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Daily Bible thoughts 860: Tuesday 21st April 2015: Jeremiah 4:11-18

Jeremiah 4:11-18

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

‘’Your own conduct and actions have brought this upon you. This is your punishment. How bitter it is! How it pierces to the heart!’’ (18). Here is the truth realised too late, and it is tragic. ‘We thought we could sow weeds and grow flowers, but we have in fact reaped what we have sown!’

It did not have to be like this, for even as God warned His people of impending judgment, He made it clear that He did not want this for them. He gave the opportunity to turn back (14).

The judgment coming from the north is depicted in two graphic images: the roaring lion (as we saw yesterday in verse 7) and a raging wind (11, 12)

‘’A wind that’s up to no good, a gale-force wind. I ordered this wind. I’m pronouncing my hurricane judgment on my people.’’ The Message.

As the chapter unfolds it becomes clear that this ‘wind’ is an army:

‘’Look at them! Like banks of storm clouds, racing, tumbling, their chariots a tornado, their horses faster than eagles…Invaders from afar off are raising war cries against Judah’s towns. They’re all over her, like a dog on a bone.’’ The Message.

In (13) it’s like a watchman actually sees the approach of the enemy. In (15, 16) the message is given first from Dan, in Israel’s far north, and then, as the enemy comes closer, from Ephraim in the central hill country, until the news finally hits Jerusalem.

For a person to continue in wrong ways and refuse to repent is to press a self-destruct button. Sin rebounds on the sinner ultimately. We damage and devastate our own lives by persisting in our own ways. Sooner or later it will lead to the words of (18) in our experience too. It would be better to clean up your act while there is still a chance (14).

‘’The essence of Hell is the truth discovered too late.’’

Prayer: Lord give me the courage to face the facts about my situation now while there is still time to turn to you.

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Daily Bible thoughts 859: Monday 20th April 2015: Jeremiah 4: 5-10

Jeremiah 4: 5-10

‘’A lion has come out of his lair; a destroyer of nations has set out.’’ (7a).

In this section and the next one, which we will read tomorrow, the invader ‘’from the north’’ (6) is depicted in two word pictures: as a roaring lion and a rushing wind. Both will bring devastation. The remainder of chapter 4 portrays judgment on Judah. The speaker throughout is Jeremiah, but he is pronouncing God’s Word, and the speech is sometimes directly God’s (e.g. v 6b).

God’s Word is so sure; so certain, that Jeremiah can speak of the coming judgment as if it has already taken place (7, 8; for a positive version of this see Romans 8:30. The Roman Christians were not yet ‘’glorified’’, but as far as Paul was concerned it was as good as done!) We can have complete confidence in what God’s Word says, whether it comes in promising or threatening form, or a combination of both.

The political and spiritual leaders led the way in rejecting Jeremiah and his message (9), but their tune would change when the Babylonian ‘’lion’’ came near their homes, and their towns and cities; when they heard his terrifying roar and saw his teeth and claws. (Note, though, that the beast is not yet identified as Babylon.) The people who mock Noah cease their jeering when the rain starts, but then it is too late. (The exposure of the leaders in this verse does not diminish the responsibility of everyone who resisted God’s Word.)

In (10) Jeremiah is referring to the words of false prophets who contradicted him and falsely promised peace to an unrepentant people. God is ‘’Sovereign’’ and obviously permitted their preaching. But that does not mean that He was responsible for it. It doesn’t mean that he sent these so-called prophets. God’s only response, as we shall see, is to confirm that judgment is certain. People today who preach that you can live rejecting Christ and the gospel and still expect no negative consequences in the next life are similarly perverting the truth. They are dishing out false hope. Although the Lord allows this, we must never think that He approves it. The false prophets in Jeremiah’s day helped to bring about physical damage and destruction, but something far worse is at stake in false preaching today.

Prayer: Lord please forgive us if we have distorted your gospel in any way, preaching only love and grace, and missing out warning and repentance. Help us stay true to truth.

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Daily Bible thoughts 858: Friday 17th April 2015: Jeremiah 4:1-4

Jeremiah 4:1-4

‘’God must first do a work in us before He can do a work through us.’’ I heard a well-known preacher utter these words in an Easter time sermon given many years ago.

My wife, Jill, and I were talking about this passage in Jeremiah earlier today. We reflected on the fact that it contains many ingredients of a ‘gospel’ message. More of the ‘good news’ has been revealed to us since Jeremiah’s day. Nevertheless, there are elements here that we would see as essential in presenting the message of Jesus now. Notably there is a clear cut call to repentance, with a promise of blessing to (and through) those who do turn to God, and a warning of judgment for those who will not.

