the problem was that the people did not learn from what they just
went through, and that is that God had punished them because of their sins,
mostly it was idolatry that God punished the for. We must remember that one of the attributes
of God is that He is a jealous God, and this jealously is not like the kind of
jealousy that people have for others, but God is perfect and He wants His
children to worship only Him and not an idol.
Now the idols that the Jewish people were worshiping during this time
were idols of gold, silver, and wood that they had made, but the idols that the
Church worships today in our society are different but they are still
idols. We worship what we see on TV,
sports figures and teams, making a great deal of money, we worship sex; we
worship many things that take our worship away from the Lord. All people worship something, every minute of
their lives, as worship is not just our singing of our songs to the Lord on
Sunday morning and listening to a sermon, this type of worship should come from
what we have worshiped throughout our week that we spent with the Lord looking
at His Word and perhaps reading books that move our hearts towards the Lord, or
even listening to sermons on the radio or on CD, but we must realize that
worship is 24/7/365, and we must worship the true living God.
As we look at these chapters we will realize that the bad
thing about learning from history is that we don’t learn a bit from history as
we continue to do the same things over and over and it is foolish to do this
because the outcome is always going to be the same. Dr. Wiersbe writes “The drama was a tragic
one with a cast of characters that is seen in every age. The script of history may change a bit from
time to time, but the characters are still the same.” We will be looking at different characters in
these six chapters and the first one is Jeremiah, the Faithful Shepherd as seen
from the first six verses of chapter forty.
“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.”
We
actually looked at these verses briefly as we concluded the last SD from
chapter 39 of Jeremiah, and what we learned when we looked at these verses is
that there was a mix up in that Jeremiah was being taken to Babylon when he was
suppose to be released which is what we see in these verses, for he is given a
choice as to whether to go to Babylon or to stay with those who were staying in
Judah. The town he is going to is a
little ways north of Jerusalem.
Why
do you suppose that Jeremiah did not go to Babylon, as it would have been
better for his to do this? Well the
answer is in the heading of this section which tells that Jeremiah is a
faithful shepherd, and that means he did not want to leave his sheep, even
though these sheep were a troublesome flock as we will see as we look at these
six chapters.
The
Babylonian captain of the guard preached a pretty good sermon to Jeremiah, but
this sermon was like preaching to the choir, as Jeremiah had been preaching
this sermon all of his life as a prophet to the Jews to no avail. One of the reasons it is hard to witness to
Jews in our day is because they see a Gentile trying to tell them that their
Messiah has already come and because they don’t believe this because they were
the ones that God gave the Scriptures too, along with all the other things
necessary to worship the Lord, so they won’t listen to those who come to tell
them the truth. Paul wrote the following
to go along with what I have just written:
“1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience
testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2
that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could
wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my
brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as
sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple
service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ
according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen
(Romans 9:1-5).
Jeremiah
chose to join Gedaliah who was the one that Nebuchadnezzar had appointed as the
governor of the land of Judah, but the problem is that most of those who stayed
would not be satisfied with just living in the land for they still wanted to
disobey the Lord as we will see.
Dr.
Wiersbe writes in conclusion to this first main point: “Jeremiah made difficult choices at the beginning
and the end of his ministry. It would
have been much easier to serve as a priest, but he obeyed God’s call to be a
prophet, and it would have been much more comfortable in Babylon, but he opted
to remain in the land of his fathers.
Jeremiah was a true shepherd and not a hireling (see John 10:12-13).” “"He who is a hired hand, and not a
shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves
the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 “He flees
because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep (John
10:12-13).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I have often thought that as I see the
problems beginning to take their toll in our country that the best thing for me
would be to either move to a different place where I could survive better in
case things get really bad in this country, but it seems to me that God wants
me right where I am, and this has always been a problem for me as I am not
content living where I live, but perhaps that is how the Lord is teaching me
contentment. Jeremiah did the will of
the Lord in staying with those troublesome people because it was the Lord’s
will for his life and so I must do the same.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue on my journey of learning
contentment.
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 your mind on things above, not on the
things that are on earth.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The angel of the Lord”
(Matthew 2:13).
Today’s Bible
question: “Jonah prophesied that what
city would be overthrown?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/25/2014 11:21 AM
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