SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/4/2014
9:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Restoration:
a New Land and Kingdom PT-4
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah 33:1-26
Message of the
verses: We will look at this chapter
in different sections and try to look at the entire chapter in today’s SD.
“Unsearchable things” (Jeremiah 33:1-26): “1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah
the second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard, saying,
2 "Thus says the LORD who made the
earth, the LORD who formed it to establish it, the LORD is His name, 3 ’Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will
tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’ 4 “For thus says the
LORD God of Israel concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the
houses of the kings of Judah which are broken down to make a defense against
the siege ramps and against the sword, 5 ’While they are coming to fight with
the Chaldeans and to fill them with the corpses of men whom I have slain in My
anger and in My wrath, and I have hidden My face from this city because of all
their wickedness.”
“‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and
unsearchable things
you do not know’ (Jeremiah 33:3 NIV).”
The reason that I also copied the NIV from verse three is
because that is in the sub-title from Dr. Wiersbe’s outline. He writes about this word that is translated “unsearchable”
or in the case of the NASB “mighty.” “The
word translated ‘unsearchable’ pictures an impregnable city protected by high
walls—an apt image during the siege of Jerusalem. The idea is that God’s people don’t learn the
hidden things of the Lord by ‘storming the gates’ through their own strength
but by seeking Him through believing prayer. Because Jeremiah asked the Lord to
teach him, God showed him ‘hidden things’ that related to the future of his
people. The prophet knew that the city
was destined for judgment (vv. 4-5), but the Lord gave him further words of
assurance and encouragement—promises that relate to the end times.” We have already mentioned that this section
(chapters 30-33) speak of the end times probably as much as Jeremiah writes
about them in all of his writings.
Jeremiah 33:6-8 “6 ’Behold, I will bring to it health and
healing, and I will heal them; and I will reveal to them an abundance of peace
and truth. 7 ’I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel
and will rebuild them as they were at first. 8
’I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned
against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned
against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.” When you read the prayers that both Daniel
and Nehemiah prayed in their respective books you will see that both of them
asked the Lord for forgiveness for themselves and also for the nation of Judah
and Israel for the sins that they had committed against the Lord and now in
Jeremiah’s writings we see that the Lord will in the future forgive them for
their sins. Now when one reads the book
of Daniel they will not see any sins that Daniel committed, but Daniel knew
that he was a sinner, born into sin and having a sin nature and that is why he
included himself in asking for forgiveness as he prayed for his people.
We can see from verses 6-8 that God will heal this disgraceful
city in the future and when one reads from chapters 40-48 of Ezekiel they will
see how Jerusalem will look during the Millennial Kingdom when Christ will rule
the world from the city of Jerusalem.
“9 ’It will be to
Me a name of joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth which
will hear of all the good that I do for them, and they will fear and tremble
because of all the good and all the peace that I make for it.’ 10 "Thus
says the LORD, ’Yet again there will be heard in this place, of which you say,
"It is a waste, without man and without beast," that is, in the
cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man
and without inhabitant and without beast, 11
the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom
and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, "Give thanks to
the LORD of hosts, For the LORD is good, For His lovingkindness is
everlasting"; and of those who bring a thank offering into the house of
the LORD. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were at first,’
says the LORD (Jeremiah 33:9-11).”
In verse nine we see that because of what the Lord will
do for the city of Jerusalem and His people that he will receive joy and praise
from the nations of the earth and this is also a theme of what will happen
during the Millennial Kingdom.
In verses 10-11 we see that the city of Jerusalem, a city
in almost total ruins when Jeremiah wrote this account, will one day again be
filled with people who praise the Lord.
“12 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ’There will again be in
this place which is waste, without man or beast, and in all its cities, a
habitation of shepherds who rest their flocks. 13 ’In the cities of the hill country, in the
cities of the lowland, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in
the environs of Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again
pass under the hands of the one who numbers them,’ says the LORD (Jeremiah
33:12-13).”