‘’If’’ is a word you find three times in (1,2a) followed by ‘’then’’ in (2b): ‘’If…then…’’ This is a message that comes repeatedly in the Bible. God calls His people to do certain things. ‘If’ they do them, ‘then’ there are certain consequences. So much is contingent on our positive response. In the last chapter we saw and heard people promising to return to God. He says in effect in these verses, ‘If you will do that, here’s what will happen.’ Someone observed that ‘’we make our decisions, then our decisions turn around and make us.’’ Like Israel of old, the church is in the world to bless it (see Genesis 12:1-3). So much hangs on our faithfulness. We have to fully get right with God if we are to have that impact on the world He desires. Only ‘if’ we repent will there be an unleashing of that blessing that the Lord wants to pour through us. ‘’And the godless nations will get caught up in the blessing and find something in Israel to write home about.’’ The Message.

The same call to repentance is heard in (3, 4) although using different language, and specifically directed to Judah and Jerusalem. There are three figures of speech employed:

  1. ‘’Break up your unploughed ground…’’ e. soften your hard hearts;
  2. ‘’…do not sow among thorns.’’ e. avoid worldly entanglements (Matthew 7:13, 22);
  3. ‘’Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts…’’ i.e. purify your hearts and dedicate them to God. The Jews placed confidence in external religious rituals and did not let God operate on their hearts. But He desires ‘’truth in the inner parts…’’ (Psalm 51:6). God wants something that goes deeper – the devotion of the whole being. Ritual and ceremony will never be enough to satisfy Him.

‘’God must first do a work in us before He can do a work through us.’’ Will we heed His call to turn to Him today?

‘’You must get rid of your stinking sin paraphernalia and not wander away from me anymore.’’ The Message.

Prayer: Lord God, help me to turn away from everything you detest.

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Daily Bible thoughts 851: Wednesday 8th April 2015: Jeremiah 3:21-25

Jeremiah 3:21-25

The passionate call to ‘’Return’’ goes out again (22a). (It has been estimated that it occurs over 40 times in the book.)

People who have drifted (or turned) from God; those who are backslidden, can return, and will do so:

  • Where there is conviction of sin (21): where there is sadness and sorrow over wrong-doing and penitent tears are shed: ‘’A cry is heard on the barren heights, the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel…’’
  • Where there is recognition of who God is (22b), and what He can do for us (23b): ‘’for you are the LORD our God…surely in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.’’
  • Where there is willingness to return (22b): ‘’Yes, we will come to you…’’
  • Where there is recognition of sin’s deception (24, 25): ‘’All that popular religion was a cheap lie, duped crowds buying up the latest in gods…The Fraud picked us clean, swindled us of what our ancestors bequeathed us, Gypped us out of our inheritance – God-blessed flocks and God-given children. We made our bed and now lie in it, all tangled up in the dirty sheets of dishonour.’’ The Message.
  • Where there is humble confession of sin (25). People have to ‘come clean’ with God and honestly confess their true state, without pretence or excuses.

‘’ The people’s confession of sin seems genuine and complete (verse 25). However, we must assume it is the faithful ‘’remnant’’ that is confessing here, because the majority of Israelites never did repent. It is likely that Jeremiah described the repentance of the northern kingdom in order to provoke the people of Judah to repent also. Surely God longed to hear these words of repentance from His people, both from Israel and from Judah. And He longs to hear our words of repentance today, whenever we have strayed from Him.’’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’’, p.1082.

‘’returning is the only remedy for backsliding…Backsliding is like sickness (22). It begins with a secret ‘’infection’’ of sin, which leads to loss of spiritual appetite, gradual decline and, if not attended to, death. God heals our backsliding if we honestly accept His diagnosis and humbly return to Him.’’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.499.

Prayer: Lord, you know how ­________ has slipped away from following you. Please draw them back.

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Daily Bible thoughts 850: Tuesday 7th April 2015: Jeremiah 3:19, 20

Jeremiah 3:19, 20

“I planned what I’d say if you returned to me:
    ‘Good! I’ll bring you back into the family.
I’ll give you choice land,
    land that the godless nations would die for.’
And I imagined that you would say, ‘Dear father!’
    and would never again go off and leave me.
But no luck. Like a false-hearted woman walking out on her husband,
    you, the whole family of Israel, have proven false to me.”
God’s Decree.’’ The Message

All our sin and backsliding is a sin against love.

It is also irrational. It is like a woman leaving a good and loving husband for another man, or other men who have proved false. She has come to see ‘’where her bread is buttered’’. She knows that at home she has the kindest of men and the best of providers, yet she will not return. It’s the triumph of hope over experience, but she would prefer to take her chances ‘playing the field.’

God had always been a good and faithful Spouse to His people; the best of Husbands. But still they abandoned Him. None of this makes sense, but it’s what we do.

If you have slipped away from God, or if you have never come to Him, please hear and heed the pleading words of longing in Jeremiah 3.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us our trespasses.

