Search

Home thoughts from abroad.wordpress.com

Free Daily Bible notes by Rev Stephen Thompson

Open Search
Category

Jeremiah notes by Stephen Thompson

Daily Bible thoughts 911: Monday 29th June 2015: Jeremiah 9: 12-16: Two ways.

Jeremiah 9: 12-16: Two ways (click here for passage)

From beginning to end the Bible shows that there are two ways in life and we must choose which road we will travel. One way is ‘’narrow’’ having relatively few people on it. The other is ‘’broad’’ and thronged with crowds (Matthew 7: 13, 14). But this broad, popular route leads to ‘’destruction’’ while the other leads to ‘’life’’.

This was essentially Jeremiah’s message. Those who rejected God’s way for their own were going to suffer a terrible fate. Yes, God would be patient with them, and give them many opportunities to repent. He wanted to save them. But in the end, if they insisted on their own way, they surely would have it. Then they wouldn’t want it. It would lead to ruin and waste and the bitter experience of death, captivity in a foreign land, and scattering among the nations.

C.S. Lewis said that in the final analysis there are only two kinds of people in the world: those who say to God, ‘Your will be done’, and those to whom God says, ‘Your will be done.’

As Dorothy L. Sayers commented: ‘’The essence of Hell is the truth discovered too late.’’

The destiny of the people of Judah is a pale foreshadowing of the final judgment, which will surely come. Someone pointed out that Adam and Eve first chose to hide from God before they were removed from the Garden of Eden. He went on to say that ultimately, all that God does in judgment is to ratify the choices we have already made.

Prayer: Lord, I acknowledge that your way is best. Help me to choose it today and always.

0

Daily Bible thoughts 909: Thursday 25th June 2015: Jeremiah 9:3-9: The horizontal dimension.

Jeremiah 9:3-9: The horizontal dimension.(click here for passage)

‘’…any theology that minimizes personal holiness and excuses sinfulness is not biblical theology.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘The Wiersbe Bible Commentary (Old Testament) p.1218. Jeremiah would not excuse the sins of his people. His message was one of repentance and judgment. The people he lived among were far gone.

These verses paint a grotesque picture of society torn apart by sin; a world in which people do well (in the short term) by lying (3b). And there is a degenerative aspect to sin – a downhill spiral. Things go from bad to worse. What kind of culture is it, when a prophet has to say: ‘’Don’t even trust your grandmother!’’? The Message. This is a world turned in on itself.

The truth is that sin separates. It separates people from one another. But in the first place it separates them from God. Twice in this passage, virtually the identical thing is said:

‘’…they do not acknowledge me…they refuse to acknowledge me…’’ (3b, 6b).

That lay at the heart of the problem. Something had gone wrong at the vertical level that was being worked out in the horizontal dimension of life. People estranged from God became more and more estranged from one another. Your relationship with God will inevitably be exposed in your treatment of others. (Consider Matthew 25:31-46 and Hebrews 6:10). It will splash over into your behaviour towards people. We cannot get away with saying that we love God when we are treating people badly. God is not deceived by such talk. (1 John 4:20, 21).

Our daily news is filled with stories of violence and cruelty; abuse and barbarism. In various ways we see people hurting each other. Wounds can be inflicted by lying words, gossip, slander and the like. It’s not always by bombs, bullets and sharp pointy instruments. Much of our entertainment industry is based around stories of people at odds with each other. There seems to be more and more ‘gutter’ television, featuring men and women being mean and nasty to others. This all points to a people disconnected from their God. Because they are separated from Him, in different ways they move away from each other.

There is much to weep over (1, 2).

‘’Never in history has there been more ribald hilarity with less to be funny about.’’ Vance Havner.

Prayer: Help me to live consciously in your presence, dear Lord; to be so close to you that I detest sin and treat others well.

2

Daily Bible thoughts 902: Tuesday 16th June 2015: Jeremiah 8: 18 – 9:2

 Jeremiah 8: 18 – 9:2 please click here for todays passage

‘’Break my heart for what breaks yours.’’

When I was about to attend my first morning service at the ‘Elim’ church in Wigan, my parents tried to warn me that I might not like it. I didn’t!! I had never felt or heard such raw emotion in church before. I was used to sedate and orderly services, but here I witnessed loud expressions of joy and love and saw tears flowing liberally. It felt like loving chaos.

