Category: Jeremiah–BibleTrekToday
Rejoicing in a “Heart” Cure!
Scripture reading for August 22nd: Jeremiah 14-17
Key Scriptures: Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”
God told Jeremiah and His people that their problem was a heart problem. Man’s heart is deceitful and cannot be cured through human effort. But God, alone, searches man’s heart and examines all his thoughts. He will one day judge mankind for the deeds that come from man’s wicked and deceitful heart. But God also loves mankind and has provided the cure for the deceitful heart! Praise His Name!
Rejoicing in God’s Cure: Hearts are made pure by faith in Christ! “God, who knows the heart, showed that He accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as He did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we or our fathers have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” (Acts 15:8-11)
Rejoicing in the One true God!
Scripture reading for August 21st: Jeremiah 9-13
Key Scriptures: Jeremiah 10:10-12 But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God, the eternal King. When He is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure His wrath. “Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under heaven.” But God made the earth by His power; He founded the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.”
Idols are simply objects made in images but without life. They can do nothing for those who make them or those who worship them. In fact, they are destined to perish, along with those who hold them. But God alone is the living God who made the heavens and the earth. He is the eternal King who rules the nations! In Him we can find true life and One worthy of worship!
Rejoicing in the Living God: “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine Being is like gold or silver or stone–an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all man by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:29-31)
Thankful for a God who Watches!
Scripture reading for August 18th: Jeremiah 5-8
Key Scriptures: Jeremiah 7:9-11 “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house, which bears My Name, and say, “We are safe”–safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching!” declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah was called as a young child to be a prophet to the nations. In fact, before God formed him in the womb, this call was on his life! Jeremiah had a hard message for his own people, the Jews. Many of them were going through the motions of religious activity, but their daily lives were a mess of sin and rebellion against God’s Law and loving character. God sent Jeremiah with a message of what He saw!
Thankful for a Watchful Savior: “On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as He taught them, He said, “Is it not written: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations/? but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ (Mark 11:15-17)
New mercies each morning!
Scripture reading for August 18th: Lamentations 1-5
Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet because he had a tender heart of compassion for God’s people. (Lamentations 1:16) He had warned them faithfully of the coming judgment and destruction of Jerusalem. He had witnessed this destruction and now was writing to chronicle the grief process going on in his heart. Jeremiah was a lot like Jesus Christ, who also wept over the city of Jerusalem as He saw prophetically the destruction that was to come upon it for their rejection of Him as their Messiah. (Matthew 23:37-39) God values tears so much that the Psalmist said He gathers them up in a bottle and records them on a scroll. (Psalm 56:8) Tears are a sign of caring and compassion and they were modeled by Jesus at Lazarus’ tomb and again over Jerusalem.
In Lamentations 3, the prophet was recounting his misery and pain and described it with images that bring Isaiah 53 and the crucifixion to mind. In the middle of his rant, he turned his thoughts to hope! (Lamentation 3:20-21) The cause of this hope was the thought of God’s steadfast love and His great compassion and mercy. Jeremiah stated that His mercy was “new every morning” and “great is God’s faithfulness”. (Lamentations 3:22-23) Because God was Jeremiah’s portion, he would wait for the Lord.
This funeral lament ends with words of faith, hope and a prayer. God is sovereign and reigns forever. He would have compassion and restore them as they prayed. Take a moment and offer a prayer of thanksgiving and trust in the Lord and His compassion for you. His Son Jesus Christ wept over us and bore our sorrows and tears that we might live in the joy of His love and receive new mercies every morning!
“You, O Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation. Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.” Lamentations 5:19-22
God’s final instructions!
Scripture reading for August 16th: Jeremiah 46-52
“Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the Lord’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves. Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad. Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Wail over her.” Jeremiah 51:6-8a
Jeremiah ended his book with the story of God’s judgement of Babylon because of her treatment of His people. God called to His people to flee from Babylon. Although they would live there for seventy years and then must be ready to return to Israel. The end of Babylon would come quickly or suddenly. In Jeremiah 51:36-40, he told how God would dry up the springs of Babylon. The officials of Babylon would be aroused and drunk at a feast.
