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• Jeremiah 29:11 IN CONTEXT❤️

Remember this book was written from Jeremiah’s view, and he had a scribe to write stuff down for him.  I think Jeremiah was a little ADHD (like me) and popped around in his head a lot.  So this reading is out of order but still fits in the text.

This was written during a time of decline after Josiah.

‘This is what the Lord says: If you do not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, ⁵ and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (though you have not listened), ⁶ then I will make this house like Shiloh and this city a curse among all the nations of the earth.’”

Shiloh was the city north of Jerusalem where the Tabernacle was set up after entering the Promise Land.  Once a very holy place, the Philistines came in and destroyed it completely and stole the Ark of the Covenant.  (It is a fun story to read…as if God could be stolen!  He brought the Philistines plagues so they happily returned it BUT the city remained destroyed.)

This message of Repentance really rubbed the priests and officials the wrong way.  The message was about “their city” “their temple” “their people”.  Who does this guy named Jeremiah think he is??  So what is there response?  Kill Him….ummm I don’t remember that being written in The Law.  Luckily some elders began to defend him talking and mentioned an important prophet in the past…MICAH!

Micah brought a message from the Lord and the revered Hezekiah agreed with him….He was a GREAT King…so maybe we should settle down on this killing Jeremiah trial or we might be in big trouble with the Lord!

The scriptures insert this little story about a true prophet Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim.  Unfortunately, he was put to death.  I am not sure why this story was inserted other than to show how CLOSE Jeremiah came to actual death!

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Chapter 27- This will surly make your eyebrows crunch down with confusion.  I may ruffle a friend’s feathers on this one too.

“Bow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and you will live.”

Wait!  What??  Surrender to a government that you do not agree with?  Why?  I will tell you why…because God has a plan and he says, surrender under their yoke because the Lord put Nebuchadnezzar as a leader for HIS purposes.  His is NOT saying break God’s Law, He is not saying stop worshiping me, He is not saying worship idols….

— ²¹ yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says about the things that are left in the house of the Lord and in the palace of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem: ²² ‘They will be taken to Babylon and there they will remain until the day I come for them,’ declares the Lord. ‘Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’”

He has a plan!  Just follow what God says!

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Chapter 28- Oh the Netflix show this would make!  Who needs Desperate Housewives when you can watch Desperate Prophets!

Just yesterday we read about False Prophets….well here it is.  Prosperity preaching at its finest.  Hananiah false prophet says:

² “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. ³ Within two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and took to Babylon.

Touche!! Well played Hananiah…you learned from the best.  You put an expiration date on it…2 years.  Makes it believable!  As Jeremiah stands there with his sermon prop still around his neck…the Ox yoke (he would so be on the drama team at church), Hananiah one-ups the scene by taking the yoke off him to symbolize his message and smashes it.  How does Jeremiah react….with my personal love language…SARCASM!!

⁶ He said, “Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. 

I love this guy!!  BUT THE ENDING IS THE BEST!!

¹⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you have persuaded this nation to trust in lies. ¹⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you are going to die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.’”

¹⁷ In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died.

Ha!  Now that’s a True Prophet !!!

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Chapter 29!  A letter to the exiles.  We will read a very familiar scripture for some of us.  I pray you NEVER see it written somewhere and have a lukewarm feeling about it.  God’s people have been captured!  Taken to a foreign land!  They are at rock bottom…How can any good come from this???

But don’t leave off the next verse:

 ¹² Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. ❤❤❤❤❤

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In the end a quick jab to the leader of the false prophets: Shemaiah!  Basically saying….You lose!

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Read the whole letter.  If something caught your eye please share in the comments!!  I woke up very early to clean my house (then my classroom)…I would love a comment or two to break up the day)

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Take note to WHO this message is for…the Leaders.  This might be referring to the kings, the leaders, the priests…for me it is the people that teach others in the church today such as mentors, pastors, bible leaders, you, or me.

