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Daily Bible thoughts 979: Wednesday 30th September 2015: Jeremiah 17:5-13: The heart of the human problem.

 Jeremiah 17:5-13: The heart of the human problem.(please click here for todays Bible passage)

‘’The person who does not have God at the centre of his life inevitably places himself at the centre; this is the most basic form of idolatry.’’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1100

The people of Judah experienced first-hand the futility of trusting in people rather than God (5, 6).One form their idolatry took was to place too much confidence in alliances and treaties rather than to trust fully in the Lord their God. Jeremiah repeatedly called the people away from such misguided and misplaced belief. It was a form of ‘backsliding’ (5b). Where do you go for your strength? Where are your roots?

A life turned away from God is a barren, shrivelled up life (6). No-one in their right mind would choose to live in a spiritual desert. Such is the life Jeremiah called people away from.

The alternative he called them to is found in (7, 8; see Psalm 1:1-4; John 15:1-17). It was also his own experience, as we saw recently (16:19a). Where would you prefer to live? In the desert (6), or in a verdant, abundant, flourishing place (8)? Only those who trust in God live there. This is a verse full of luscious promise. It speaks of a life of stability, peace and continuous fruit-bearing. These are the alternatives held out in the gospel message: emptiness or fullness. Why would anyone choose the former over the latter? The answer is found in (9, 10). Someone said, ‘’The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart.’’ We may wonder why, if (12, 13) are true anyone would forsake God. But they do; we do. Again we find the answer in the state of the heart: ‘’The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out.’’ The Message. The ‘’heart’’ refers to the very centre of a person’s life. It includes mind, will and emotions. Everything flows out from this Centre. Many years ago, a leading newspaper ran a series asking , ‘What is wrong with the world?’ The shortest reply to the editor said, ‘’Dear sir, I am. Yours sincerely, G.K.Chesterton.’’

It remains the case that we can only be saved by faith (in the Lord Jesus); and ‘by faith’ is the only way to live. Let’s make sure our trust is in the right place; or rather, the right Person. We may not be able to change our dark, deceitful and deceived hearts, but God can fill them with light. There is a ‘’cure’’ with Him. In the meantime, we can’t pull the wool over His eyes. He knows us thoroughly.

‘’There follows a contrast (very like that of Ps.1) between the person who depends for well-being on human strength and the person who trusts in God (5-8). The ‘cursing’ of the one and the ‘blessing’ of the other are covenantal (cf. Dt.28). The covenant has a paradox which is abidingly true: the attempt to put one’s life on a secure footing by a selfish reliance on one’s own abilities brings undoing; trust in God, which implies obedience and may involve acting against one’s own interests, is the way to life (cf. Mt.10:39).’’ Gordon McConville: ‘The New Bible Commentary’, p.686.

Prayer: ‘’Create in me a pure heart, O God.’’ (Psalm 51:10).

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Daily Bible thoughts 968: Tuesday 15th September 2015: Jeremiah 16: 19-21: Living on smoke.

 Jeremiah 16: 19-21: Living on smoke.(please click here for todays passage)

‘’The godless nations will come from earth’s four corners, saying, ‘’Our ancestors lived on lies, useless illusions, all smoke.’’ Can mortals manufacture gods? Their factories turn out no-gods’’ The Message.

This lovely prayer of Jeremiah’s (19-21) comes at the end of another rather dismal chapter, and it should encourage us. Someone described prayer as ‘’the flight of the lonely man to the only God.’’ This particular prayer is ‘’a burst of faith and prophetic joy…’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘The Wiersbe Bible Commentary (OT), p.1228.

Jeremiah’s Strength (19a): We have seen that Jeremiah had a difficult calling. He lived a lonely life. He was single and childless and had very few friends. He had a message to give that made him deeply unpopular with the majority. He was persecuted for his beliefs. He was ‘’like a speckled bird, set on by all the birds of the flock.’’ F.B. Meyer: ‘Great verses through the Bible’, p.300. So how did he manage to go on? God was his strength. Let that thought put fresh nerve into you today. If Jeremiah could persevere with God’s help, then you certainly can!