Jeremiah has been characterised as ‘the weeping prophet’ and today’s reading illustrates why. We see a window into his heart. He was so burdened for his people. (You also see conflicted emotions in 9:1, 2):

‘’For my dear broken people, I’m heartbroken. I weep, seized by grief. Are there no healing ointments in Gilead? Isn’t there a doctor in the house? So why can’t something be done to heal and save my dear, dear people?’’ The Message.

(18, 21, 9:1). What moves me? What makes me cry? Are our hearts somehow disconnected from the realities of sin and need all around us? Do we not care? Or perhaps we care all too little? I can’t help but feel that our prayer meetings would be more densely populated if we had more Jeremiah’s about the place. But Jeremiah’s seem to come in rather small numbers.

In (19a) Jeremiah sees his people in the land of bondage. This is where their sin and idolatry got them. They had their own way, and then found this was not what they wanted. Certainly, they didn’t want the full on consequences of their rebellion.

The people of Jeremiah’s day ‘missed the bus’ (20). They had the opportunity to turn back to God, but they didn’t seize it. They got so ‘sick’ that their situation was ‘terminal’ (22): ‘’Gilead was a part of the promised land that lay east of the Jordan River and was famous for a healing balm made from the resin of a certain kind of tree. Since this balm was readily available and there were physicians to apply it, why, Jeremiah asks, has the wound of the people not been healed? (verse 22).The reason is that the wound is spiritual, and it will take more than Gilead’s balm to heal it. Spiritual wounds can be healed only when people cast themselves on God and repent of their sins. Sadly, Judah’s people had rejected that remedy.’’ Tom Hale: ‘The applied Old Testament Commentary: p.1090.

Sin in the church can bring us to the sad place where it seems like our King, Jesus, is no longer with us (19). There is no sense or manifestation of His presence; there is no light shining out from among us. When we see anything like this we have reason to weep.

Prayer: ‘’Lord crucified give me a heart like yours.’’

0

Daily Bible thoughts 901: Monday 15th June 2015: Jeremiah 8: 8-17: True wisdom.

Jeremiah 8: 8-17: True wisdom Please click here for passage

In the late 1970’s I visited St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, and climbed up as high as you could go. Whilst at the top of the building, I met a robed verger, a young man, who cheerfully asked me what I was doing. At the time I was coming towards the end of my Bible College training. He too was going to train for the Anglican ministry. I think he may already have been in some form of preparation. Although initially pleasant, his tone quickly degenerated towards sarcasm. He questioned my belief in miracles, and suggested that if I believed what I did, I should throw myself off the building. He almost became menacing in his tone, and I proceeded to remove myself from him, and a conversation that wasn’t going anywhere. But if he ever did get into the ministry, what would he do with the Bible? I pray he had a change of heart!

You don’t need a ‘’pen’’ (8) to tweak the teaching of Scripture. You can make adjustments with your tongue. Satan still slithers into the ‘garden’ with a query: ‘’Did God really say..?’’ (Genesis 3:1), and many preachers are willing to stand up and say, ‘No, He really didn’t mean that at all.’ The Scribes were teaching that people could go on in their rebellious ways towards God and get away with it (11). They were very wrong, and everyone paid the price for their error filled messages (10a, 12b, 13; see Leviticus 26:31-33). God will especially punish teachers who lead people astray. They have been given greater privileges and carry greater responsibility (Luke 12:47, 48; 17:1,2; 2 Timothy 2:15; James 3:1).

A ministry that moves away from the Bible is inevitably superficial. It does not carry the radical answer to the bleeding need of the wounded heart (11): ‘’they put on band-aids…’’ The Message. I think every preacher should examine themselves in the light of this eleventh verse. ‘Is this in any way true of me?’ Preaching that does not take sin seriously cannot take the gospel remedy seriously.

Real wisdom is found in God’s Word (9). This is different to the accepted wisdom of the world (Proverbs 1:7; 2 Corinthians 2:6-14). It is ‘’the wisdom that comes from heaven’’ (James 3:17). It is the work of Christian leaders to help people see what the Bible says, and all it says. We cannot change the script because it is unpopular or difficult. This is not our prerogative.

People’s ultimate health and well-being is bound up with their acceptance or rejection of God’s truth. If we reject the written Word of God, we also reject Jesus the living Word who is its centre and substance. If we reject Jesus, what hope can we have?

Finally, here are three things that can bring a preacher down (but it’s not an exhaustive list):

  • Greed for money etc. (10);
  • Lack of personal integrity (10);
  • A seared conscience (12), no longer sensitive towards God or sin.