23 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. 

We need to be very careful who we take Biblical teaching from.  I have left churches (walked out of Bible studies or turned off podcasts)for this very reason.  The ONLY way you are going to discern Truth is by filtering it through the Word of God.  Quick story: a VERY close friend of mine this year decided to leave her husband.  She decided to choose happiness over holiness.  (I am not against a marriage breaking up for the right reasons according to biblical standards, my own mother is divorced for the right reasons).  Anyway, the ‘council’ that advised her that “life was too short not to be happy” was her WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY.   The anger that festered inside of me over this was intense.

“Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the Lord. 

So the chapter continues: Do you want the good news or the bad news first?  Let’s start with the good news because it is REALLY good news!

⁵ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,
a King who will reign wisely
    and do what is just and right in the land.
⁶ In his days Judah will be saved
    and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
    The Lord Our Righteous Savior.

Yes of course this is a double prophecy…well more than double:

• A remnant will survive the captivity and return safely to Jerusalem after 70 years
• Israel will be reunited in 1948
• In the end times, God will restore the Israelites for the end times prophecy
• BUT THE ONE I KNOW YOU SAW WAS THE MESSIAH!!

Now the bad news.  We have read God’s view for weeks on the wickedness and judgment coming on the kings in the land, however, we have to recognize that they (and we) live in a world of false prophets.  People who twist God’s scripture for their benefit.  It’s everywhere! (I have done it without intent)

This section consists of seven different messages that Jeremiah delivered at various times, which the writer placed together in the text because of their common subject.

1. There was an abundance of false prophets. (9-12)  The Lord announced that both prophets and priests were polluted with unfaithfulness. They even practiced their wickedness in the temple, where of all places they should have been faithful to the Lord.
2. Judah’s prophets were WORSE than Israel’s prophets. (13-15) Samaria verse Jerusalem.  WHAT??  This was the Covenant line! David’s line!  AND where the Temple and the written Law was found!
3. False prophet’s messages were dangerous. (16-17)
4. The false prophets were not in God’s council (they did not hear from the Lord) (18-22)
5. They had a limited view of God (23-24) They thought they can hide things from the Lord.
6. They made up stories (lies)  (25-32)
7.  Prosperity Preaching.  If the people did not like the message…they kept asking until they found one they liked. (33-40) 😉

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THE CAPTIVITY!!!!

Here we are.   Assyria captured the Northern tribes.  150 years have passed and after sending Jeremiah to preach to them “REPENT or it will happen to you too Judah”…we know they don’t. NOW we begin the 3 waves of the Babylonian captivity.

Chapter 24: After Jehoiachinson of Jehoiakim king of Judah and the officials, the skilled workers and the artisans of Judah were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the Lord showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the Lord.

So it began during the reign of Jehoichin:

So we assume that the people that were taken away first were the “bad’ people right? Well, that is wrong.  When a nation is judged, and we know that a nation as a whole will be judged, the good news is The Lord knows who are His followers!! He knows the good figs from the bad fig!

⁶ My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. ⁷ I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.

By the way a Faithful man by the name of DANIEL was taken early!!  If you don’t know who Daniel is…you will soon!

Chapter 25: I HAVE to cut and past this!  It is a HUGE moment…we have been reading for hundreds of years waiting for this moment!! And the way the Lord announces Himself is epic…not The Lord says….but The Lord Almighty! (take that false idol!!)

⁸ Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, ⁹ I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. ¹⁰ I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

Well now we have it.  The fine print.  God will use Nebuchadnezzar to destroy the rest of Jerusalem BUT the captivity will expire in 70 years!!

How many years?  70.

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The cup of wrath: (this is going to hurt our hearts a little if you love Jesus)

¹⁵ This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.  

The cup represents the full force of God’s wrath on sin.  This was the same wrath that Jesus felt and took FOR us.  We deserve that full wrath…we are sin.  His wrath is so severe that even Jesus asked the Lord “is there ANY other way for you to save your people??”