Jeremiah’s refuge (19a): Jeremiah was repeatedly attacked, verbally and even physically. But God was real to him. Jeremiah entrusted himself to God. He was conscious of being enveloped within the impregnable walls of God’s love (Romans 8:39). The Lord was his ‘’fortress’’ and ‘’refuge’’; his place of safety. In the midst of your pain and hardship God wants you to know this reality.

Jeremiah’s confidence (19b, 20): Although he was ostracised and largely rejected in his own day, Jeremiah was enabled to see that a day would come when the Gentile nations would flock into God’s Kingdom. We are living in these prophetically foreseen days right now. The church is growing and spreading all over the world (see Isaiah 2:1-4; Micah 4: 1, 2; see Habakkuk 2:14). Many people are seeing the idolatrous mirages they have trusted in for what they are. They are recognising that they have been living on ‘’lies’’, ‘’illusions’’ and ‘’smoke’’. God is able to do this. He breaks the stronghold of idolatry over minds and hearts. As Jeremiah prayed, God spoke (21). What God said was that He would do the very thing that Jeremiah saw that He would do. God’s Word informs and strengthens and shapes our prayers. God is able to change people; He is even capable of influencing  whole nations. You may be in a dark place, as Jeremiah was, but God can light up your life with an awareness of something significant He is yet to do. His bright ‘torch light’ can penetrate your ‘fog’.

Prayer: ‘’Let God speak, and I will listen.’’

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Daily Bible thoughts 967: Monday 14th September 2015: Jeremiah 16: Some further thoughts.

Jeremiah 16: Some further thoughts.(please click here for todays notes)

Here are some further observations on this chapter:

  • Verse 5 contains a warning for the church today. Think about the letters to the seven churches in the book of ‘Revelation’. ‘Lights’ can go out. ‘Candles’ can be extinguished. God can withdraw His blessing. Someone made the point that the local church is never more than a generation away from extinction. We can’t just live how we please and think that all will be well. God, in His patience, may well give us time to repent, but the time will not be infinite. A day will come when it is too late to change.
  • See once again that a note of hope is embedded within a message of severe judgment (14, 15). Jeremiah was enabled to see that there was going to be a second and greater ‘exodus’. In future days people would see the deliverance from Babylonian as the supreme example of God’s power in Israel’s history – even more than ‘the great escape’ from Egypt. (There is a repeated theme in this book that God will not destroy his people ‘’completely’’ : 4:27; 5:10, 18; 30:11; 46:28; see Psalm 94:14; Romans 11:1-5). When Jeremiah wrote, God’s revelation was not complete. Jesus, God’s final Word to mankind had not yet come. We now know that the supreme demonstration of God’s delivering power in human history was displayed at the cross where Jesus died for our sins.
  • Nothing is hidden from God (16-18; see 17:10). We are well and truly ‘bugged’. Jesus has ‘X-Ray vision (Revelation 1:14b).
  • Essentially, what God does in judgment is to give people what they have chosen (13). They would be where there hearts were – with their gods in the land of their gods. “When you tell this to the people and they ask, ‘Why is God talking this way, threatening us with all these calamities? We’re not criminals, after all. What have we done to our God to be treated like this?’ tell them this: ‘It’s because your ancestors left me, walked off and never looked back. They took up with the no-gods, worshiped and doted on them, and ignored me and wouldn’t do a thing I told them. And you’re even worse! Take a good look in the mirror—each of you doing whatever you want, whenever you want, refusing to pay attention to me. And for this I’m getting rid of you, throwing you out in the cold, into a far and strange country. You can worship your precious no-gods there to your heart’s content. Rest assured, I won’t bother you anymore.’ ’’ The Message.

