Bible Reading Reflection from Jeremiah 14-20

 [Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (JAC), a daily reading update (reflection) from each chapter of the Bible]

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟜:𝟙𝟜

“Then the LORD said to me, ‘The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds.’”

Jeremiah 14:14. That's not hard to remember! It's about false prophets, false teachers. There have been such people always, and continue to thrive. They proclaim what people want to hear. Or they proclaim what will tickle people's ears. Let's be discerning!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟝:𝟙

“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go!’”

What a ministry Jeremiah was called to be in! Even God himself was dismayed with His people, yet Jeremiah was called to preach to them! No fruits, no converts, no repentance in his hearers. What a misery it had been to this man of God!

Definitely, I don't want such a life. I want to see a lot of fruits in my ministry, converts, and transformed lives.  Yet Jeremiah was called to such a life of barrenness; the people were so stubborn. In fact, God, even told him not to pray for them. And Jeremiah was weeping for His people. While most people will shake off the dust from their boots and flee!

BTW, what a God we have! The chapter ended with words of hope, repentance, and restoration, v19-21. If there's occupation, job, service, work, that never fails, that will surely yield fruit, it's the ministry of the Gospel. We may not see the fruits with our eyes, or even in our lifetime, but God produces the fruits in a due time, and heaven records and rewards for that!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟞:𝟚

"You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place."

Is it good for a man to be alone? Hmm! Jeremiah was told to be alone. As we see in v4, it was because God was about to bring diseases upon the land. 'Twas mercy of God to stop him from getting married.

Sometimes we look at others and covet what they have— anything. And we wonder why the Lord would withhold from us. They are sinners like us. In fact, they are a worse sinner because they haven't even believed in Jesus. Yet they have cars, apartments, are millionaires, have a brain that clears any exams. Maybe God is withholding us from something we don't know.

Somebody studied about those who won a big lottery and concluded that they became poorer than before they started. Recently in the news, we have heard about the guy who won 5 Crore rupees from Kaun Banega Crorepati 5 edition, Sushil Kumar, now bankrupt!

We never know even what's good for ourselves, but we know we can trust God, and God works everything good for us (Romans 8:28)

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟟:𝟙

"The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus; With a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart And on the horns of their altars."

Their sins are not written by pencil to be removed easily by an eraser. Not even by an ink pen on paper. It's an iron pen with a diamond point, the hardest thing. It's a thing of permanence! And written on the heart. Not on paper or stone that you can throw away easily.

God wrote with His finger on the tablet of stone. God will write them in their heart again. Yet, God still removed sins, blotted them away! We cannot remove our own sins nor of the sins of others.

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟠:𝟝-𝟞

“Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, ‘Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?’ declares the LORD. ‘Behold, like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.’”

Why are most Christians of our times not influential, powerful, and lively? (Few are BTW, cheers). I would contend that it's because we have a high view of man and a low view of God. This passage says how small we are and how big God is. He is the Potter, and we are the clay. A potter does anything he likes with the clay.

We even sing that song, "Have Thine Own Way, Lord!" But we never lived like that! We want our way. We demand our way. We protest for our way. We even try to boycott God. We grumble and complain. We show with our attitude, facial expressions, words, actions. Definitely, we look like a dog's tail that refuses to be straight.

God is the Potter. This fact will never change.  Whether we like it, hate it, protest it, submit to it, love it, He will always be the Potter. But,  He is the Good Potter. He does everything in love. And especially for believers, every twist and turn, every mixing and molding, every wetting and drying, every soaking and sunshine, everything is working out for our own good! (Romans 8:38) What a comfort!!!

Who would we want to have as our Potter than this God???!!!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟡:𝟡

"I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them."

Many preachers want to be known as intellectuals. They want to be accepted by the world. They try to make God more loving, more caring, more nice, and look nicer than what's written in the Bible. But can they? Can they improve God? They are doing, like, as Derek Thomas quips, trying to improve the painting of the Mona Lisa by keeping a mustache. 😂 they did modify it but didn't improve it, rather horrible it has become.

For example, Jewish Rabbi, Kushner said that God is good but he isn't that powerful to prevent bad things happening to people. Plain stupidity that is! That's heresy! Consider Jeremiah 19:9. Is eating your own baby good? Unthinkable! But who let this happen. God! Why? That's another topic to think through. But in short, because of disobedience. It's a punishment. They shall be invaded, looted, will have nothing to eat, will starve, and will eat their weak children to survive.

Even this coronavirus, nobody wants to say that God sends this to teach us to depend on  Him. But people love to be pantheists, talking about how we have wrong against nature, and how nature is claiming its right. Instead of blessing (speaking well of) God, they did bless (speaking well of) nature. But the Bible tells us to bless (speak well) the Lord God! God's in control. Actually, He was the one who cursed the ground in Eden Garden. And so, the implication is that God is the solution. Call upon Him, and He will answer!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟚𝟘:𝟡

"But if I say, "I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name," Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it."

