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The Year Of Their Punishment

Jeremiah 45-48

I usually title my post after I have written it.  My writing is extremely organic.  I don’t plan what I am going to write.  I don’t determine a theme and then write to it.  I pray, I read the Bible, and I start typing what God puts on my heart.  Today, as I read, my heart was heavy.  I have recently had a disturbing conversation with a family member that revealed a great bigotry and hatred toward Christians.  There is little doubt in my mind that this person is lost.  Lost is another word for doomed.  Without Christ a person is doomed.

I have lately been plagued by this vision of standing with my Savior while looking across the great divide at the people in my life with whom I failed to share Jesus.  Their suffering will be great and eternal.  I realize that at that time my eyes will be on Christ not those who refused Him but still, my heart is heavy for the future they will reap.  I never got to a place where I could share Christ with this family member of whom I speak.  Their heart was hardened.  This individual would allow no light to penetrate the darkness.  It was clearly a premeditated decision and it appeared to me there was no going back.

I have felt a great hopelessness as I have considered this person.  I have read of the great willfulness of the people of Judah these past weeks and I have seen their hardened heart.  I saw that same heart in my family member.  Now, today, we read of how the wayward peoples of Jeremiah’s day would be punished; Egypt, Judah, Moab, et al.  I have to admit to you that my eyes are welling up as I write this to you.  Why do we so willfully dismiss God?  Why do we so willfully disobey Him?  Don’t we know the year of our punishment is coming?  There is no escape.

Jeremiah 48:44

“He who flees from the terror
shall fall into the pit,
and he who climbs out of the pit
shall be caught in the snare.
For I will bring these things upon Moab,
the year of their punishment,
declares the Lord.”

I realize this is a specific comment about a specific people in a specific time, but is it not consistent with what we are told of the end times in Revelation?  Are not the earlier examples of punishment examples of the punishment to come?  Are they not a warning to us in our own time?  If we wish to reach the lost for Christ, now is the time.  I know I cannot reach my family member but things are not as hopeless as I feel.  Our hope in is Christ.  He will do His part.  It would be nice if we did ours.

What can I do about my lost family member?  I can pray.  I can pray.  I can pray.  I can pray that God will open their heart and mind to His truth.  I can pray that their eyes will be opened.  I can pray that the light of Christ will crash through the darkness and rescue this person.  I can pray that some faithful servant of Christ will cross this lost person’s path and that God will compel an open minded hearing.  Can it be done?  Can this person be saved?

Mark 10:24, 26-27

“²⁴ And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!” ²⁶ And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” ²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

I don’t like to skip over verses when sharing a passage.  It is editing God’s Word and that is not a wise move.  I have done so for this first time only to make a point.  The verse that is missing is the one where Jesus says it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter heaven.  I think we focus so much on the wealth issue that we miss a bigger truth.

Few of us feel we are rich, though there are many in the world who would dispute our opinion.  Look at that full sentence in verse 24: “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!”  In the sentence before, and the sentence after this one, He specifically mentions the greater difficulty of the rich to enter heaven but this sentence is an all inclusive statement.  It is hard for anyone to enter heaven.  Why?  Because we cannot do it in our own strength.  It is only through the complete submission to Christ that one can enter heaven.  You cannot accept Christ if you insist on maintaining control of your life.  Your life either belongs to Him or you.  You get to choose; but choose you must.

Once we choose Him, we must give ourselves over whole-heartedly to His purpose for our lives.  No matter what specific role He has for you to play, you are bound to follow in His footsteps; pointing the lost to salvation.  My family member can be saved not because I am able to effectively share the gospel but because with God all things are possible; because some followers of Christ actually follow Him, and through His power that Christian can be used to save an eternal life.

If I am obedient to Christ there is no telling whose family member He might use me to reach.  If you are obedient to Christ there is no telling whose family member He might use you to reach.  To badly mangle a famous quote: “All it takes for evil to triumph is for Christians to refuse to play their part.”  I must do my part.  My hope for my family member is that other Christians will do theirs.  My hope is in the strength and power of Christ to change hearts and save souls working through the faithful efforts of His servants.

Brothers, let us each play our part before the year of punishment is at hand.

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

God Your Servant?