Beware of what you set your heart on, for it will surely be yours!

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Daily Bible thoughts 966: Friday 11th September 2015: Jeremiah 16: The cost of ministry.

 Jeremiah 16: The cost of ministry.(please click here for todays passage)

In his remarkable book, ‘Intercessor’, Rees Howells says something along these lines: ‘’The Holy Ghost was stricter with me than any schoolmaster.’’ This Welsh man had a remarkable ministry in prayer, but there was a lot of self-denial and self-sacrifice behind the scenes. God will sometimes deny a person certain legitimate things for His own good reasons. He has a particular purpose for each life. We are not to compare ourselves with others, but faithfully do what the Lord asks of us (John 21: 20-23).

There is a price to be paid for an effective ministry. Indeed, there is a price to pay for a high profile ministry. Although, humanly speaking, he was largely unsuccessful in his day, and unpopular, Jeremiah has become one of the most famous names in history. But there was a price tag attached to what he said and did.

It must have been hard for a man ‘’of Jeremiah’s affectionate and sympathetic nature’’ to obey the commands in (2, 5 and 8). But this was part of his message. It gave him a platform to speak (10ff).

‘’When people asked Jeremiah about his strange behaviour, he would have opportunity to declare the Word of God.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe.

His life was his message, in a way. (In a slightly different way, it should be the case for us as well – that the godly way we live backs up what we say, and causes people to ask questions.)

‘’Jeremiah has already used a sign to reinforce his message (13:1-11); now his whole life becomes a sign (1-4). Being unmarried was unusual in ancient Israel, and so his singleness and childlessness stand out as noteworthy. In fact, they are intended by the Lord as a sign that all normal life in Judah will cease…Jeremiah is also forbidden to participate in normal funeral ceremonies, as a sign that death will be so widespread in Judah that such mourning ceremonies will become impossible (5-7). Gordon McConville: ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.686.

Jeremiah was also told that this was no time for feasting (8).

So, he was a lonely man: unmarried, childless, and with few friends. Someone pointed out that what Jeremiah was called to was tantamount to self-imposed excommunication. Perhaps these things were the kind of increased difficulty envisaged in (12:5).

‘’Jeremiah’s apparently anti-social conduct was to be a witness to the devastation that was about to descend upon Judah, when all normal activities of a community would cease.’’ A.E. Cundall.

How unpopular are you prepared to be for the cause of God in this world? As we will go on to see, although Jeremiah trod a lonely path, he was not alone. He had a ‘’refuge’’ (19). So do you and me. He will be our ‘’strength’’ to carry on.

Prayer: I am grateful Lord that when you ask something of us, you also help us to do that thing. Otherwise we would never have the courage or fortitude or ability to get on with the job.

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Daily Bible thoughts 963: Tuesday 8th September 2015: 1 Thessalonians 5: Living in the future tense (Part 2).

1 Thessalonians 5: Living in the future tense (Part 2).(please click here for todays passage)

The film, ‘Marvellous’, captures something of the wonderful story of Neil ‘Nello’ Baldwin, who became kit man at Stoke City in the era when Lou Macari was manager. It’s a drama which truly deserves the epithet ‘heart-warming’. On reading (16) I thought about Neil and a comment his character makes in the film: ‘’I wanted to be ‘appy so I decided I would be!’’

We’re continuing to look at some of Paul’s practical injunctions set in the context of living in the light of Christ’s return. Here are some further points:

Live joyfully (16): Joy is a choice. Neil Baldwin was right. You can’t always choose your circumstances but you can select your attitudes. Living joyfully is very much about being a thankful person (18) – someone who counts their blessings rather than continually obsesses over their burdens. It is also about living to serve others (see 15). If you live for others you will almost certainly run into joy as a by-product. ‘’Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part…Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.’’ (13b-15) The Message. Good, healthy relationships are a key to joy-filled living.