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Daily Bible thoughts 849: Monday 6th April 2015: Jeremiah 3:14-18

 Jeremiah 3:14-18

‘’What’s the world coming to?’

There are prophecies in the Bible that seem to relate to a time beyond our time (although they could be fulfilled in our lifetime). This is one of those passages.

I remember our scholarly and godly Director of Studies at my training college saying that there are verses in the Bible that seem to point to a literal rule of the Messiah over this world: the so-called ‘Millennial Kingdom.’ Many Bible teachers believe that passages such as this teach that Jesus will come back to the earth and rule over it from His ‘’Throne…in Jerusalem’’ (17).

When He comes again:

  • Israel and Judah will be re-united (18). They will recognise that Jesus is their true Messiah and worship Him together;
  • The whole earth will come to worship the Lord in Jerusalem (17). At that time Jesus will be universally honoured and not rejected. What a day!

‘’The time will come”—God’s Decree!—“when no one will say any longer, ‘Oh, for the good old days!… It won’t even occur to anyone to say it—‘the good old days.’ The so-called good old days of the Ark are gone for good.’’ The Message.

Even the best of the past will pale into insignificance when Christ returns. The Easter celebration, reminding us of His first advent, also tells us that Jesus is alive and will one day come back.

We are living through very dark days. It has become more and more painful to watch the news over the last year or so (in my view). More and more people are asking, ‘’What is happening to the world? ’What is this world coming to?’’

But the real question is: ‘’Who is coming to the world?’’ The Bible’s clear answer is ‘Jesus’. Are you ready to meet Him?

Prayer: Thank you Lord that you are in control, and you are the Beginning and the End of all things. Help me to join your team, and not be kicking against you.

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Daily Bible thoughts 847: Thursday 2nd April 2015: Jeremiah 3:6-10

Jeremiah 3:6-10

‘When will they ever learn?’

‘’Her flighty sister, Judah, saw what she did. She also saw that because of fickle Israel’s loose morals I threw her out, gave her her walking papers. But that didn’t faze flighty sister Judah. She went out, big as you please, and took up a whore’s life also. She took up cheap sex-and-religion as a sideline diversion, an indulgent recreation, and used anything and anyone, flouting sanity and sanctity alike, stinking up the country. And not once in all this did flighty sister Judah even give me a nod, although she made a show of it from time to time.’’

We must learn from the sins (and mistakes) of others (6). Life furnishes us with many salutary object lessons. We can learn from the pain and misery of others, let alone our own. Such hard-bought lessons should not be wasted. As we read the Bible we find that there are numerous warnings to heed as we read the stories of ordinary sinful people just like ourselves.

Judah had much to learn from the sin and punishment of the northern kingdom, Israel (7, 8). Israel fell first and was taken into captivity first. This happened around 100 years earlier. But Biblical history teaches (and history in general) that we are slow to learn important lessons.

‘’The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.’’

‘’There are none so blind as those who will not see.’’

It was like God gave Judah a front seat in the stalls. They ate their popcorn and watched what was played out on stage. It was a powerful drama, as Israel was disciplined and the people were ‘divorced’ by being sent into captivity. The Judeans, however, thought they could put on the same play without facing the same devastating ending.

To change the image: Israel played with fire and got burned; Judah thought she could play with the identical fire and not get burned. ‘’The only thing we learn from history…’’

Verse 9 refers to Judah: ‘’Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her’’. They totally played down what the Israelites had done. It seems that we face a similarly serious situation in our land with sin mattering ‘’so little’’ to many people. We who are Christians are in danger and we’d better recognise it. We live in the same environment, populate the same culture and breathe in the same air, and we need to be careful that we are not infected with this ‘bug’. We can’t afford to become careless about sin. Yes, we may be forgiven; yes we get right with God through faith in Jesus. But this does not mean that we can live casually. Someone observed that ‘’sin is never less than serious in a Christian.’’ (See Romans 6.) It is true that we continue to sin, but our attitude towards it is to be one of implacable hatred and hostility and fierce resistance, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Judah only pretended to return to God. That sham front can never escape the scrutiny of the One who has X-Ray vision (Revelation 1:14b).

Prayer: Lord, you know my heart. I want to hate all sin, and love righteousness. I recognise that sin can never matter little to those who see what it did to Jesus. The cross tells me to hate evil and love you. I do so want to side with you against all sin and evil. Deliver me from its power, even as you have set me free from its penalty. I praise you that one day I will be rescued from its very presence.

 

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Daily Bible thoughts 846: Wednesday 1st April 2015: Jeremiah 3:1-5

Jeremiah 3:1-5

‘’…the barren heights…’’ (2a).

The divorce law in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 prohibited a woman who had been divorced and who had married another man from ever returning to her first husband. The Lord here pictures Judah as being effectively divorced from Him by her dalliance with other lovers (the Canaanite gods.) By analogy with the divorce law she could never hope for Yahweh to take her back. But He, of course, is gracious, and He would gladly welcome her home if only she would repent.

