Category: Jeremiah–BibleTrekToday
“Fire and Hammer”
Scripture reading for August 8: Jeremiah 21-25
“Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has My Word speak it faithfully. for what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not My Word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:28-29
As young Christians, we attended a church that learned Scripture through the worship songs. A lady named Laura, playing an autoharp, taught us worship from her King James Bible. One of the songs was from these verses in Jeremiah. It was a catchy tune and my younger son Marshal picked it up and was always singing it. It is interesting to note that Marshal is preaching God’s Word today!
Jeremiah had to deliver some hard messages to his own peers in the ministry of that day. He spoke a Word to the shepherds of that day, accusing them of scattering the sheep and destroying them. (Jeremiah 23:1-3) The shepherds were the kings of Judah, and he warned them repeatedly of coming woe and trouble, but few appreciated his warnings! (Jeremiah 22:11-12) He declared God, Himself, would raise up a ‘righteous Branch’ from the line of David who would restore justice and save the nation. (Jeremiah 23:5-6) This righteous King would bring God’s people out of captivity in the lands where they would be scattered and bring them into their own land. (Jeremiah 23:7-8)
The godless priests and prophets were the cause of the people going astray. They committed adultery and lived a lie. They prophesied by Baal, the false idol of the Canaanites and led the people astray.(Jeremiah 23:13-14) They told people who were living in sin and stubbornness that they would have peace when God’s Word said they would have trouble. (Jeremiah 23:16-17)
Jeremiah understood the Word of God as a Fire. As fire would burn out the dross to refine the metal and burn up the chaff, so it would refine God’s people. Jeremiah saw God’s Word as being a Hammer that could shatter solid rock. Hardened hearts would be broken by this Hammer. Jeremiah’s heart was broken and his bones trembled at the thought of God’s holy Words and their supernatural power. (Jeremiah 23:9)
Should we argue with the Potter?
Scripture reading for August 7: Jeremiah 16-20
“Then the Word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.” Jeremiah 18:5-6
God sent Jeremiah down to the potter’s house and had him watch the potter working on his wheel. As the potter was working, his pot was flawed, and he smashed it down again and formed it into another pot, as it suited him. (Jeremiah 18:1-2) God then spoke to Jeremiah about His people being like the clay in the hand of the potter. God was in charge of the clay and the shaping of the vessel that was formed! If the flaws that were in the clay were not eliminated by repentance, then the potter would have to reshape the pot!
After Jeremiah preached this message to the people, they attacked him with their tongues and then ignored him. (Jeremiah 18:18) Jeremiah cried out to the Lord for help against his attackers. They had viewed his message as evil when God and he had meant it for good! (Jeremiah 18:19-20) They plotted to kill the prophet and do away with him. Jeremiah became angry and asked God to not forgive them! (Jeremiah 18:23)
God gave Jeremiah another object lesson. He was to go and buy a pot from the potter and take it to the valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Ben Hinnom was the city garbage dump where there were fires burning all the time. It was a picture of hell. There Jeremiah was to tell the people about all the ways that they had resisted the hand of their Potter and angered Him. Then he was to smash the pot as an example of what would happen to them if they failed to respond. (Jeremiah 19:1-10)
It doesn’t pay to argue with the Potter, God! He is in charge and can do with our vessel as He pleases. If we are responsive and yield to Him, His hands will make a beautiful vessel of honor for His house. If not, we will be smashed down and reformed. In the end, a useless vessel ends up in the valley of Ben Hinnom broken beyond further usefulness.
Lesson of the dirty underwear
Scripture reading for August 6: Jeremiah 11-15
Object lessons employ the principle that a ‘picture is worth a thousand words’. God has always given object lessons through His prophets, and some are pretty graphic. In today’s reading God instructs Jeremiah to go and buy a linen belt and put it around his waist. This belt was a type of underwear that Jeremiah would wear close to his body in the most intimate place. He was to wear it for a period of time but not wash it in water. (Jeremiah 13:1) Can you just imagine body sweat and the dust of the daily walk on the roads of that day causing the white linen underwear to soil?