Live prayerfully (17): This is not about always saying prayers, but living in a spirit of prayer. We need to be prayed for (25), and we need to pray for others (23-25). ‘’Friends, keep up your prayers for us.’’ The Message.

Live thankfully (18): As I have already begun to intimate, I see these three exhortations as being interlinked. A prayerful person who is learning to give thanks ‘’in all circumstances’’ will also be coming to understand the secret of joy. In fact, it is no secret. This is out in the open. There is a further dimension to this life of joy and it comes next:

Live with openness to the Holy Spirit (19-22): But do this with discerning wisdom. ‘’Don’t suppress the Spirit, and don’t stifle those who have a word from the Master. On the other hand, don’t be gullible.’’ The Message.

To be able to live out the wonderfully practical instructions in this closing section of 1 Thessalonians, we will need the ‘’grace of our Lord Jesus Christ’’ (28). It is ours in abundance.

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you make possible what you insist on.

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Daily Bible thoughts 960: Thursday 3rd September 2015: Jeremiah 15: 15-21: The loneliness of the long distance leader.

 Jeremiah 15: 15-21: The loneliness of the long distance leader.(click here for todays passage)

Jeremiah’s suffering (15): God fully understood this and Jeremiah knew that He did. Jeremiah was a good man; a faithful man who was persecuted for his faith.

Jeremiah’s delight (16; see Ezekiel 2:8 – 3:4): Jeremiah knew something of the loneliness of ministry. In fact, he experienced more isolation and rejection than most. He received discouraging responses to his preaching during the ‘marathon’ years of his ministry. But he did find strength and joy and encouragement in God’s Word. Eugene Peterson wrote a volume entitled, ‘Eat this Book’. How’s your appetite?

Jeremiah’s loneliness (17): He didn’t marry and he had few friends. He could not join in with the party when he knew that the roof was about to cave in and the whole house come crashing down. He saw more clearly than most of his contemporaries, and he paid dearly for seeing so clearly and for having the courage to speak out what he saw on the horizon. He trod a lonely path. The party- goers saw him as a party-pooper and he was hated.

Jeremiah’s sin (18): I feel sorry for Jeremiah, and so do you. But all that he went through was not an excuse for sin. It is one thing to be honest with God, but it is quite another to say things that are untrue (18b). Jesus taught His disciples to pray these words: ‘’And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ (Matthew 6:13). I understand that it can read: ‘’And do not put us to the test…’’ The truth is that a time of testing can be an occasion for temptation, so we need to be vigilant in it that we do not fall into sin. ‘’Jeremiah here lapses into acute self-pity and launches a bitter attack on God that reaches perilously close to blasphemy.’’ A.E. Cundall.

But God did not write Jeremiah off as a failure. He dealt gently with him as he did with Elijah (1 Kings 19:3-18; see also the story of Peter’s restoration in John 21). ‘’Remember how Peter sinned; but within 50 days he was speaking as the mouth of the Holy Ghost to thousands.’’ F.B. Meyer.

God’s kindness and gentleness (19): We who preach repentance to others will need to repent ourselves at times. We will need to drink the same medicine we prescribe. Jeremiah was a good and faithful man. But he was also sinful. At this time of great pressure his sin nature shone through. He needed to understand that sin could clog up the channel of his ministry, and he needed cleaning out. He particularly needed to repent of the ‘’worthless words’’ he had spoken in (18b; see Isaiah 6:5).

God’s commission (19b): We could say that Jeremiah was recommissioned at this point. (Hear echoes of his initial call in 1:8, 18).If Jeremiah did repent he would God’s ‘’spokesman’’. But although the people might come to him to hear him, he was not to ‘’turn to them’’. He wasn’t to become like them; to be enticed into their ways or squeezed into their mould.’ A faithful preacher of God’s Word will not only carry an authoritative message; he or she will have a distinctive lifestyle. They will be different. That difference also preaches! So if we spend time in the company of unbelievers (and I think the example of Jesus says we should) we should be careful not to take on their moral hues (17). Jesus was with them yet distinct from them, and that’s our challenge.