The sexual imagery continues with the theme of prostitution in (1, 2 and 3). It is shocking language. ‘’Look around at the hills. Where have you not had sex?’’ The Message. It shows that God loves His people so much that He is prepared to speak the ‘’kind truth’’ as someone put it. He was willing to spell out the seriousness of the situation, even though it meant giving the hard word. What the people of Judah were doing was spiritual prostitution. They were no doubt shocked and even scandalised to hear their conduct described in such terms. But God knew they needed to see themselves as He saw them.

Jesus similarly used ‘shock tactics’ in His speech. He used arresting language. He spoke some ‘hard sayings’, designed to challenge people, make them think, and ultimately change. The God of the Old Testament is the same God revealed in Christ.

Remember that the true God calls for undivided heart loyalty. We are to have no other gods before Him. Are we totally faithful in our marriage to the Lord of heaven and earth? Or is something flirtatious going on around the edges of the relationship? Do we have eyes for other ‘lovers’? Are we chasing after any idols?

Just as in sexual temptation (2) when you seem to be offered something good, but it turns out to be empty and unfulfilling; so when we turn to any other god we will find ‘barrenness’ there. What would seem to lift you up will pull you down.

I believe Newton’s law says that for each action there will be an equal and opposite reaction. I say that because we live in a world of cause and effect. Actions have consequences (2b, 3a; see Leviticus 26:3,4). Sin has unwanted consequences. It not only affects me – the sinner, but also the land I live in. Primarily my sin is against God, but it also has social consequences. It can negatively affect others.

The people of Judah would not repent (3-5). They were ‘’brazen’’ in their sin (3b). In fact, they were blasé about their relationship with God. They thought they could live how they pleased and the Lord wouldn’t mind. It wouldn’t adversely affect things. ‘’Brazen as whores, you carry on as if you’ve done nothing wrong. Then you have the nerve to call out, ‘My father! You took care of me when I was a child. What now? Are you going to keep up your anger nonstop?’ That’s your line. Meanwhile you keep sinning nonstop.’’ The Message.

Prayer: Lord God, you deserve, and require, the true love of all my heart. Help me to worship you alone.

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Daily Bible thoughts 840: Tuesday 24th March 2015: Jeremiah 2:26-37

 Jeremiah 2:26-37

‘’For you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.’’ (28b)

Some of the sins of Judah are itemised here. The big one was idolatry (26-28; 33 see 23-25), which was in other words, spiritual adultery. Everything else that was bad in the national behaviour flowed down from this (34) The people were having a string of ‘affairs’ with foreign deities. Notice again the mockery of such ‘worship’ in (27a). People want false gods who will endorse their false ways. But when they are in a crisis they want real help from the true God. In their hearts they know the truth that He is there (Romans 1:19-23; see also Psalm 19).

Another kind of idolatry is mentioned in (36, 37): that of trusting in human alliances rather than in the Lord Himself. Everything we place our ultimate confidence in that is not God will prove disappointing. We will be let down by our ‘gods’.

They did not respond to Yahweh’s corrective words spoken through the prophets. They were in rebellion. They sought to stifle that word by slaying the prophets who brought it (29, 30). They were caught in the prophetic headlights of God’s Word (26) and didn’t like it. At the end of this long process of course, they were to finally kill God’s Son. (Matthew 21:37-39). Isn’t it interesting how people get into a mess because they resist God (17), but then have the gall to blame Him (29)? And He had been so good to them (31, 32). Not only were they sinning against the light (29, 30); they were also sinning against sheer goodness (31, 32; see 5-7). The result was terrible injustice in the streets (34). The kind of god you worship will shape how you treat people. ‘’What an impressive start you made to get the most out of life. You founded schools of sin, taught graduate courses in evil! And now you’re sending out graduates – resplendent in cap and gown – except the gowns are stained with the blood of your victims! All that blood convicts you. You cut and hurt a lot of people to get where you are.’’ The Message. Having abandoned God they also deserted from His moral standards. They descended into immorality and even murder. They killed innocent people, even accusing them of breaking and entering when that was not the case (34). Yet they continued to try to justify themselves (35), which seems to be an almost universal trait.

There is something so contemporary about the words of (27b). People don’t want God for much of the time. They certainly don’t want Him to tell them how to live. But when they’re in trouble they run for the prayer ‘phone and dial ‘999’. In an emergency they expect blue flashing lights and sirens to move in their direction from heaven. ‘’All I ever see of them is their backsides. They never look me in the face. But when things go badly, they don’t hesitate to come running, calling out, ‘Get a move on! Save us!’ ‘’ The Message.

Prayer: Lord, forgive us all our idolatry. Help us to honestly face our sin, and fully turn to you and trust you all the days of this life.

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