Jeremiah 33
COMMENTARY:
: 3 Call unto me, and I will answer you, and shew you great and mighty things, which you know not. (7121 “call” [qara] means to summons, cry, invite, mention, preach, proclaim, pronounce, utter a loud sound, be named or say.)
DEVOTION: This is a chapter of promise. The only way that the promise could be broken is if they could stop the day and night from happening.
When God promises HE is going to keep HIS word. The people of Israel were going to return and the cities were going to be restored. They were presently going to be destroyed but in the future Jerusalem was going to be rebuilt.
The LORD invites the children of Israel to summons HIM and HE will answer them. HE will not only answer them but HE will show them many important things. HE will not only show them important things but inaccessible things. Things that incomprehensible will be understood. Things that are unsearchable even with a computer will be found. Secret things will be revealed. The LORD wants to share with those who genuinely seek HIM. HE wants to share with those who invite HIM into their lives. HE continues to knock at the door of our hearts.
We can’t understand that captivity can be good for us or for the children of Israel. We still have problems with suffering in our lives. We think that God should just fix everything now. HE should just forgive us and move on and not allow suffering in our lives. The whole teaching of the word of God says that we only grow through suffering. Suffering makes us more like Jesus.
This chapter is informing the children of Israel that there is a BRANCH of Righteousness coming that will bring in a time of prosperity for HIS people. We know that this BRANCH is Christ. The LORD puts a command in front of the children of Israel. The command is for them to cry to HIM for help. HE is not going to cause the help to come for seventy years but it is going to come. This is not the full fulfillment of HIS promise.
Should we pray to the LORD with the knowledge that HE might not answer in our lifetime? Should we bother to pray for our children’s salvation when we know that they will be old and gray before they accept Christ? Should a wife of fifty years still pray for the salvation of her husband?
We want instant results. God’s promise is that the future is sure. God’s command is for us to pray now for future blessings. Are we obeying HIS command to pray? Are we ready for GREAT and MIGHTY THINGS? Are our churches ready for GREAT and MIGHTY THINGS? Are we crying out to God for GREAT and MIGHTY THINGS?
If we received them would we be full of JOY? Remember to watch what we pray for because we could get it!!!
This is a promise to the children of Israel for a revelation into their future. It is also repeated other places, so that, they might realize that the LORD wants to communicate with them. HE also wants to communicate with us today. HE wants us to invite HIM into a conversation with us.
CHALLENGE: Invite the LORD to have a conversation with you. HE speaks through HIS Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
: 6 Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth. (1540 “reveal” [galah] means uncover, discover, to go into exile, uncover, disclose, lay bare, or to make something known to someone else, through not necessarily public.)
DEVOTION: The LORD wants Israel to know that HIS judgment was only going to last for a time period but it would end and then a time of blessing was going to come.
The children of Israel had to be taught a lesson regarding the consequences of their sins. They had to learn that God wanted obedience from those who were HIS people. Once they had learned that if they were not obedient there would be chastening it would help them understand that there are consequences to sin.
This is the same lesson that we have to learn even today. There are people who claim to be believers who still sin and some have not confessed their sins and asked forgiveness. The LORD wants HIS people to understand that there are consequences to sin even for those who are HIS people. It happened in the Old Testament times and it does happen even today.
Those who are believers have to keep short accounts with the LORD. We need to confess our sins daily. We are to seek to be individual who honor the LORD regularly. Yes, we are going to sin but we are also supposed to confess the sin and ask the LORD’S forgiveness and with HIS help not commit the sin again.
There seems to be sins that affect some people more than others. Our responsibility is to pray for those who we know as they struggle with certain sins. Part of our responsibility is to help our fellow believers in their fight against sin.
The LORD is the only ONE who can bring health and cure to our lives and we need to trust HIM to help us each day with our struggles.
CHALLENGE: There is coming a time period when we will have our sins gone. It is when we are with HIM in heaven. Until then we will struggle with sin and HE will forgive us through confession that is real.
: 10-11 “Thus says the LORD: ‘Again there shall be heard in this place—of which you say, “It is desolate, without man and without beast”—in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the LORD of hosts, For the LORD is good, For His mercy endures forever”— and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the LORD. (The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982).
DEVOTION: The contrast between the present and the future with God is sometimes stark. Jeremiah here presents the difference of the captured city and the redeemed city. One is desolate and uninhabited and the other rings with joy, laughter and worship. While one was a present reality with the city under siege and the fall of it imminent, the other is what God reveals to Jeremiah as the future. He is presenting the picture to Jeremiah to encourage and assist the conquered people to maintain hope. By the time the New Testament occurs and Jesus is walking the streets of Jerusalem the city is alive and bustling as Jeremiah predicted. It is even more predictive of the future city where the streets will be paved with gold and the sun will never set (Rev. 22:5).
CHALLENGE: The difficulty of the present needs to be contrasted with the reality of the future. As we gaze at what God has promised we can be assured the difficulties of the moment will soon be over. Take heart and be courageous! (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
: 15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and HE shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. (6780 “Branch” [tsemach] means sprout, growth, shoot, bud, bring forth or head of a stalk.)
DEVOTION: We read in Jeremiah 23: 5 about the King that was coming in the future. HE was also called a righteous Branch.
It was the introduction of the Messiah who would come in the future to reign in Jerusalem. During HIS reign there would only be righteousness. HE would execute judgment in only a righteous manner.
This is in contrast to what was presently happening in Jerusalem. The leadership in Jerusalem was all looking out for themselves and not those who needed to be given true judgment. The LORD was judging them because of their treatment of the poor in their nation.
This is a time in the future when the Messiah was going to reign. It is describing the Millennial reign of Christ when HE returns. HE promised the disciples on the Mount of Olives that HE was coming back. The angels stated that HE was coming back.
However, we have waited 2,000 years and HE still has not returned. This has caused some confusion in the church. Some believers have decided to just sit back and wait. Others think it will never happen. There are pastors who are not teaching on end times because it has taken so long for the LORD to return.
All of these individuals are wrong. HE is coming and we were given an assignment to “occupy until HE comes.” This is not happening in many churches that claim to be followers of the LORD.
The people in the pews are sitting, soaking and souring instead of spreading the GOOD NEWS of the GOSPEL. We are all ministers. Christ is going to return when the last person who is recorded in the book of life is reached. Our responsibility is to reach those in our Jerusalem.
HE could call us home at any time and then we will stand before HIM and give a report of what we have done since the day of our salvation. We are not earning our salvation but rewards. It should be the desire of our heart to please HIM in this type of service.
CHALLENGE: The future reign of Christ is assured. Our rewards are still in process. Work for the day is coming when we will meet HIM face to face.
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