The next thing God instructed Jeremiah to do was to take the underwear and hide it in a crevice of a rock. After many days he was to go and retrieve it. (Jeremiah 13:3-6) There were no surprises; the linen belt was ruined and completely useless. What was this object lesson meant to teach God’s people?
God said that His people were like the white linen underwear. He wanted to keep them close to Him in intimacy and as a special treasure. They refused to listen and instead were filled with stubborn pride and rebellion. The went after other gods and worshiped them and became useless, just like the linen undergarment. They were supposed to be God’s people for ‘renown, praise and honor’, but fell far short of their calling. (Jeremiah 13:11)
God’s Word contains another statement similar to this in the New Testament book of 1st Peter. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praise of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” (1st Peter 2:9-10) Another version uses the term “peculiar people”. This term speaks of a special treasure–pocket change that God can use for His special purposes. We belong to God and must choose to stay close to Him. Intimacy requires purity! He dresses His saints in pure white linen! (Revelation 19:13)
Preaching at the church door!
Scripture reading for August 5: Jeremiah 7-10
Jeremiah was sent to preach to God’s people and told that they would not listen! (Jeremiah 7:27) He was told on several occasions not to pray for these people because their sins had removed them from God’s grace, but he wept rivers of tears for them anyway! (Jeremiah 7:16) (Jeremiah 9:22-23) His preaching was straight and he used interesting object lessons to get the people’s attention! He was told by God to go to the gate of the temple of the Lord and preach to the people as they arrived for worship and sacrifice. (Jeremiah 7:2-7) “Hear the Word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, The God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, and in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.”
God’s people were going through the motions of religion and were deceived! Jeremiah’s words struck to the heart of the matter. We can use our religious activities to justify our own selfish lifestyles. God is not interested in religious activities unless they come from a heart that is humble, repentant and willing to listen to Him. Their trust was in their attendance at the temple. God called them to change attitudes and actions. He cared about orphans and widows, the alien and the poor. His heart was broken when innocent blood was shed and people dealt unjustly with one another. He hated adultery and lying. God wanted His people to reflect His heart of love.
God was and is watching over His Word and His people’s response to His Word! When He sees hypocrisy, He desires repentance and faith. Jesus Christ went into the temple of the Lord and saw the same things with the money changers and traders. He quoted from Jeremiah: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a ‘den of robbers’.” (Mark 11:17) (Jeremiah 7:11) After preaching, He then cleansed the temple! Maybe we need more preaching at the church door!
Set apart from before conception!
Scripture reading for August 3: Jeremiah 1-6
When does life really begin? This debate has been going on in our nation for a number of years. Some say life begins at conception while others say it begins when the fetus is able to maintain life on it’s own outside of the womb. Others say that life begins only after birth. But God’s Word states another truth!
“The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:4-5) This Scripture and others in the Bible indicate that God knows each person before they are formed in the womb! Ephesians 1:4 states that God chose us to be in Christ before the creation of the world! We are more significant than we might think to God and He has a plan for each of us before we are conceived!
Before he was born, Jeremiah was appointed by God to be a prophet. Prophets were to listen to God and then speak His thoughts and Word to people. As he spoke, God promised to be with him and deliver him. I don’t know about you, but if God told me that He would deliver me, I would be asking what I would be involved in that called for deliverance! But when any prophet spoke the Word, it always brought some kind of response. God uses His Word to uproot and tear down, or to build up and plant. (Jeremiah 1:7-9) Prophets often need deliverance from the response of those who hear them!
Next God gave Jeremiah a vision of an almond tree. The almond tree was the first tree to bloom in the spring in Israel and it was watched by all the people as a sign that spring was coming. God spoke to Jeremiah through that vision that God Himself would watch over His Word to bring it to pass. (Jeremiah 1:11-12)
I believe that as we read through Jeremiah God will speak to us about our time and day! Listen closely for God speaking to you and confirming His call. Let Him show you how He has watched over His Word and is still watching over it to bring it to pass. It will revolutionize your faith and daily walk.