Matthew 26:⁴² He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

As prophesied we read about the judgment that will come up all the surrounding nations. You can read this with double meaning.  This will be literal in the day of the captivity BUT it also refers to end time.

Sorry, that was long….just great stuff to pick apart. Now I am LATE or work.

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Chapter 18-19.  The Potter’s house.

Just like in Genesis 2:7 The Lord formed man from the ground for His purpose and His glory, He formed Judah for the same purposes.

When you read these 2 chapters I know you picture the symbolism Jeremiah used to describe the destruction on the nation at the Lord’s (The Potter’s) hands. 

However, what is this story really about?

• The destruction of a nation
• or
• God’s Love for us regardless of the sins we have committed in the past?

³ So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. ⁴ But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.

Stop.  Re read that!  The pot was marred and the only one that can take a broken pot (you) and make it into something new, is the Lord!

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2 Corinthians 17:

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:

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⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me. ⁶ He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. ⁷ If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, ⁸ and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 

We are this far into Jeremiah and God STILL wants people to repent so He can relent on the consequence of their sin.

My stars he Loves US!

😢 But the people respond with: ¹² But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’”

A very wise woman told me one day and it NEVER left me “God doesn’t call you to be happy, he calls you to be Holy”.(I know you are going to use that) 😉

Chapter 20:

20 When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the official in charge of the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, ² he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lord’s temple.

Let’s break this down: Pashhur,  was the leading priest responsible for the oversight of the temple, heard Jeremiah’s words, he ordered him beaten and imprisoned in stocks that stood near the Benjamin Gate. This is the first report in the book that Jeremiah suffered bodily harm.  The Benjamin Gate was evidently the new gate into the inner temple courtyard that King Jotham had constructed  It provided an entrance from the north.

 

The Benjamin Gate was in the area near the Sheep and Muster gate.  It became a crowded entryway for all to pass through.  False prophets were put in stocks to set an example and for torture purposes.  This was to influence others not to rise up.  But Jeremiah was released and his spirit not broken, rather he changed the priest’s name. He gave Pashhur a new name that had prophetic significance: Magomassabib, meaning “terror on every side”.  His old name meant “joy on every side”. (I am going to call my husband Magomassabib this week!)

Jeremiah becomes frustrated with the world around him. He wished he had never been born.  If he had complained to the world, they would have consoled him…I can hear it now “follow your heart…life is short, be Happy Jeremiah”. However, Jeremiah took his complaints straight to the Lord!

Jeremiah spends 40 years talking to others about how it is never too late to turn to God.  So, are we part of the problem, a bi standard, or part of the solution?  (I think I am all 3)

The read today ends with a message to the Leaders.  HE addresses the kings that carry the Covenant of David.  Remember this is not written in chronological order:

22 This is what the Lord says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: ² ‘Hear the word of the Lord to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. ³ This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴ For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. ⁵ But if you do not obey these commands, declares the Lord, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.’”

The message is as relevant today as it was then.

⁸ “People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?’ ⁹ And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”

This is not my first time reading the Bible, but it is the first time I have seen how idolatry is the sin that breaks God’s heart.  I really need to spend some time reflecting on this.

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Chapter 14/15- My Bible titled it:  Drought, Famine, Sword.  I really try to read the Bible in a historical context, not the present day.  I think every generation can read chapter 14 and see the sins of the nation and the effects on a country and we are no different.

I wish we could hit rewind and go back to the book of Judges.  The people were sinners and the times were just like they are in Judah BUT the difference was prayers were heard and the people were saved.

There comes a time when God says “I love you so much I cannot keep saving you if you don’t learn a lesson from it”.  That is where we are in the Bible.  He tells Jeremiah, you can pray all you want…but I cannot relent any longer.