Jeremiah 41-44

I’ve got to tell ya guys; I’m just shaking my head at the self-destructive willfulness of the remnant of Judah!  God had warned the people of Judah time and again, through Jeremiah and other prophets that, because of their behavior, the Chaldeans would destroy them.  In yesterday’s reading we discovered that all that Jeremiah had prophesied had come to pass.  Today, we read that the remnant were afraid for their lives because the Chaldean governor, whom Nebuchadnezzar had put in charge, had been murdered by a fellow Jew.  They were contemplating running to Egypt for safe haven and asked Jeremiah to inquire of the Lord whether or not they should take this course of action.

Jeremiah 42:2-6

“and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant—because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us— that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.”  Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and whatever the Lord answers you I will tell you. I will keep nothing back from you.”  Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us.  Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

So they’ve learned right?  Jeremiah had warned them, they did not listen and what he said came to pass.  Now they know that God is in control and they should obey Him right?  They at least know the right attitude to express and words to say don’t they?  Well, Jeremiah got the answer to the question they asked, and that answer was no, do not go to Egypt; if you go you will be destroyed.  Here is what they said to Jeremiah in response to God’s answer:

Jeremiah 43:2-3

“…You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to live there,’ but Baruch the son of Neriah has set you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may kill us or take us into exile in Babylon.”

They promptly ignored God’s word and forced everyone, including Jeremiah, to go into exile in Egypt.  These Bozos never learn do they?  How many times does God have to demonstrate His power in your life before you realize that what He says goes?  Do you remember Pharaoh back in Moses’ day?  The Bible says that God “hardened his heart”.  This is God’s world and He takes responsibility for it.  The fact of the matter is that Pharaoh was determined that he was going to be god and so God handed him over to the consequences of his hardened heart.  It is the same thing here in Jeremiah.  Zedekiah’s heart was hardened and now the heart of the remnant of Judah is hardened.

These folks went to Egypt, started worshipping foreign God’s again, and when Jeremiah once again warned them of the impending doom, they arrogantly stated that the Chaldeans had conquered Judah because Judah had stopped worshipping the foreign gods.  Wow!!!  I find that mind-blowing!

How quickly they went from supposed remorse and a statement of obedience to outright, willful disobedience!  Upon reflection, I do not feel the change of attitude was as drastic as it might appear.  I think what they were really saying to Jeremiah when they asked him to inquire of the Lord is this: “Oh we’ll obey whatever God says – as long as He says what we want to hear!”  In other words, if God will be their servant, like the gods they make with their own hands, then they will be obedient since they will really be obedient to their own self-centered desires.  They don’t want God to be the Lord of their life; they want to be lord over God.  Any difference here between them and Adam and Eve in the Garden?

Who is Lord of their life?  They are the lord of their own life.  Who is Lord of your life?  Are you willing to profess obedience to God as long as you are in charge; as long as God blesses you as you see fit?  Oh Lord, I hope not!  God is Lord whether you acknowledge that fact or not.  Disobedience hurts.  As I read Isaiah and Jeremiah what I heard in God’s voice was His love for His people.  He desired their salvation but they had to desire to be saved.  They had to reject their own lordship and accept His.  It is the only way.  Is God Lord of your life?  You say He is but do your actions match your words?  Oh Lord, I hope so!

Have an obedient day brothers!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

P.S.  I just couldn’t leave today’s reading without commenting on the following verse:

Jeremiah 44:7

“And now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant?”

Did you catch that?  Why do you commit this great evil against yourself? Disobedience doesn’t hurt God, it hurts you.  God doesn’t make you hurt; your own actions hurt you.  When you disobey you are committing an evil against yourself.  As the old joke goes:

Patient:  “Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I go like this!”

Doctor:  “Well then, don’t go like that!”

Are you one of these? Your slip is showing Nancy! Man up!

No Namby-Pambies!

Jeremiah 37-40

Have you seen that GEICO commercial that has a drill sergeant as a psychotherapist?  They have this weepy guy lying on a sofa and the therapist is calling him names and yelling at him to man up.  At one point the therapist offers the crybaby a tissue and as he reaches for it the therapist throws the box at him.  I want to do that with Zedekiah.