A broken and contrite heart!
Scripture reading for June 12: Psalms 50-54
David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of his friend, Uriah, is recorded in scripture in 2nd Samuel 11-12. This was a dark blot on the life of a man that had walked closely with God for about 50 years. King David had decided to stay home from the war with Israel’s enemies to rest and relax. He let his eyes wander as his heart grew cold and ended up in bed with his neighbor’s wife. She became pregnant and David decided to try to frame his friend. When this didn’t work, he had his friend murdered!
Psalm 51 is the record of David’s confession and repentance from these sins. Both of these sins required that the perpetrators be stoned to death under God’s law. (Leviticus 20:10)(Leviticus 24:17) What is remarkable about King David’s confession of these sins, was that he considered them to be against God alone. God granted David forgiveness and grace under the law because of a broken and contrite heart!
A broken and contrite heart takes responsibility for sin. It admits to breaking God’s law instead of denial and blame of someone else or even God. (Psalm 51:3-5) David recognized that he was sinful from birth. We are born in sin because of Adam’s sin! We can only be delivered supernaturally by God’s mercy through Jesus Christ!
Jeremiah stated that the heart by human nature was deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. (Jeremiah 17:9-11) God searches the hearts of men and knows the truth about what is in them. God wants to wash our hearts and cleanse them. David asked to be cleansed with hyssop. While in Egypt, the Israelites used hyssop branches to sprinkle the blood of the sacrificial lambs on the doorposts of their houses to keep the death angel from striking the first-born.
Broken hearts long for the joy and salvation that comes from God’s grace of forgiveness. (Psalm 51:9-12) All pride in human effort and ability is set aside and humility comes in it’s place. There is joy and a willing spirit to follow the Lord and be taught of Him. True brokenness leads to a life of humble service and witness for those who are forgiven much, love much. Out of this love they want to do God’s will and praise His Name! (Psalm 51:13-15)
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart , Oh God, You will not despise.” Psalm 51:17
God has the king’s heart!
Scripture reading for May 2nd: Ezra 1-3
The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases.” Proverbs 21:1
Are you worried when the politician of the wrong party gets into office! Are you concerned when a leader may not make decisions you agree with or like? Today’s reading reminds us that God is in control of all kings and He can turn their hearts to do His work. We are to pray for our leaders and trust the Lord to turn their hearts to do His will!
Cyrus, King of Persia was named by the prophet Isaiah as the king God would choose to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. (Isaiah 44:26-28) This prophetic Word occurred over 150 years earlier in 688 B.C. when Babylon was the ruling world power. Cyrus began to fulfil this prophesy by making the decree in 538 B.C. to rebuild the temple. (Ezra 1:2-4) He released Jews who were willing to go and work. He also sent back the articles from the temple which had been taken by King Nebuchadnezzar some seventy years earlier. (Ezra 1:9-10)
Ezra lists the numbers of people who returned as well. Priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and temple servants were all accounted for. The whole company was 42,360 Israelites, not counting servants. (Ezra 2:64-67) God keeps accurate records and knows each person by name.
As we look at what transpired after the decreed 70 years of captivity (Jeremiah 29:10), we are amazed at how accurately God predicted what would happen and when it would come about! God is able to turn the hearts of those in leadership, and it doesn’t matter if they are believers or not.
Take time today and pray for our nation and it’s leadership. We are far from where God wants us to be and our leaders are doing things that are contrary to God’s Word and will. Remember how God uses leaders and nations. When His people pray, He hears and acts. “The heart of the king (president, judge, senator, congressman) is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse where ever He pleases.” Proverbs 21:1
God’s patience will run out
Scripture reading for October 21st: Jeremiah 50-51, 2nd Peter 3
2nd Peter 3: 8-10 “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”
God is loving and compassionate, slow to anger and patient in working for salvation of each person and nation. God gives time to repent and sends His messengers and Word. But Peter also warned the Church not to take God’s love and patience as an indication that He was not just and would not bring recompense for those doing evil. Peter warned that the Day of the Lord would come like a thief with sudden destruction. God would punish evil and unrepentant people and would ultimately cleanse the heavens and the earth by the fire of His wrath against sin. This is cause for self-examination and renewed dedication to Christ Jesus and flight from the fallen world system that is under God’s judgment. It is also time to be about God’s business of saving the lost while His patience waits.