All that to say, maybe, just maybe in God’s eyes we are still in the time of “Judges”.  So pray, speak Truth to people, love your enemy, raise your children up in the Word…because He might revive this country once again.  Have Hope.  Don’t watch from the outside, be an instrument for the Lord to use:

¹⁹ Therefore this is what the Lord says:

Chapter 17:

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So I got impatient looking at the chapters and thinking “how long are we going to read about this?” and then immediately I was convicted…HOW LONG HAS GOD BEEN PATIENT WITH JUDAH!

For this read I pretended I was Jeremiah.  Why?  Because he is the “weeping prophet” and his heart breaks for what breaks the Lord’s heart.  However, he is a little spicy too….and I like it!! 😝

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Verse 1-5 are the scriptures that stir up controversy over “Christmas trees” being a pagan worship we adopted.

Here is the deal: I didn’t research it.  Why? Because we have been reading for 100s of years about false idols being carved out of wood I am not sure why this scripture was pulled out for controversy.  I would rather research the Lord than pagan rituals.

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The first section is called “God and Idols”.  Feel free to fill out a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast them based off these scriptures. If you actually do it, send me a picture from your phone 615-418-9377.  I bet nothing is in the orange!

What GREAT scriptures…back and forth God…Idol….God….Idol…. and then we have this verse, verse 11 in Aramaic inserted into it.  It is called a Targum, which is a post-captivity translation.  It was an inserted “text” in Aramaic into the scriptures for teaching purposes in the Synagogues (since most people spoke Aramaic in Jesus’ day).  Well, I trust the Lord, and if this one made it into the Bible…God wanted it in the Bible. ( I can just picture the translator just sitting there say “JUST TELL THEM THIS….”

^{Verse 11} “Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’”

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Jeremiah sincerely cares for Judah and says: Pack your bags and get out of town!!

¹⁷ Gather up your belongings to leave the land,
    you who live under siege.
¹⁸ For this is what the Lord says:
    “At this time I will hurl out
    those who live in this land;
I will bring distress on them
    so that they may be captured.”

Some have translated “hurl out” as being put into a slingshot!

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Chapter 11 and 12

– Jeremiah is giving a VERY abbreviated version of their History and he prays for the people…pleads for their life when SUDDENLY The Lord reveals to him in verse 18 that there is a plot to kill him!  What??  Who wants to kill Jeremiah?? (Well, I suppose with the message he is giving, a lot of people)…⁸ Because the Lord revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. ¹⁹ I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me,

²¹ Therefore this is what the Lord says about the people of ANATHOTH who are threatening to kill you, saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord or you will die by our hands”

Anathoth (which makes me giggle because it sounds like someone saying “Applesauce after a bee stung their tongue)…anyway.  GO back to Chapter 1 verse 1:1 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.

It is his Hometown!

Oh, the humanity!!!  So how does Jeremiah respond?? The same way I would…He starts off by worshiping the Lord regarding his perfection, then simply asks “why do good things happen to bad people…and then Jeremiah slips in:

You are always on their lips
    but far from their hearts.
³ Yet you know me, Lord;
    you see me and test my thoughts about you.
Drag them off like sheep to be butchered!
    Set them apart for the day of slaughter!

Yup, sounds like something I would say at that moment! You want to slaughter me…He will slaughter you!!

Well it is a good thing God is loving (unlike me)

¹⁵ But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country.”

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Chapter 13-Linen Belt

Jeremiah was instructed to put a clean Linen Belt on his waist.  A Linen Belt was a sign of priesthood, His chosen people are his priesthood.  (I know there is a NT scripture on this we can find for me and put in comment)  but instead, the linen belt is defiled as it wraps around his most private area ( in a day without toilet paper). The people of Judah, pure and untarnished at the time of their call would be just as worthless as Jeremiah’s ruined waistband—because they had refused to listen to the Lord.  They had been stubborn in their hearts.

