GOD’S WORD FOR DECEMBER 27 ~ ~ Jeremiah 4:1~ ~ “If you will return, O Israel,” says the Lord, “Return to Me; And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, Then you shall not be moved.”
We’ll learn more about the Prophet Jeremiah in the second part of the section “Jeremiah, the Prophet Who Confronted Kings.” (By Dr. Michael Youssef)
Jeremiah had an intense personality and a strong sense of duty. You would not consider him a calm and even-tempered man. He wrestled with men and with God. He boldly confronted kings. He was often persecuted and threatened with death.
After he warned King Zedekiah that Jerusalem would fall to the Babylonians, the king’s officials demanded Jeremiah be killed. Zedekiah gave the prophet’s enemies permission to seize him. The conspirators placed Jeremiah at the bottom of a deep cistern, leaving him to starve to death. He was rescued by an Ethiopian, but his enemies later accused him of aiding the Babylonians and threw him in prison (See Jeremiah chapter 37).
He suffered deeply because he loved these wayward people of Judah. His pain was “unending” and his emotional wound was “grievous and incurable” because he wanted to save them from their own foolishness and sin. But they wouldn’t listen.
Jeremiah’s grief reminds us of the sorrow of Jesus Himself, who mourned:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (Matthew 23:37)
After the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem, the commander of the Babylonian imperial guard released Jeremiah from his chains, saying:
“The Lord your God decreed this disaster for this place,. And now the Lord has brought it about; He has done just as He said He would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey Him. But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists.” (Jeremiah 40:2-4)
This Babylonian soldier had more respect for the God of Israel than the people of Jerusalem did. He understood that the Babylonians’ victory was due to the Jews’ sin and idolatry.
After most of the people of Jerusalem were taken into captivity in Babylon, God moved King Nebuchadnezzar to carry out His will.
It’s important to understand that a major shift of focus takes place in the Biblical narrative at this point in Jeremiah 40. From Genesis, when God promised to make of Abraham a great nation, right up to the destruction of Jerusalem, the Bible focuses on the political kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Now both Israel and Judah have been conquered. Jerusalem is destroyed. And the Biblical narrative focuses not on the political nation but on a tiny remnant in Judah.
This remnant is a tiny vestige of people with whom God will one day make a New Covenant. And here we see a crucial Biblical principle at work: ONLY THOSE WHO HAVE SEEN THE TOTAL FAILURE OF THE EARTHLY ORDER WILL ULTIMATELY HOPE FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
The writer of Hebrews said that when Abraham left his home in UR and journeyed to the Promised Land, “he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Similarly, the Apostle Paul describes the city Abraham looked forward to as “a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (2 Corinthians 5:1). That is the true Kingdom of God.
Jeremiah’s message to his people – and to us – is that you don’t need sacrifices, rituals, or a Temple in order to worship God. True worship is not an outward ritual, but an obedient heart:
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: “Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves! For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: OBEY ME, AND I WILL BE YOUR GOD AND YOU WILL BE MY PEOPLE. WALK IN OBEDIENCE TO ALL I COMMAND YOU, THAT IT MAY GO WELL WITH YOU,.” (Jeremiah 7:21-23)
Those who call upon God in obedient faith will find that He is leading them toward a future of blessing and belonging:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you.” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jeremiah 29:11-14).
Jeremiah Proclaims the Coming of the New Covenant with a New Israel:
“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
The Jewish people longed only for the restoration of the Jewish nation. But Jeremiah envisioned a transcendent hope for a new Kingdom, under a New Covenant, empowered by the Spirit of God,. The next time we find similar words in the Bible is in Matthew 26:28, where Jesus, at the Last Supper, tells the disciples, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
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POEM BY HELEN STEINER RICE
THE PROMISES OF MEN MAY FAIL BUT GOD’S PROMISES PREVAIL
In this uncertain world of trouble with its sorrow, sin and strife, Man needs a haven for his heart to endure the “storms of life.”
He keeps hoping for a promise of better, bigger things with the power and the prestige that fame and fortune brings.
And the world is rife with promises that are fast and falsely spoken, for man in his deceptive way knows his promise can be broken.
But when GOD makes a promise it remains forever true, for everything GOD promises he unalterably will do.
So read the promises of GOD that will never fail or falter and inherit EVERLASTING LIFE which even death can’t alter.
And when you’re disillusioned and every hope is blighted, recall the promises of GOD and your FAITH will be relighted.
Knowing there’s ONE LASTING PROMISE on which man can depend, and that’s the PROMISE OF SALVATION and a LIFE THAT HAS NO END.,
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1John 2:25
And this is what He has promised us, eternal life.
“If the Lord Jehovah makes us wait, let us do it with our whole heart. The waiting itself is beneficial”
Charles Haddan Spurgeon
Romans 8:27
“And He that searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God”
“Our worship is our weapon” Adrian Rogers