Prayer: Lord God, I recognise that people need your ‘medicine’, however unpalatable it may seem to some. Please help me to never ‘dilute’ what you have put in the gospel ‘bottle’.

0

Daily Bible thoughts 900: Friday 12th June 2015: Jeremiah 8: 4-7: Warning Light.

 Jeremiah 8: 4-7(please click here for Bible Passage): Warning Light.

‘’Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle.’’ (6b).

I discovered that next to this passage I had written a note: ‘’How often do we cling to what, deep down we know to be wrong, but want to be right?’’

Many years ago, I was embarked on a particular course of action, when it felt like a huge warning light came on inside. I knew that something was wrong. But the urge to continue with what I was doing was greater than my very real sense of unease. So I did carry on. It did not take long to realise why that ‘light’ had appeared on the ‘dashboard’ of my soul. Although the decision I took did not destroy me, it did cause much heartache and aggravation for a time, and it was damaging.

The pursuit of our own ‘course’ tends to go hand in hand with clinging ‘’to deceit’’ (5b). We are quite happy to believe lies that permit us to carry on with our plans, and just close our eyes to what we do not want to see; and shut our ears to uncomfortable truth. The problem is that, as we have already seen in these readings, when we get what we want we don’t necessarily want it. We certainly don’t want all the bad stuff that comes with having our own way. There is One who loves us; a Father who knows better than we do. We should listen to Him instead of stomping off down the forbidden road. He wants to protect us from ourselves.

‘’They stubbornly hold on to their illusions, refuse to change direction…They just kept at it, blindly and stupidly banging their heads against a brick wall.’’ The Message.

God clearly wanted His people to return to Him. He was longing for their repentance (6). ‘’I listened carefully but heard not so much as a whisper. No one expressed one word of regret. Not a single ‘’I’m sorry’’ did I hear.’’ The Message.

His complaint was: ‘’Cranes know when its time to move south for winter. And robins, warblers, and bluebirds know when it’s time to come back again. But my people? My people know nothing, not the first thing of GOD and his rule.’’ The Message. It was the season for mass ‘’migration’’ (7) back towards God and Home. If ever there was a time to return, this was it. But the people of Judah did not seize the moment of opportunity.

Thankfully, although it is self-destructive to plot our own route through life, such self-will is not beyond forgiveness.

‘’We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.’’ (Isaiah 53:6).

As the prophet Isaiah foresaw, hundreds of years in advance, when the Messiah came, He took the punishment for our reckless pursuit of our own agendas. We may not be protected from the consequences of all our self-centred choices, but we can be forgiven for them through faith in Christ, who died in our place. This is very good news indeed! The time to turn to Jesus is now. This is the ‘season ‘ for movement towards Him. But will we? Will you?

Prayer: Whenever I see your warning light come on, give me the courage to heed it.

 

0

Daily Bible thoughts 899: Thursday 11th June 2015: Jeremiah 8:1-3

Jeremiah 8:1-3

This is a continuation of the message begun in the previous chapter. ‘’At that time’’ (of the fall of Jerusalem) certain things will happen. It’s a terrible scene depicted. Imagine being told that one day your body, along with the bodies of many other people from your community, will lie unburied on the ground; that there will be a landscape littered with corpses.

Verse one shows the comprehensive nature of the judgment to fall. ‘’I’ll see to it that they dig up the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of the princes and priests and prophets, and yes, even the bones of the common people.’’ The Message. The leaders had led the way in ungodly living, and they led their nation to destruction. The bad shepherds took their flock over the cliff edge with them.

The various words used in verse 2, such as ‘’loved and served and…followed and consulted and worshipped’’ point to what the people had lived for; what they had given themselves to. Someone said, ‘’Beware of what you set your heart on for it will surely be yours!’’ There will be a return on the investment of your life, and many people will find that they don’t get the return they desired. If you give your life over to any ‘god’ other than the Lord; if you devote yourself to any purpose other than the one your Maker intended, you will deeply regret it. We will reap what we sow and many ‘farmers’ will not like their harvest. ‘’They’ll dig them up and spread them out like a congregation at worship before sun, moon, and stars, all those sky gods they’ve been so infatuated with all these years, following their ‘lucky stars’ in dog-like devotion. Their bones will be left scattered and exposed, to reenter the soil as fertilizer, like manure.’’ The Message. The truth is that when we get what we want, we don’t necessarily want it. We have many experiences of this during our life time. How much of what we long for disappoints us. To lie unburied was considered a terrible disgrace. Their beloved ‘gods’ failed them when they needed them most They could not save their worshippers.