Every faithful pastor knows what Jeremiah is saying. It's the word of God, the burden that God laid upon a pastor's heart, the love of God that compels him to wake up and proclaim His words again and again!

Apostle Paul said, "Woe is me if I don't preach the gospel."

Bible Reading Reflection from Jeremiah 7-13

[Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (JAC), a daily reading update (reflection) from each chapter of the Bible] 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟟:𝟙𝟞

"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!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟠:𝟚𝟘-𝟚𝟙

“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!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟡:𝟚𝟛-𝟚𝟜

"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!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟘:𝟙𝟘

"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.

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟙:𝟙𝟙

“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!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟚:𝟙𝟝

"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.

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙𝟛:𝟙𝟘-𝟙𝟙

"‘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? 😂 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! 😎

Sermon Tips from the text of 1 Peter 3:13-17

 Sermon Tips for Expository Preachers, Listeners, and Students

Bible Reading Reflection from Jeremiah 1-6

[Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (JAC), a daily reading update (reflection) from each chapter of the Bible] 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟙:𝟝, 𝟙𝟟

v5. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."

v17. "Now, gird up your loins and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, or I will dismay you before them."

Jeremiah had a special calling because of the difficult task he was given to do. God told him to be strong. To contend with the people.

Jeremiah can't afford to be weak. He should not be surprised, discouraged, or dismayed by the hardness of the people. God will punish him, should he be.

God's leaders are like that. They are called to have an iron face! People will say that he is outdated, not cool, irrelevant, uninteresting, yet he shall neither be ashamed nor be discouraged! He doesn't care what the world thinks of him or his message. He will neither tone down, nor dilute his message. He will not change; the people must change. And if the people don't change, he will still do what he does.

That's a tough, cool, faithful man of God, Jeremiah!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟚:𝟙𝟛

"For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water."

First, they have forsaken God. They have stopped trusting God. They have stopped delighting in God. They have stopped praying. They have stopped walking with God. They have stopped depending on God. They have stopped talking about God. They have stopped meditating upon the word of God. They were practical atheists! They lived like God didn't care!

Second, they have run after Materialism. They have sought after materialistic things for their survival. They have put their trust in their friendship with other nations for help in times of crisis. They have put their trust in their achievement, their fortress, weapons, horses. They have sought for help from here and there.

When we don't seek help from God, we will be seeking somewhere. When we don't delight in God, we will be taking delight in other things. When we don't give credit to God, we will be giving to other things.

Those who walk with God know how to walk in the world. Those who live for God's glory know how to live a productive life in this world. But those who don't walk with God daily, those whose delight is not found in God do not know how to balance the things of God and the responsibility of life!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟛:𝟙

"God says, "If a husband divorces his wife And she goes from him And belongs to another man, Will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted? But you are a harlot with many lovers; Yet you turn to Me," declares the LORD."

God's plea for repentance is seen over and over again in this chapter. According to law, a divorced woman who has married somebody else cannot be accepted back by the first husband. And that law is good!

But here, God is going to do what is illegal! And the reason is that God is love. And His love covers a multitude of sins. But not only God is love, but because He is God. He can make sinners clean and just.

Sometimes, people say, "God looks unfair." Actually, we don't want God to judge us fairly. We all want God to be unfair (to be merciful, graceful). And btw, we are not God, we can't do whatever God does. There are some prerogatives of God. We are to be like Christ in almost everything, but we should not demand worship from others because we cannot save anyone. And if someone asks us to visit and pray for the sick, we should not delay like Christ for him to die (Bethany), because we can't raise him from the dead!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟜:𝟙-𝟚

“‘If you will return, O Israel,’ declares the LORD, ‘Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence, And will not waver,  And you will swear, 'As the LORD lives,' In truth, in justice and in righteousness; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will glory.’”

For the nations to bless God, for the nations to be blessed, for the nations to take delight in God, for the nations to call upon the name of God, the Israelites must be godly and righteous. First, they need to repent. They have wasted their life enough: toiling and sweating in thorns, not in fallow ground.

Nobody will like to worship your God if you aren't enjoying Him. Nobody will love your church if you don't enjoy your church. Removing a plank of wood from our eyes before we think of telling others to remove a speck of dust from their eyes.

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟝:𝟙

"Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, look and take note! Search her squares to see if you can find a man, one who does justice and seeks truth, that I may pardon her."

