[Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (JAC), a daily reading update (reflection) from each chapter of the Bible]
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"As
for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for
them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you."
Is
it not interesting God, telling Jeremiah to stop praying for the stubborn
people? Jeremiah is an amazing man. A man of prayer. A man of compassion. A
weeping prophet — not for his sins but for the sins of his people! Would God
raise up a man like Jeremiah in our midst!
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“Harvest
is past, summer is ended, And we are not saved. For the brokenness of the
daughter of my people I am broken; I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.”
If
leaders learn to weep, they will not be worldly. God wants us to be joyous
people, but we are so happy in our own world. So, God wants us to weep. Even
the Son of Man was a man of sorrow!
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"Thus
says the LORD, "Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the
mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that
he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises lovingkindness,
justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,"
declares the LORD."
Your
strength could be your weakness. The wise should not rely on their wisdom. The
powerful should not rely on their power. And the rich, not on their wealth. If
even they couldn't then, why do we desire and plan and try to rely on those
things? Ridiculous.
We
want to be smart and intelligent. We want to be influential and powerful. We
want to be independent and millionaires. But what good are they if God forbids
us to rely on them?
Well,
boasting is in knowing God, having a relationship with God, walking with Him,
living a self-denial lifestyle, having a high view of God and a low view of
man!
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"But
the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His
wrath the earth quakes, And the nations cannot endure His indignation."
Yahweh
is not only God but a true God. Idols and gods of other nations are false gods!
Yahweh is not only a true God. He is not dead. He was not the God of Israel
only in the days of wilderness. He is still alive, a living God.
Not
only is he a true and living God. He will be there tomorrow as well. He can be
relied upon. He will always be there unlike anyone. He is from ancient and is
from everlasting to everlasting.
3
great descriptions of God: true, living, and everlasting.
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“Therefore
thus says the LORD, ‘Behold I am bringing disaster on them which they will not
be able to escape; though they will cry to Me, yet I will not listen to them.’”
If
they seek earnestly through repentance and humbling before God surely, God will
answer them. Until they do that, mere calling the name of God was insulting to
God. God wouldn't answer such prayers. He won't answer even the right prayer of
a righteous man like Jeremiah if they aren't repentant. They are set to perish
in judgment!
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"And
it will come about that after I have uprooted them, I will again have
compassion on them; and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and
each one to his land."
God
is Love. Wrath is not His final action against His people. But, don't be
deceived! Don't read Biblical history like watching a movie. This didn't happen
in a day or a month. It didn't happen even in a generation. It's a history of
many generations!
Let's
not fool ourselves into thinking God's love is so vast that He would forgive us
no matter what we do. In fact, He killed such people. They were destroyed,
their wives raped, their pregnant women were ribbed, they were beheaded, and their
cities were burnt down by Assyrian and Babylonians who were more gruesome than the
Taliban and ISIS. The people of God perished. They never came back. They went
down to a place where there's no return—to hell!
It's
the next generation, who were somehow innocent, not following the ways of their
fathers, whom God chose to show mercy upon them, and He brought them back. God
preserved His people through the remnants! And later on, Messiah was born from
Judah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem!
Jeremiah
would tell in the coming chapter that: The soul who sins shall die, and
children will not be punished for the sins of their fathers. And so, remnants
and their children who were not walking like their fathers were brought back.
[11:40,
27/08/2021] S.R: Again, take time to look at Jeremiah 12:7 and compared with
Psalm 79:1 and Jeremiah 12:9 with Psalm 80:12-13.
So,
now you see, it was God who did against them. And so, it was right for Asaph to
call upon God to stop it. Because God is the doer.
BTW,
Asaph was long dead already when Jeremiah wrote this. I am just pointing out that
the theology of sin and punishment, and the theology of prayer are the same in
the days of Asaph, in the days of Jeremiah, in the days of Jesus, and in our
days.
It's
God who is in control. "Even the devil is God's devil" in the
words of Luther.
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"‘This
wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness
of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to
them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless. For as
the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of
Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,' declares the LORD, 'that
they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they
did not listen'"
God
is really smart to come up with this analogy, right? π That's why I enjoy reading Bible, not just because
they are God's word, but they are very witty as well! And I love wits! And I
want to be witty! π