Jeremiah 16
COMMENTARY:
: 5 For thus says the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them for I have taken away MY peace from this people, says the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies. (3073 “peace” [shalowm] means prosperity, success, welfare, deliverance, harmonious relations and freedom from disputes, especially during the absence of war, healthy, unaffectedness, safeness, friendliness, or deliverance.)
DEVOTION: Here we find that the LORD is giving a command to HIS servant to NOT mourn or lament or bemoan those who are dead. The people were not listening to the LORD and HE sent judgment and also told HIS faithful servant that he was not to do what was normal when someone dies.
God can give peace to us or HE can take it away. We have to realize that when we do things that are not pleasing to HIM, HE will not bless us and comfort us but send a time of trial our way to get our attention back where it should be.
Today, we have many people who are not worshiping the LORD properly while they claim to be followers of the LORD. They are just doing as they please and think the LORD will continue to bless them. This is not true.
God has the trait of being longsuffering but it does not mean that HE will do it forever, here is a limit for HIM and HE had reached the limit with the children of Israel. He sent them into captivity.
The can do the same thing today to groups of believers who used to serve HIM but have striated from the truth of the Word of God. There are great churches that were started honoring the LORD and then they striated away from the gospel.
Here we find the LORD telling HIS servant, Jeremiah to not even go to funerals. He was not to honor those who have died.
God wants us to honor HIM and HE will honor us! If we don’t honor HIM HE will send judgment like HE did to the children of Israel. HE is longsuffering but there is limit.
CHALLENGE: Are you challenging God with your actions? Remember what happened to the children of Israel. HE can still do that to us. Honor HIM and HE will honor you.
: 10 “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’ The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982).
DEVOTION: Sometimes people have a difficult time with believing God’s word! They look at it and find it unbelievable that a loving God could or would pronounce judgment and disaster on a people that He says he loves. The question that is asked reveals how ignorant and blind the people of Judah was to the Lord’s ways! They should have known that God saw and sees their sins! It is equivalent to the questions asked by Israel in the book of Malachi when God was speaking to them (Mal. 1:6; 2:17; 3:7-8, 13). In verses 11-12 Jeremiah tells them their fathers had forsaken them and that they were worse than their fathers.
Sometimes we have a difficult time believing that God sees and will hold us accountable for the things He calls sin in His word. We compromise with the world and accept their standard of morality or ethics and ignore what God tells us in His word. Breaking of absolutes results in punishment regardless of whether we believe those absolutes or not. You jump off a cliff and you will crash to the ground! The absolute law of gravity is always at work, regardless of your beliefs. The same principle is true for God’s word. It will come to pass irrespective of your beliefs. We may question the results but the results will occur.
CHALLENGE: Today is a good day to come to grips with the absolute authority of God and His word! If He has spoken it to us He will bring those truths to pass even if the time it takes to happen is a thousand years or a few days. Do not let the stubbornness of your heart result in disobedience to His word. You will end up on the ground because God’s word never alters or fails. Like gravity, it works every time! (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
: 17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes. (5641 “hid” [cathar] means be absent, keep close, be concealed, or secret.)
DEVOTION: God is omniscient. The presence of the LORD is everywhere. HE is omnipresent. HE knows all our thoughts. HE sees all our actions. HE has a record.
The LORD told the children of Israel the way they should go through HIS law. HE gave them specific instructions. HE didn’t leave anything to error. HE set up leaders to instruct each generation of what HE expected of them. The priests were to perform HIS instructions. The children of Israel were without out excuse in the sight of the LORD.
The children of Israel thought that they were getting away with their sins. They thought that God didn’t see them. They were following after every imagination of their evil hearts. The LORD wanted them to know that HE sees what is going on here on earth. HE knows all our secrets. HE doesn’t let us get away with anything. HE always sent nations to correct them. They were going to be corrected by a nation from the north. Babylon was coming.
HE was going to send soldiers to fish for all of HIS people who were scattered. HE was going to send hunters to hunt down all those who thought they had escaped to other lands. No one was free from the judgment of the LORD. HE had declared it and it was going to happen to all of Judah.
The LORD gave special instructions through HIS Son, Jesus Christ. These instructions are found in the New Testament. HE continues to not leave anything to chance. HE has a plan and has told HIS people HIS plan for their lives. They are to follow the straight and narrow road to heaven. Most of the world will follow the wide path that leads to destruction or hell for eternity.
HE is there to help those outside of Christ to get to know HIM. Those who know Christ are chastened, pruned, or corrected, so that, they can be more like Christ. Remember God is not absent, HE us always present. HE wants us to know HIS name. Do we know HIS name? Are we worshiping HIM in spirit and in truth? Let us not think that anything is concealed from the LORD in our lives!!!
CHALLENGE: Practice the presence of the LORD in our daily life. Realize that HE knows the thoughts and intention of our hearts. May HE see that these thoughts and intention are only toward HIM!
: 19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely, our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. (3276 “profit” [ya‘al] means benefit, gain, avail, useful, aid, advantage, value, or help.)
DEVOTION: Jeremiah is making a statement concerning his perspective of the LORD. He communicates with the LORD regarding their relationship to one another. He wants the LORD to know that he gains his strength from the LORD to face all that daily life brings into his path.
He knows that the LORD is ALMIGHTY and no one and nothing can break through the HIS defenses to defeat him in his daily walk with HIM. The SWORD of the LORD is there to protect from all enemies.
He realizes that the LORD is the only place he can turn with confidence of victory. He knows that affliction is going to come. He knows that he is not going to like each of the afflictions the LORD allows in his life but he still turns to HIM at those times.
Not only will he turn to the LORD but in the future all of Israel will turn to the LORD for strength, defense and refuge. They will finally realize who HE is and how much HE loves them.
They will also inspire those who are not Israelites to come and trust in the LORD. This is a future plan that the LORD is working through HIS promise to Abraham. Abraham was to bless many nations.
We live in a day and age when the LORD is working with us who are not Israelites to become followers of HIM through HIS Son Jesus Christ. We have a future and a hope because of HIS death on the cross for our sins. HE has made promises to us. These promises are based on HIS plan in the past through HIS chosen people Israel.
CHALLENGE: As Gentiles, for the most part, we need to thank the LORD for including us in HIS plan. We have a future hope that we can share with others. Share these truths with others.
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