As I went through today’s reading I noticed that Zedekiah is a bit of a sniveling little weasel.  Jeremiah kept warning Zedekiah and the people of Judah but they wouldn’t listen to him.  In fact, yesterday we read how Zedekiah cut off pieces of Jeremiah’s scroll as it was read and threw them into the fire until the entire scroll had been burned.  He didn’t want these dire warnings to spread.

Now we read that Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah to pray before God for him.  He didn’t want to listen to God, or the warnings coming from God through Jeremiah, but he still wanted God to save him from his predicament through the intercession of a man whom he has threatened.  Evidently he viewed God as many view Him today.  He viewed God as the great servant in the sky.  He wouldn’t obey, but he expected God to do his bidding.

Jeremiah was later wrongly accused of attempting to go over the enemy, the Chaldeans, and he was subsequently beaten and imprisoned by Zedekiah’s officials.  Now Zedekiah was really worried about his own neck.  You see Nebuchadnezzar had placed Zedekiah on the throne to be his puppet king after having taken the former king of Judah into exile in Babylon.  A guy like Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t like any king to stand up against him let alone a king he placed on a throne.  If Judah fell Zedekiah knew things were not going to go well for him personally.

Zedekiah didn’t demand that Jeremiah be released and he didn’t obey God’s instructions to surrender.  Instead he sent for Jeremiah secretly to ask him again if there was any message from the Lord.  He wasn’t going to change, but he wanted to hear from God again.  He didn’t like the message.  He wasn’t going to obey but he kept hoping against hope that he could continue in his disobedience and God would, for some reason, change His mind about the coming destruction.  He wouldn’t listen to any word from God except the word he wanted to here.  I’ve done that; how about you?

God isn’t the big servant in the sky.  He rules; you serve.  It is that simple.  If you don’t serve Him, life and eternity are going to hurt.  “Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more, say no more.”  (For those of you who are wondering, that is an archaic Monte Python reference used completely out of context.) When will we get it?  We don’t give Him orders.  He does not serve us.  We obey or we get hurt.  Ignoring what God has to say, hoping for a different answer, is still going to hurt.  His will, will be done!

Later Jeremiah was cast into a cistern for his prophesying.  Even in this dark story of lost and evil men, one in Zedekiah’s court stands out as righteous.

Jeremiah 38:7-10

“When Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate— Ebed-melech went from the king’s house and said to the king,  “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city.”  Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, “Take thirty men with you from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

Zedekiah was a real namby-pamby but at least this eunuch Ebed-melech was able to influence him for some good.  Ebed knew right and wrong and he stood up in the chamber of power to say what was right.  He was not disrespectful.  He was not indignant.  He was not loud.  He simply called evil “evil”.  He said that a thing was wrong and by so doing he saved an innocent man.

It is hard to stand up to power.  I suspect we will be called upon to do more and more of that here in America in the very near future.  We do not need to be angry, indignant, or hateful but we do need to simply call evil “evil”.  Both Jeremiah and Ebed stood up for righteousness and they both received their reward on earth and an even greater one in heaven.  Jeremiah had a very rough time obeying God.  I don’t mean he struggled to obey; I mean his obedience caused him hardship.  That should be considered the norm.  Our obedience will not come with gumdrops and lollipops.  Obedience costs something; it requires the denying of one’s self and the taking up of one’s cross.  Sometimes there are eventual rewards on earth; always there are rewards in heaven.  Look at Ebed:

Jeremiah 39:15-18

“The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the guard:  “Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day. But I will deliver you on that day, declares the Lord, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid.  For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the Lord.’”

I’m reminded of the twin sides of faith; trust and obey!  Don’t be a namby-pamby!

Have a manly day!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

What Is Important To You

Jeremiah 33- 36

What is important to you?  What do you honor?  What do you respect?  In today’s reading we hear the story of how God instructed Jeremiah to bring “the house of the Rechabites” to the temple and order them to drink wine.  Strange little set of instructions no?  Jeremiah did this and the Rechabites said that Jonadab the son of Rechab, their ancestor, had told his descendants not to drink wine and so they did not drink wine.  Man, I wish I could tell my daughter not to do something and know that she would obey!  Can I get an Amen?