We can see from these two verses that not only will the
city of Jerusalem be a place where God is glorified during the Millennial Kingdom,
but also the pasture lands which have also been ruined by the Babylonians, will
again be full of flocks and herds which will express joy to the people as God
cares for their needs. This will also be
true of the little towns found outside of Jerusalem.
“14 ’Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ’when I
will fulfill the good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel
and the house of Judah. 15 ’In
those days and at
that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall
execute justice and righteousness on the earth. 16 ’In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem
will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she will be called: the
LORD is our righteousness’(Jeremiah 33:14-16).”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “The greatest blessing of all will be
their promised King reigning in righteousness!
(vv. 14-16; see 23:5) Jeremiah already told us that His name is ‘The
Lord our Righteousness’ (v. 6), but now God revealed that Jerusalem will bear the same name!”
We know that this did not happen when the exiles returned to rebuild the
temple and the city so we know that this promise will happen in the Millennial
Kingdom too. We know that Jeremiah is
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ who will reign over the whole earth from
Jerusalem during the Millennial Kingdom as stated earlier.
17 ¶ "For
thus says the LORD, ’David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the
house of Israel; 18 and the Levitical
priests shall never lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn
grain offerings and to prepare sacrifices continually.’" 19 The word of
the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 20 “Thus says the LORD, ’If you can break My
covenant for the day and My covenant for the night, so that day and night will
not be at their appointed time, 21 then My covenant may also be broken with
David My servant so that he will not have a son to reign on his throne, and
with the Levitical priests, My ministers. 22 ’As the host of heaven cannot be
counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the
descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me’"
(Jeremiah 33:17-22).”
We see in this section David will always have a man
sitting on his throne, and this may be a bit difficult to understand so we will
look to a note from the MacArthur Study Bible to help us out: “God promised to fulfill the Davidic (2Sa.
17) and Priestly/Levitical (Nu. 25:10-13) covenants without exception. The promise was a certain as the sure
appearance of night and day and the incalculable number of stars or sand
grains.” I also want to mention again
the Ezekiel 40-48 passage which speaks about offerings to be made during the
Millennial Kingdom as people will look back at what the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished on the cross to provide salvation.
23 And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, 24
“Have you not observed what this people have spoken, saying, ’The two families
which the LORD chose, He has rejected them’? Thus they despise My people, no
longer are they as a nation in their sight. 25
"Thus says the LORD, ’If My covenant for day and night stand not,
and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, 26 then I would reject the descendants of Jacob
and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the
descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and
will have mercy on them’" (Jeremiah 33:23-26).”
As we look at these four remaining verses from Jeremiah
33 we see that again the Lord comes to Jeremiah and talks about two families,
which are Judah and Israel, and tells us that they have a future. There are many who do not believe that Israel
still has a future, but all we have to do is look at the nation of Israel now
and we will see that God fulfilled the promises of Ezekiel 36-37 in bringing
the nation back onto its land and as Isaiah tells us He did it in one day. As we look forward into Ezekiel 38-39 we will
see that God will bring a collation of nations against Israel and then He will
defeat these nations, and this is still future, but God’s Word has been
fulfilled in all things He has spoken about Israel up to this point so why
would we not believe that these things will happen just as He tells us. Many believe that this will happen during the
tribulation period which is described in Revelations 6-19, and I have to agree with
them, because Ezekiel tells us that the nation of Israel will be at rest, and
they certainly are not at rest at this time, for they are surrounded by many ermines.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have mentioned
in many earlier SD’s that I love to study about the end times and one of the
reasons is that the Lord used the study of the end times to bring me to a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ. Another
reason is that the study of the end times increases my faith in the Lord as it
has in our study of Jeremiah 33 did today.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to bring about the things that
He has written about for the future will come to pass.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-11.
5 Have this attitude in
yourself which was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of
God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied
Himself, taking on the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness
of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a
man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death
on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God
highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven
and on earth and under the earth 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The good Samaritan” (Luke
10:30-37).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said ‘The Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord’?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/4/2014 11:20 AM
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