This short section comes to a terrible end. Even for those who survive this judgment, they will wish they were dead (3). ‘’Everyone left – all from this evil generation unlucky enough to still be alive in whatever godforsaken place I will have driven them to – will wish they were dead.’’ The Message. As I understand the Bible, there will come a day when even those who are dead will wish that they were truly dead (i.e extinct). The people who have lived for other gods will find themselves forsaken by the true God. They have rejected Him, and He will respect their choice. But death would be preferable to being without Him forever. Remember that Christ, upon the cross, experienced the God-forsakenness of Hell, so that we will never have to. We simply have to trust Him and what He has done for us.

(The word ‘’refuse’’ in (2) reminds me that a common word used in the New Testament for Hell, is the same one for the constantly burning rubbish heap just outside Jerusalem.)

Prayer: O God have mercy on me, and on all I love. Save us from self-destructive lifestyle choices that exclude you.

 

0

Daily Bible thoughts 893: Wednesday 3rd June 2015: Jeremiah 7: 30-34: Call it what it is!

Jeremiah 7: 30-34: Call it what it is!

Call it what it is! We have a habit of attempting to pretty up bad things by giving them nice names. But ‘a rose is a rose by any other name.’ This also applies to evil, ugly things; they remain evil and ugly however we label them. Listen to these words: ‘’ ‘’But soon, very soon’’ – GOD’s Decree! – ‘’the names Topheth and Ben-hinnom will no longer be used. They’ll call the place what it is: Murder Meadow.’’ The Message. Can you imagine a situation so wicked that people were actually burning their children as sacrificial offerings to false gods? (30-31). It is no wonder that this society was going to come under judgment. (In fact we sacrifice our children to our’ gods’ in other ways that look more acceptable and civilised. But we are nevertheless destroying them.) If we cover evil practices with a veneer of religion we may feel that this ‘coat of religious paint’ makes it look better. But God sees everything and He knows the truth. He knows that the house is ramshackle and about to fall down.

Use it as you should! The people of Judah had misused the Temple, set up for the honouring of God’s Name: ‘’In deliberate insult to me, they’ve set up their obscene god-images in the very Temple that was built to honour me.’’ The Message. According to the second big section of the Bible, the New Testament, a local gathering of Christians is God’s Temple (1 Corinthians 3), and so also is the physical body of a Christ follower (1 Corinthians 6). So it is important that in all we do in church life, and in our personal lives, that we should aim to honour God who made us for Himself and for His own glory. Let’s not misappropriate the ‘temple’ for our own uses.

Believe it because it’s true! As we read the Old Testament prophetic books we may find all the stuff about God’s anger and judgment a bit distasteful. But in everyday life we can find food that is good for us to be unpalatable. In a recent letter to the church in the U.K. the well-known preacher/writer R.T. Kendall pointed out that Jesus affirmed the Old Testament and was not ashamed of the God of the Old Testament. He called Him ‘Father’. Here are some key lessons we learn from the Bible about God:

  • He is Holy;
  • He hates all sin/wrongdoing/the breaking of His law;
  • He will judge and punish all evil;
  • He is also loving and gives ‘sinners’ many opportunities to repent;
  • In His love and justice, He gave Himself up for us all on the cross, in the Person of His Son; He took His own anger/judgment against sin, dying in our place. Therefore,
  • All who repent of their wrongdoing and trust in Christ will be saved;
  • All who reject Jesus will bring judgment on themselves.

This truth about judgment will not go away, and it is not for any theologian or preacher to re-write the Bible.

Prayer: Lord help me to swallow the parts of your Word that I find ‘tough’ meat along with the other bits that I find ‘tender’.

0

Daily Bible thoughts 889: Monday 1st June 2015: Jeremiah 7:9-15

Jeremiah 7:9-15

‘’But I have been watching! Declares the LORD.’’ (11b).

‘’I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’’ The Message

It can be a comfort to know that God is watching. How good it is to know that He watches over us. ‘’For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous…’’ (Psalm 1:6b); ‘’…he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you…he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.’’ (From Psalm 121:4-8). These, and similar words in Scripture, encourage us as we consider God’s watchfulness. ‘’Thou God seest me.’’ (Genesis 16:13).

