SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/16/2014
11:01 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Prophet’s
Distress PT-4
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Lament.
3:52-66
Message of the
verses: We will look at the last few
verses from the third chapter of Lamentations in today’s SD.
The Prophet’s Persecutors (Lamentations 3:52-66): “52 My enemies without cause Hunted me down
like a bird; 53 They have silenced me in the pit And have placed a stone on me.
54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, "I am cut off!" 55 I called on Your name, O LORD, Out of the lowest pit. 56 You
have heard my voice, "Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief, From
my cry for help." 57 You
drew near when I called on You;
You said, "Do
not fear!" 58 O Lord,
You have pleaded my soul’s cause; You have redeemed my life. 59 O LORD, You have seen my
oppression; Judge my case. 60 You have seen all their vengeance, All their schemes against me.
61 You have heard
their reproach, O LORD,
All their schemes against me. 62 The lips of my assailants and their whispering
Are against me all day long. 63 Look on their sitting and their rising; I am
their mocking song. 64 You
will recompense them, O
LORD, According to the work of their hands. 65 You will give them hardness of heart, Your
curse will be on them. 66 You
will pursue them in anger and destroy them From under the heavens of the LORD!”
“I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me
and heard my cry. 2 He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the
miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.” These are the words of David from Psalm
40:1-2 and perhaps Jeremiah was thinking of them when he wrote this portion of
Lamentations. I have highlighted all the
times that he referred to the Lord in this section and there are many times he
called upon the Lord.
Now I want to quote from the second letter that Paul
wrote to the Thessalonians as I am also studying this letter as well as
Lamentations and I have said before that it had to be the Lord who prompted me
to be in these two books at the same time.
“For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those
who afflict you,” and this is verse six from 2 Thessalonians chapter one. Paul was telling the Thessalonians that the
Lord was going to repay with affliction those who were persecuting them, and
this is exactly what Jeremiah is praying will happen to his enemies. I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that the Bible
teaches that there will be different degrees of punishment in hell, and those that
persecute believers will have a higher degree of punishment than those who have
just lived their life and not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their
Savior. God is a God of justice, and a
God of wrath, but in the way He executes justice and wrath is not the way that
we as humans will execute it, for we would do it out of vengeance while the Lord
does it within His attributes. This passage
also makes me think of the imprecatory Psalms, and we looked at this category of
Psalms when we studied the book of Psalms.
Imprecatory Psalms speak of God’s judgment in a rather harsh way at
times, but we must remember that they are all a part of the inspired Word of
God. When we get to verse six in the
first chapter of 2 Thessalonians chapter one we will speak more on this subject
of God judgment.
Dr. Jeremiah writes “Jeremiah found his support and
salvation in the Lord, and he called upon Him in times of trouble. ‘Fear not’ was God’s message of assurance
(see Jer. 1:8). God saw the wrongs that
were done to His servant and He heard all the lies that were told about
him. But no matter what people may say
about us or do to us, the Lord is on our side, even in times of
chastening. God didn’t desert His
servant, nor will He desert us.”
Dr. Wiersbe concludes this section with the following
words: “You cant reject God’s Word and
escape eventual judgment. David prayed
the same kind of prayer when he was going through persecution (Ps. 28:1-4) (“To
You, O LORD, I call; My rock, do not be deaf to me, For if You are silent to
me, I will become like those who go down to the pit. 2 Hear the voice of my
supplications when I cry to You for help, When I lift up my hands toward Your
holy sanctuary. 3 Do not drag me away with the wicked And with those who work
iniquity, Who speak peace with their neighbors, While evil is in their hearts. 4
Requite them according to their work and according to the evil of their
practices; Requite them according to the deeds of their hands; Repay them their
recompense.”) As Christians, we’re
instructed to pray for our persecutors and to do them good, in the name of
Jesus (Matt. 5:10-12, 43-48). Our Lord is
the greatest example in His treatment of His enemies (1 Peter. 2:21-24), for He
prayed, ‘Father forgive them, for they know not what they do’ (Luke 2:21-34).” As we read through parts of the book of Acts
we see that there were some of the Pharisees come to know the Lord and were
forgiven through Christ.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: When we read
about vengeance in the Word of God we are to allow the Lord to accomplish this
for as I said we would not do it right.
God sometimes uses people in His process of vengeance, but perhaps they
do not realize that that is what they are doing. I think it safe to pray that God will bring
about His vengeance on those who are attacking believers in the world today
just because they are believers, and also it is safe to pray for God to bring
about His vengeance on those who are persecuting the Jews as the Lord promised Abraham
“And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed’ (Genesis 12:3).” However it is good to pray for those who are
persecuting you so the they can see the love in our hearts and obedient to the
Word of God by doing this.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord will give me wisdom in my
praying.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1-9.
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 the things above, not on
the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with
Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will
be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Therefore
consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the
wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you
were living in them. 8 But now you also,
put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your
mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its
evil practices,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Matthew and Luke.”
Today’s Bible
question: “Out of what kind of wood did
God tell Noah to build the ark?”
Answer in our next SD. 9/16/2014 11:44 AM
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