Not even one in the whole land could stand up before God even in prayer. So, God was about to destroy. God always looks out for a man to be His channel of forgiveness. The whole world is fallen; Christ became man to stand before God to bring forgiveness to mankind. Israel sinned, and God forgave them through Moses' intercession. Sodom was sinful, there was no righteous man; Abraham’s intercession could save only Lot's family.

God was willing to spare, to forgive, to relent His judgment, to change His mind if there was even one righteous man. O the mercy of God! O the patience of God. O the love of God!

 

𝕁𝔼ℝ𝔼𝕄𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟞:𝟙𝟛-𝟙𝟜

"For from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is greedy for gain, And from the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely."

Everyone's greedy said the prophet, and this can be said of mankind almost all the time. How we ought to guard against greed!

It's even so difficult to diagnose this sin. We played it down by calling it "ambitious" "hardworking" etc.

Now, the rich are richer and the poor remain the same, and the gap becomes bigger. The rich want to be richer. And even the poor curse the rich. Greed is in all human!

Bible Reading Reflection from Isaiah 58-66

[Originally posted in a WhatsApp group (FG), a daily reading update (reflection) from each chapter of the Bible] 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟝𝟠:𝟜

"Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high."

A great chapter to read before every fasting program! There's an acceptable fasting and meaningless one! There's truth in the saying, "Some prayer will not reach farther than the floor of a chicken coop, not to mention heaven's door."

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟝𝟡:𝟙𝟞

"He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him."

Israel couldn't save itself. They don't even know the right way. And there's none that is interceding for them. There's no hope for Israel. So, God brings Salvation through the Suffering Servant, Messiah, Jesus Christ.

That's the true picture for all of us too. If there was no hope for Israel, what hope do the Gentiles have? And God brings Salvation for us too through Christ. Salvation is only of the Lord!

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟞𝟘:𝟙𝟘

"Foreigners shall build up your walls, and their kings shall minister to you; for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you."

This world is a fallen world: trouble, fear, pain, evil, suffering shall go on as long as it exists. A day will come when God will make everything beautiful. That's the hope. We live in hope.

We hope that tomorrow will come. Everything about the future (near or distant) is uncertain. We live by hope every second of our life. We can hope for the distant future too. And more hopeful because it's God who said so. God is wrathful, but merciful too. His mercy is upon those who hope in Him!

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟞𝟙:𝟚

"to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn"

If you are a supporter of any team in a football match, you want your team to score more with a goal difference of 2 or more (like 3-1 or 4-2). Not necessarily because you hate the other team, but because you want to make sure that the other team will not equalize it before the final whistle. We want certainty, assurance, confirmation.

Now, read this verse again. God promises not only God's favor upon the righteous but also vengeance upon the wicked. No more wicked to get the upper hand anymore.

BTW, Jesus quoted this of Himself, but He mentioned only the first part because this is the era of His favor to be saved. The second part will come just before the end of the world, the day of vengeance.

Now, the ungodly may prosper, but they will be like red hot charcoal put in the water. They shall vanish in no time soon. In the end, the righteous with God wins, and the universe is theirs!

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟞𝟚:𝟛

"You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God."

What a word picture! This is what God has purposed for His people!

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟞𝟛:𝟙𝟟

"O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage."

Both the godly and ungodly live in this same world. Both suffered. Both will die. Both committed identical sins. Both went astray. Both hardened their hearts. Both rebelled. Both grieve God. What's the difference? That could be said of Peter and Judas Iscariot.

From a divine perspective, it's God who preserves the other person, despite who they are. From our perspective, the godly acknowledge their sins and their need for God's mercy.

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟞𝟜:𝟞

"We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away."

Is there hope for mankind? None. Even the best deeds do not come close to God's standard. The best righteous deeds and the worst deeds may be huge in our eyes like a bucketful of water to a spoonful of water, but is there a difference when it is compared to a mighty ocean?

But, when God made a man righteous, his deeds are acceptable to God and will receive a reward for each good deed. Not just action-deeds but avoiding-deeds. When you hold your patience. When you decided to not gossip, to not insult, etc. those are good avoiding-deeds!

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟞𝟝:𝟚𝟝

“‘The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,’ says the LORD.”

And this line should have been added as well, "And mosquito shall not bite you anymore"🙂

 

𝕀𝕊𝔸𝕀𝔸ℍ 𝟞𝟞:𝟚𝟚

“‘For just as the new heavens and the new earth Which I make will endure before Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘So your offspring and your name will endure.’”

The 66th chapter of Isaiah speaks of the new heaven and the new earth. The 66th book of the Bible also speaks about them.

It's in the 22nd verse of the last chapter of Isaiah. It's in the 21-22 chapters of the last book of the Bible.

If you aren't impressed with the coincidence, just be impressed that heaven and earth will pass away no matter what climate change activists do to preserve the earth. And God will create a new heaven and new earth!

This world is definitely not our home!