This word was passed on to Daniel and helped him interpret the handwriting on the wall the night that Babylon fell! The Babylonian officials were drinking from the golden goblets from God’s House in Jerusalem when the handwriting appeared on the wall. (Daniel 5) Daniel was called to interpret and God’s judgment fell before morning! (Daniel 5:30) It is said that the Medes damned up the river and came in under the wall, taking the city from within!
This prophecy was to be read aloud to the captives in Babylon by Seraiah, an aide to King Zedekiah. When he was finished, he was to tie a rock on it and throw it into the Euphrates River. It would sink to the bottom as a symbol of how Babylon would sink at the appointed time! (Jeremiah 51:59-64)
This Word has a second fulfillment and speaks to the time of the end as well as to the fall of Babylon in Daniel’s time. “Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her(Babylon), my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. . . .Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her; death, mourning, and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.” ” Revelation 18:4-5,8
God’s unsearchable mysteries!
Scripture reading for August 12th: Jeremiah 30-33
“The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3
“While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the Word of the Lord came to him a second time: “This is what the Lord says, He who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it–The Lord is His name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ “ Jeremiah 33:2-3
God loves His people! He draws His people to enter into a love relationship with Him by cords of loving-kindness. He knows that love must be freely given by His people and that they must be drawn back to Him from the world and it’s enticements. God’s love will ransom them from the hand of the enemy. (Jeremiah 31:11) He will cause them to take up the tambourine and dance with the joyful! (Jeremiah 31:4, 13)
At a time when the nation was surrounded by the Babylonians and Jeremiah was confined to the courtyard of the guard under house arrest, God revealed to Jeremiah of a time when He would make a new covenant with Israel and Judah. This covenant will be different than the old one made with those who came out of Egypt. This covenant would include God writing His law on the human heart and mind. God would personally be their God and each person would personally know God. Forgiveness of sin would be experienced by all and God Himself would remember it no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
The condition for great revelation was calling on God in the midst of trial and trouble! The amazing promises of great things given to Jeremiah included the promise of the righteous “Branch” that would sprout from David’s line. (Jeremiah 33:14-16) His name would be “The Lord our Righteousness”. This “Branch” is none other than Jesus Christ! He was the embodiment of the everlasting love of God in human flesh and draws us with His new covenant loving-kindness! These unsearchable things are revealed to those who call on Him!
Beware of ‘feel-good’ prophesies!
Scripture reading for August 11th: Jeremiah 26-29
It takes discernment to hear the voice of God. What sounds good is not always truth and only the truth will make us free! In Jeremiah 28 we have a story of two prophets speaking to God’s people. One had a message of victory and hope, and the other a message of judgment and captivity. One message was true and the other was false. After the messages were given, the people had to decide which one to believe.
In the fifth month of the fourth year of King Zedekiah, all the people were gathered with the priests in the temple. Hananiah, a prophet from Gibeon spoke to Jeremiah in front of all the people. Jeremiah had been wearing a wooden yoke around his neck for a long time telling the people of their coming captivity. Hananiah spoke that within two years, God would remove the yoke of the Babylonians and Judah would be free. To illustrate that message, he took the yoke off Jeremiah and broke it in front of the people. (Jeremiah 28:1-4,10-11)
Jeremiah responded initially with an ‘amen’ to the message. But he added some prophetic insight. Most prophets are sent to warn of coming disaster and turn the people back to God. This prophecy of peace will only be from the Lord if it actually happens. (Jeremiah 28:6-9)
Jeremiah went his way and then the Lord spoke to him to go back with a word for Hananiah. He was to tell Hananiah that he was not sent by the Lord and that his prophecy was not true. God was going to remove the wooden yoke and place an iron yoke on his rebellious people. His final word was that Hananiah would die because he preached rebellion against the Lord.
How would you decide which was true? As we finish reading, the truth becomes apparent. In the seventh month, three months later, Hananiah died! God’s word is always validated because it comes to pass! Please take time today to thank God for His word and the blessing of knowing the truth. Ask Him for discernment in these last days to keep you from being deceived by messages that simply make you feel good but are not of God!