But it is also a challenge to know that God is watching. That is the import of the words in today’s passage. God sees everything that goes on in His church (temple). Nothing escapes His notice. Jesus has ‘X-Ray vision’ (Revelation 1:14b) and He inspects everything. Psalm 1:6 concludes: ‘’…but the way of the wicked will perish.’’ God sees and knows what they are up to as well.

  • The Lord sees the sin of His people (9, 10) – and He calls them to repent. He warns them of the consequences if they will not (15. Isn’t this the essence of Hell?) In (9) mention is made of the breaking of 5 of the 10 commandments (Exodus 20:3, 13-16). If we cherish sin in our hearts God will not listen.
  • The Lord sees the complacency of His people (10). No one is ‘’safe’’ who rejects God’s Word and pushes away His Son. It is a tragedy and a travesty that there are many false preachers who tell people they are safe when they are not. The people were no better off than ‘’robbers’’ who hide in caves, but who sooner or later will be caught (11).
  • The Lord sees the misplaced trust of His people (14). As we saw on Friday, their confidence was in the temple itself. They thought (and many of their ‘prophets’ had encouraged them to believe this) that because the temple was in Jerusalem it would protect them. They were so misguided. Unless our trust is in the Lord alone we will never be safe. Salvation is found in Jesus only. We should not look anywhere else. Centuries earlier (before the Jerusalem temple was built), the Lord’s tabernacle had been located at Shiloh (Josh.18:1), and at that time the Lord allowed Shiloh to be destroyed (although the Tabernacle itself wasn’t). But now the temple would be destroyed, and not just the place.

‘’Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighbourhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market – and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, ‘’We’re safe!’’ thinking that the place itself gives you license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege?’’ The Message.

Pray: Lord God, your grace is amazing, but help me to not take it for granted and become careless about how I live.

0

Daily Bible thoughts 882: Thursday 21st May 2015: Jeremiah 6: 10-15

 Jeremiah 6: 10-15

‘’Who will listen to me?’’ (10)

‘’They’ve tuned out GOD. They don’t want to hear from me.’’ The Message.

This is Jeremiah speaking, but ultimately the issue was about listening to God, who was talking through Jeremiah. From one angle, a ‘disciple’ is someone who answers this call. They listen, and learn (and obey!) Attitude towards God’s Word is an index of the heart (10b). Every pastor longs to see hunger for God’s Word among God’s people. But this passage opens by talking about those who did not want to listen to the Lord’s Word. In fact, they loathed it. Jeremiah had a message the people did not want to hear (11). He preached an unpopular sermon about impending judgment. Are we guilty of going for the more ‘soft-centred’ Bible truths? Do we avoid the ‘nutty’ passages that are hard on our teeth?

Regardless of the negative attitude of his congregation, Jeremiah would not be silenced: ‘’The word of the LORD is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it. But…’’ (10b).

Although Jeremiah’s message was unpopular, it would come to pass (11b, 12: notice how God again speaks directly at this point.) The second half of verse 11 points to the comprehensive nature of the judgment that was soon to fall. It would affect people of all ages from right across their society.

Jeremiah would not be like the false preachers who served up only what the people wanted to hear (13, 14); who doled out false hope. He would not offer them only sweet, soft-centred sermons; his messages also contained nuts (and some people had a bad reaction!). Preachers who do not give a proper treatment of the doctrines of sin and judgment end up dealing with people’s deadly wounds as if they were just scratches and grazes. Their messages are not radical enough; they don’t go deep enough.

Somebody said that the gospel is bad news before it is good news. We must know how sick we are before we will be prepared to call in the doctor and ask for a cure. We must understand that we are sinners in the sight of a holy God, and what this means, before we will be prepared to cry out to Jesus to save us.

As we have seen, there were profound problems in Jeremiah’s society which were caused, or certainly exacerbated, by a corrupt ministry. Whether they realise it or not, preachers create a culture by their sermons. If they twist the truth, they produce a toxic culture. Let’s pray for all who teach God’s Word. They carry an awesome responsibility. May they not be moved from the truth.

‘’Everyone’s after the dishonest dollar, little people and big people alike. Prophets and priests and everyone in between twist words and doctor truth. My people are broken – shattered! – and they put on band-aids, Saying, ‘It’s not so bad. You’ll be just fine.’ But things are not ‘just fine’! Do you suppose they are embarrassed over this outrage? No, they have no shame. They don’t even know how to blush.’’ The Message.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