God’s promise (20, 21; see verse 11 and 1:8; 18): Hold on to what He’s said to you.

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Daily Bible thoughts 959: Wednesday 2nd September 2015: Jeremiah 15: 10- 14: The cost of leadership.

Jeremiah 15: 10- 14: The cost of leadership.(please click here for todays notes)

‘’The best of men are men at best.’’ Men who love God and love people, and who give their lives to serve, have soft hearts and they can be easily wounded. So it was with Jeremiah. See in these words:

  • Jeremiah’s lament (10): ‘’Unlucky mother—that you had me as a son, given the unhappy job of indicting the whole country! I’ve never hurt or harmed a soul,and yet everyone is out to get me. But, God knows, I’ve done everything I could to help them, prayed for them and against their enemies. I’ve always been on their side, trying to stave off disaster. God knows how I’ve tried!’’ The Message. You can feel something of Jeremiah’s pain in these words. Christian ministry is not all happiness. Genuine leaders can pay a huge emotional price. They are heavily invested in seeing people respond well to God’s Word. When that doesn’t happen the heartache can be overwhelming. Let’s support our leaders with love and prayers, remembering that they are men and women too. If cut, they will bleed.
  • Jeremiah’s humanity (10): We could even say his frailty and fallibility, and we will see yet more of this in tomorrow’s reading. Not only was Jeremiah a man; he was also a man with a sinful nature. He was capable of wrong thoughts and words.
  • God’s answer and encouragement (11): God does speak, and sometimes people have found that in the darkest moments of their lives the Lord has given them a word that they can hold on to. Jeremiah was told that God had a ‘’good purpose’’ for him still, and that He would cause the prophet’s enemies to come to him for help. Later in the book we will see how this happened.
  • God’s further word to Judah (12-14): Someone said that (12) is a figure of the nation’s obduracy in the face of God’s Word. The ‘’iron from the north’’ referred to Babylon. Judah would not be able to overcome the Babylonians when God had clearly said that they would defeat the little nation to the south as the outworking of His judgment for their sins. You can’t fight God and win.

Prayer: Lord God we commit to you those who work hard in Christian ministry and faithfully bring your Word. Support them with your strength. Help them to keep going and not lose heart.

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Daily Bible thoughts 957: Monday 31st August 2015: Jeremiah 14:13-22: Only the truth sets free.

 Jeremiah 14:13-22: Only the truth sets free.(please click here for todays passage)

‘’…only the real word of God will stand the test of time and experience.’’ A.E. Cundall.

False preaching (13-16): Jeremiah protested to God that the people had been misled by false prophets. The Lord agreed with him that they had been, and he assured him that these counterfeit preachers would be punished by experiencing the very judgments they said would not happen. Those who say there is no Hell will end up there themselves if they do not repent of their sins and trust in Christ. Tragically, the people in the pulpit who preach error take many of the people in the pews down with them. (For bodies to be left unburied in the streets would be considered a terrible disgrace by Jewish people: verse 16). The people in the pews, by the way, should have known better, because they had been given clear tests to apply to know whether a prophet was true or false. ‘’The sermons they’ve been handing out are sheer illusion, tissues of lies, whistlings in the dark.’’ The Message. No genuine prophet would encourage people into idolatry. The people could check the preaching with the Word of God (Isaiah 8:19, 20).

Genuine feelings (17, 18): ‘’None should preach destruction who cannot weep for those under its threat.’’ In these verses God’s heart is expressed through the mouth of Jeremiah. He doesn’t have physical ‘’eyes’’ that ‘’overflow with tears’’, but throughout the Bible His feelings and actions are described in human terms, because these are the only ones we understand. The Lord wept for Judah as a father might weep for his ‘’virgin daughter’’ who had been violated, beaten and left to die. There is deep heartbreak here. God was not indifferent to their suffering, even though He was the One who had to inflict it.