These men obeyed the direction of their earthly father.  Why do you think God had Jeremiah go through this exercise?  Could it be to demonstrate what obedience looks like to His wayward children?  The reason Judah was about to experience destruction was because they would not obey the direction of their heavenly Father.

Jeremiah 35:13-14

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? declares the Lord.  The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me.”

Why is it that these men could obey their earthly father but Judah could not obey their heavenly father?  That is what God is saying here isn’t it?  I think it has to do with what they honored; what they respected; what was important to them.  The Rechabites respected their ancestor.  His instruction was important to them.  The Judites did not respect God; they did not honor Him.  What they wanted was more important to them than what God wanted.  They were self-centered.  They were disobedient.

Our behavior clearly states what is important to us.  If obedience is important to you, you will obey.  If your own personal desires are more important to you than God’s will, you will act in harmony with your self-centeredness.  We can say we love, honor, and respect God but our behavior gives us away.  It gives us away, not to God for He already knows the priorities of our heart, but to ourselves and to others.

Do you love, respect, and honor God?  Is His will important to you?  Do your actions bear your answer out?  Say what you will, your actions speak the truth.  I pray brothers that you will ensure your confession of faith and your actions match; not for His sake but for yours.

Have an obedient day brothers!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

The New Covenant

Jeremiah 31 – 32

Jeremiah 31:31-34

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

My translation has the publisher title of this section of the Bible as “The New Covenant”.  Is there anything more to say?  Yes there is.  Praise God!!!!  Hallelujah!!! Unto Him is all honor, and power, and glory, and praise for ever and ever and ever!!!  Amen!

Have a day filled with glorifying God!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!

My Country Tis Of The

Jeremiah 28-30

I look around at the world today and I feel like a stranger; like I don’t belong.  I belonged at one time, but that was before I discovered what it meant to be a new creature in Christ.  I am a citizen of Heaven now.  I am, of course of dual citizenship.  I am also an American Citizen, but that citizenship seems less and less important every day.  Perhaps that is because I am only hear for a while but will live in Heaven for eternity.  It makes me kind of feel like a visitor.  It’s like I’m on a temporary work visa in America you know?

Why do I bring this up?  Because today’s reading reminded me of my tendency to separate myself from the world around me.  While it is true that I am a citizen of Heaven and am only temporarily an American, God has left me here for a reason.  Listen to what God said to the exiles of Judah concerning their time in that foreign land.

Jeremiah 29:4-7

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.  Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.  But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

Interesting huh?  They were to pray for the welfare of the land in which they lived in exile for their own welfare was entwined with that of the locals.  That’s true for us as well isn’t it?  When I get frustrated at this world, and the hateful, bigoted rhetoric and actions of the lost toward the followers of God, I tend to say to myself, “well, they’ll get theirs!”  It’s as if I am sitting back smugly waiting for God to destroy them; my heart almost urging it to happen.  Of course it will happen.  The problem is I am surrounded by such people and if they get theirs I might just get a little singed along the way.

That is a very self-centered way of looking at that situation.  What my response to all of this hatred and bigotry should be is love.  I shouldn’t be rooting for their destruction.  I should be rooting for their hearts to be changed.  I should be praying for them not wishing them their comeuppance.  I should be sharing with them the only hope any of us have; Jesus Christ.

At the end of 2008 through the beginning of 2009 I saw an America enraptured by the theme of “Hope and Change”.  This hope and change was offered by a mere mortal; a man unable to deliver such a worthy destination.  The hope has since faded the change is simply more of the same.  No sinful human being can offer humanity hope.  Hope is available only through Jesus Christ and that hope is yours only through the change He can make in your heart.  This is a radical change; a change from self-centeredness to God-centeredness.

As I read today of the hope God gave the exiles in Babylon, I was reminded of our hope for eternity.

Jeremiah 29:10-14

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.  For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.  You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

After our time here on earth is done we will have eternity with Him.  When our work visas expire we will leave this place and enter retirement with joy.  He has plans for us; plans for welfare, a future and a hope.  While we wait for that time, when we will see Him face to face, we have work to do.  We must pray for the locals.  We must share our hope that they might be saved.  Let us be true to our homeland.  Let us be patriotic citizens of Heaven.  Let us be true to Jesus Christ.  Let us pray for America!

May God find you on your knees!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Dying to self, living to serve!