2nd Peter 3:11-13 “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to His promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for Your great patience and compassion for lost mankind. Thank You for sending Jesus Christ at just the right time to redeem us by His blood. Thank You for sending Your Church with a Gospel of grace and warnings of the coming Day of the Lord and Your just anger and wrath against sin. Use me today to spread the Gospel and proclaim Your call to escape the coming wrath.
Jeremiah 51:5-6 “For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the Lord of Hosts, but the land of the Chaldeans is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel. “Flee from the midst of Babylon; let every one save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance, the repayment He is rendering her.”
Beware: Deception in the Church
Scripture reading for October 20th: Jeremiah 47-49, Psalm 80, 2nd Peter 2
2nd Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master Who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”
Peter’s final letter to the Church contained warning similar to other apostles and Jesus and even the prophets of Old Testament times. False teachers and false prophets would arise among God’s people and seek to draw believers away from Christ. They would encourage greed and sensuality and bring disrepute on true believers living in the way of Truth. These deceivers would preach and teach heresies–teachings that divide and cause strife–rather than bringing love and unity and peace. Peter cited examples in Scripture of God’s judgment on the sensual world in the case of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah. He cited Balaam as a false prophet motivated by greed instead of truth. Swift destruction awaits those deceiving and being deceived if they don’t repent.
Psalm 80:17-19 “But let Your hand be on the Man of Your right hand, the Son of Man Who You have made strong for Yourself. Then we shall not turn back from You; give us life, and we will call upon Your Name! Restore us, O Lord God of Hosts! Let Your face shine, that we may be saved!”
Prayer: Father God, we live in deceptive times with many voices seeking to influence us that are not from You. Fill me and Your Church with the Holy Spirit and gifts of discerning of spirits. Use me to warn and be a prophetic voice to this generation concerning the present dangers of deception and idolatry. Restore us, O Lord God of Hosts! Let Your face shine on us for we trust only in You!
Jeremiah 48:6-8 “Flee! Save yourselves! You will become like a juniper in the desert! For because you trusted in your works and your treasures, you also shall be taken; and Chemosh shall go into exile with his priests and his officials. The destroyer shall come upon every city and no city shall escape; the valley shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the Lord has spoken.”
Living in exile!
Scripture reading for October 19th: Jeremiah 43, 44, 46, 2nd Peter 1
2nd Peter 1: 14-19 “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He Who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on Him as Father Who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
Our journey on earth is likened by Peter as living in exile from our true home in the holy presence of God. Holiness is the character of God the Father and Jesus Christ as well as the Holy Spirit. The word for ‘holy’ means ‘set apart’ and God is truly set apart from all other beings. His holiness and perfection allow Him to judge impartially each person made in His image and called His ‘children’. He knows all things past, present and future. These sobering truths should motivate us to live in holy reverence and separation to God Who loved us enough to redeem us from our sin and rebellion through the blood of Jesus Christ. God raised Jesus from the dead and revealed Him as God the Son to all who look to Him in faith.
2nd Peter 1:20-21 “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but wad made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
Prayer: Holy Father, I am in awe and holy respect for You and Your holiness and loving plans to save and redeem Your people and even to restore them from captivity that they brought upon themselves by disobedience. As I live in exile from my eternal holy home with You, set me apart daily to be holy and to live in reverence and hope, knowing that You will soon return to fulfill all prophetic promises!
Jeremiah 46:27 “But fear not, O Jacob My servant, nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from far away, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid.”