Wineskins-As the people filled their jugs with wine, the Lord would fill His people with the wine of His wrath. They had become intoxicated with idolatry and probably with real wine. As drunkards, they would be unable to defend themselves in the critical hour of the coming invasion.

Sorry if that seemed scattered, I am so exhausted right now.  Like many of you,, this is a BUSY time of year for most.

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WOW.  We start chapter 7 with a bang! We have been reading this message for months and we don’t have many weeks left so it is time…it is time to dig in, let the Holy Spirit speak to YOU (the message is not for a friend, an athlete, a politician, a co-worker…BUT YOU)

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Picture Jeremiah standing at the gate of the temple as people are coming in to offer their sacrifice.  Maybe it was during a Festival (I have no idea if it was) and the gate was crowded.

And he says to them:

“‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. ³ 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. ⁴ 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!” ⁵ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, ⁶ if you do not oppress the foreigner, 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, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors forever and ever. ⁸ But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.

⁹ “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, ¹⁰ 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? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

You don’t need me to make an application of this for us. God’s view of sin before the Cross and after the Cross is the same!  Raise your hand if we think He is softer on sin now than in the Old Testament.  We I go about our  my life, doing things we know are not pleasing to the Lord (in deed or in thought), and then walk into church on Sunday.  Ouch right!

Do we even stop to think about what God asks of us?

Proverbs 21:3 To do what is right and just
    is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

The words of Jesus in Matthew 9:13  ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’

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Chapter 8:

⁷ Even the stork in the sky
    knows her appointed seasons,
and the dove, the swift and the thrush
    observe the time of their migration.
But my people do not know
    the requirements of the Lord.

That was a punch in the stomach for sure.  Birds know when to fly south for the winter BUT Christians do not know the Word of God!

Wait till you read this one:

⁸ “‘How can you say, “We are wise,
    for we have the law of the Lord,”
when actually the lying pen of the scribes
    has handled it falsely?

The leaders of the Temple had their own agenda and handled God’s words falsely.  Do you know how many times I have read a commentary, listen to a Podcast, you-tubed a sermon, or simply just believed what a pastor said in church without filtering it through the Bible itself.  More commonly…just our friends in general paste scripture into a conversation and it is totally out of context!

I heard once a great man say “When you train with the FBI they make you study real money intensely!  When they come upon a counterfeit bill they can spot it immediately” (They never study the counterfeit).  The people in Judah never studied the Law so they believed the leaders of the Temple (good grief…we read about some of the Kings!) and were led astray.    THIS MAKES ME SO GLAD WE TAKE THE TIME EACH AND EVERY DAY  (lol, and catch-up days) TO READ THE BIBLE THIS YEAR!

Raise your hand if you have seen a TV show or a Movie (clearly I am back in ‘teacher mode’).   What is the theme of everything in Hollywood?  Follow your heart!  Be Happy!   I can tell you I have said this to my own kids.  BUT tomorrow I leave out for Chattanooga as I bring my daughter to college.  After reading the Bible I will not say “I just want you to be happy” I will say “I want you to be Holy (set apart from the world).  When we are Holy we walk in step with the Spirit:

Galatians 5:22

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 

Finally: obviously I am in a New Testament mood…so I will cross-reference it for you…

²³ This is what the Lord says:

 

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I am going to keep this short giving some people some “catch up time”.

We ended chapter 3 into chapter 4 with God begging His people to come back to him.  They needed to cultivate soft hearts that would welcome the Lord’s words.  The Judahites—having sinned greatly (ch. 2)—failed to repent (ch. 3). Consequently, judgment in the form of military invasion would overtake them. This whole section, chapters 4-10 is a vision of the enemy coming from the North (Babylon).

When I was studying this morning I came upon some commentaries that paralleled the Babylonian Captivity with Terrorists in America.  It is easy for us to read about the Babylonian captivity and say “Well, God warned you” “He was patient” “They didn’t listen”…..etc.  However, I was tore up a bit this morning thinking about this parallel scenario in America as terrorists invade us.