True praying (19-22): Here are some timeless elements of authentic prayer:

  • It is honest (19): It faces up to disappointments and difficult and unanswered questions (19);
  • It confesses sin (20). Jeremiah stood in a grand Biblical tradition of spiritual leaders who showed solidarity with their own people, confessing their sins as if they were their own;
  • It seeks the honour of God’s Name (21a);
  • It appeals to God’s Word (21b; see Leviticus 26:44, 45);
  • It recognises that God is our only hope (22).

Prayer: We pray for all who preach that they may first hear from you Lord, and bring your messages. Protect us from all error. Help us to be discerning.

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Daily Bible thoughts 956: Friday 28th August 2015: Jeremiah 14:1-12: When fasting will not do.

 Jeremiah 14:1-12: When fasting will not do.(please click here for todays notes)

Chapters fourteen and fifteen consist of a kind of conversation between Jeremiah and God. Prayer is not a monologue but a dialogue; there are two ends to the telephone line. Are you listening as well as talking?

Jeremiah was driven to prayer by a time of drought (1-6). These verses paint a desperate picture and must be linked to the nation’s breaking of the covenant (Deuteronomy 28:12, 14; Leviticus 26:19, 20). It wasn’t just a natural disaster. In the rainy seasons that normally occurred, the ‘’cisterns’’ (3) would fill up with water as a result of flash flooding. But at this terrible time there was no water. (I couldn’t help but think that some people experience the spiritual equivalent of verse 3 when they attend certain churches!) The ‘’doe’’ is a creature renowned for her care for her young (5) and the ‘’wild donkeys’’ were among the hardiest of animals (6). These, then, were desperate times indeed.

In (7-9) Jeremiah presents the pleas of the people before God:

-Their confession of sin and backsliding (7);

– Their desire for God to do something for the sake of His Name (7; see also 21);

– Their sense that although God was with them, His presence was not being manifested; they were aware of His presence among them, but also conscious of His inactivity. He felt like a ‘’stranger’’ to them; like a ‘’traveller’’ who had moved on (8); like someone who should have been able to help, but couldn’t (9). ‘’Why are you acting like a tourist, taking in the sights, here today and gone tomorrow? Why do you just stand there and stare, like someone who doesn’t know what to do in a crisis? But GOD, you are, in fact, here, here with us! You know who we are – you named us! Don’t leave us in the lurch.’’ The Message. ( ‘’…a large number of inconsistencies and insincerities may make God powerless to help you, or to work mightily through you to the salvation of others…The Lord Jesus could do infinitely more in us, and through us, if we did not hinder. Be sure that the Kingdom of God is within, but you must let it possess you.’’ F.B. Meyer. )

– Their request that God should not forsake them.

God’s answer in (10-12) shows that the people’s confession was but words. Although it sounded sincere enough, God saw right through it. There was no genuine repentance in evidence (10; see 3:10; 15:6, 7; Isaiah 59:1,2). They mourned for their land but not for their sins; they were sorry for their plight but not for their evil. So God told Jeremiah not to pray for them anymore (7:16; 11:14). They had past the point of no return. Not even fasting could help now: ‘’When they skip their meals in order to pray, I won’t listen to a thing they say.’’ The Message. True confession involves forsaking sin (Proverbs 28:13). It is more than just repetitively saying ‘Sorry’ to God. Note the ‘’this people’’ in (10, 11) and compare with the covenantal ‘’my people’’ (9:7).

(The trio of disasters mentioned in verse 12b is intended to cover the full range of human misery. The curses for breaking the covenant, found in Deuteronomy 28:15-68, are basically variations on these themes.)

Prayer: Lord God, may nothing in me prevent the outflowing of your power.

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