SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/2/2014
9:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The Jewish Remnant: Doomed Idolaters PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
44:20-30
Message of the
verses: We begin the last sub-point
from this main point and then we will have one move lesson in this section as
we have to look at the short 45th chapter of Jeremiah and also some
closing reminders of what we have gone over earlier in this 11th
chapter of Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Jeremiah.
A Terrible Pronouncement (Jeremiah 44:20-30): “20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to
the men and women-even to all the people who were giving him such an
answer-saying, 21 "As for the
smoking sacrifices that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of
Jerusalem, you and your forefathers, your kings and your princes, and the
people of the land, did not the LORD remember them and did not all this come
into His mind? 22 "So the LORD was
no longer able to endure it, because of the evil of your deeds, because of the
abominations which you have committed; thus your land has become a ruin, an
object of horror and a curse, without an inhabitant, as it is this day. 23 "Because you have burned sacrifices and
have sinned against the LORD and not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in
His law, His statutes or His testimonies, therefore this calamity has befallen
you, as it has this day." 24 Then
Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, "Hear the word
of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt, 25 thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, as follows: ’As
for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled it with
your hands, saying, "We will certainly perform our vows that we have
vowed, to burn sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings
to her." Go ahead and
confirm your vows, and certainly perform your vows!’ 26 "Nevertheless hear the word of the LORD, all Judah
who are living in the land of Egypt, ’Behold, I have sworn by My great name,’
says the LORD, ’never
shall My name be invoked again by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land
of Egypt, saying, "As the Lord GOD lives." 27 ’Behold, I am watching over them for harm and not for good,
and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will meet their end by
the sword and by famine until they are completely gone. 28 ’Those who escape
the sword will return out of the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in
number. Then all the remnant of Judah who have gone to the land of Egypt to
reside there will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs. 29 ’This will be the sign to you,’
declares the LORD, ’that I am going to punish you in this place, so that you
may know that My words will surely stand against you for harm.’ 30 "Thus says the LORD, ’Behold, I am going to give over
Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt to the hand of his enemies, to the hand of those
who seek his life, just as I gave over Zedekiah king of Judah to the hand of
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and was seeking his
life.’"”
It seems that I have done something that I have never
done since I began writing my Spiritual Diaries back in 1993, and that is to
put some of the commentary for today’s verses in yesterday’s Spiritual
Diary. I wrote about the “queen of
heaven” in our last Spiritual Diary and the consequences of worshiping her are
seen in these verses. In yesterday’s
verses (15-19) we saw a statement from the men that they had done well in
worshiping the queen of heaven and when they stopped their crops began to fail
them. The queen of heaven was named “Astarte
or Ishtar and this goddess was the god of fertility so this is why them
mentioned that their crops were good when they worshiped her, but King Josiah
made the people give up their idols and then things began to get worse for
them. Conclusion: They were better off when they disobeyed the
Lord and worshiped their idols. We
remember that when we looked at the section of Jeremiah that spoke of the
revival that happened when Josiah was king that we said that the revival was
surely something the king had, but the people did not have revival in the
truest since of a revival and so when the king died they went right back into
worshiping their idols. Now all of this
to say because I did not add this commentary in yesterday’s SD where it
actually belonged, so now we will again look briefly at verses 20-30.
I would say from looking at these verses that the
long-suffering of the Lord was over for these people who disobeyed Him again
and again, by not only going to Egypt when God told them not to go, but also
when they got their they deliberately disobeyed His Law by again worshiping
idols. When Jeremiah gave his message to
them from the Lord they said that they would not obey what the Lord had told
them, and this was a pattern for them, but that they would continue to worship
the queen of heaven. I would like to be
hard on these people, but there are times when I do things that I know are
against what is taught in the Word of God, but soon after that I am convicted
by the Holy Spirit and claim 1 John 1:9, something these people did not do and
that was repent of their sins.
At the end of this section God gives a sign to the Jews
living in Egypt and that sign was that just as Zedekiah was taken off into
captivity so the Lord would send the Babylonians to kill the king of Egypt, Pharaoh
Hopbra.
Now there is something interesting in this section that I
want to talk briefly about and that is that there would only be a few people
who were in Egypt of the Jews who would return to Judah. What I see in that statement is the
sovereignty of God along with the plan of God in action. As we look back into the history of our ancestors
we don’t know all that happened to them, but we do know that they survived long
enough so that we would be born, and as we look at this fact we don’t know who
it was that was born after these few that came back to Judah. Perhaps there are still people who are living
in Israel this day that would be able to trace their linage back to these few
people who came back to Judah from Egypt.
I am a firm believer that there are two lists that are in heaven, those
who are on the list of the Lamb and those who are not, and one thing that I
believe is that all of these people on both of these lists have or had to be
born.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Live my life so
that it is pleasing to the Lord and not be like those people who disobeyed the
Lord and told Him that they were going to disobey Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I am praying for a good day today with a
party that I am going to, to celebrate a friend of mines retirement.
Memory verses for the week: Colossians 3:1-3.
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 your
mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden
with Christ in God.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Cyprus” (Acts 13:4).
Today’s Bible
question: “Who did Abraham send away
with her son because her son made fun of Isaac?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/2/2014 10:10 AM
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