¹⁸ “Your own conduct and actions
    have brought this on you.
This is your punishment.
    How bitter it is!
    How it pierces to the heart!”

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Ch 5

¹⁸ “Yet even in those days,” declares the Lord, “I will not destroy you completely. ¹⁹ And when the people ask, ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.’

Hear this, you foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes but do not see,
    who have ears but do not hear:
²² Should you not fear me?” declares the Lord.
    “Should you not tremble in my presence?
I made the sand a boundary for the sea,
    an everlasting barrier it cannot cross.
The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail;
    they may roar, but they cannot cross it.
²³ But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
²⁴ They do not say to themselves,
    ‘Let us fear the Lord our God,
who gives autumn and spring rains in season,
    who assures us of the regular weeks of harvest.’
²⁵ Your wrongdoings have kept these away;
    your sins have deprived you of good.

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Chapter 6

¹⁰ To whom can I speak and give warning?
    Who will listen to me?
Their ears are closed
    so they cannot hear.
The word of the Lord is offensive to them;
    they find no pleasure in it.
¹¹ But I am full of the wrath of the Lord,
    and I cannot hold it in.

I could literally cut and paste this whole chapter!  Can we see modern-day applications?  Can we see the 2nd coming application?

• Click here to read
• Click here to listen

This visual sums up the first paragraph:

1 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. ² The word of the Lord came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, ³ and through the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, down to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.

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God identified Himself to be sovereign over Jeremiah in that He:

• knew Jeremiah before he was born,
• had caused him to be born
• had separated him for a holy service.

The Lord gave Jeremiah two visions to clarify his message.  The first deals with the time of judgment and the second with the direction and nature of it.

The connection with the almond branch is a play on words. “Almond” is ‘shaqed’ in Hebrew, which also means “awake.  “Watching” is shoqed. The meaning seems to be that just as the blooming of the almond branch announced that spring was near, so the prophet’s word would bring the prophecy awake.  (in the Spring).

The Lord directed Jeremiah to view a boiling pot that was tipped so that it was about to pour its contents out toward the south. The Lord explained that the contents of the boiling pot represented an evil that would overflow upon all the inhabitants of Judah from the north.  I believe this refers to Babylon.

¹⁶ I will pronounce my judgments on my people
    because of their wickedness in forsaking me,
in burning incense to other gods
    and in worshiping what their hands have made.

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Chapter 2 broke my heart.  You can feel the Lord’s emotions

“What did I do wrong?”

“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
    that they strayed so far from me?

Have I not been there for you?

⁷ I brought you into a fertile land
    to eat its fruit and rich produce.

Even the ones at church the temple do not really know me

Those who deal with the law did not know me;
    the leaders rebelled against me.

You rejected my way and created your own way.

¹³ “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

Wait for it…You read the scriptures and think of “other” people and their sins, not your own!

²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;
    I have not run after the Baals’?

This one is really personal: Where is the “world” for you now.  You ONLY come to me when you need me.  Ouch!

²⁸ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?
    Let them come if they can save you
    when you are in trouble!
For you, Judah, have as many gods
    as you have towns.

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Chapter 3:-The Lord speaks of His people in a marriage to Him

“If a man divorces his wife
    and she leaves him and marries another man,
should he return to her again?
    Would not the land be completely defiled?
But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers—
    would you now return to me?”
declares the Lord.

Judah SAW what happened to Israel and the Lord wanted Judah to learn from that:

⁷ I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. ⁸ I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.

WOW!!!

¹¹ The Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah

Soak that up for a minute!  The world looks better than the Church at times!

And it ends with:

We have sinned against the Lord our God,
    both we and our ancestors;
from our youth till this day
    we have not obeyed the Lord our God.”

THIS IS GOING TO BE A GREAT BOOK!!!!  I read it once today and then listened to it.  What stood out to you?