Category: Devotions

TEN DAYS

Jeremiah 42
A lot can happen in ten days.
Johanan and his officers who had killed Ishmael, the king of Babylon’s appointed governor in the land were en route to Egypt with many people.
Stopping at Bethlehem they enquired of Jeremiah regarding their future and they promised obedience no matter how difficult God’s guidance was.
That was ten days ago.
How is it possible that we can be at one moment passionate and surrendered to God but a few days later reject the word of God?
1. Past blessing can blind us from God’s direction.
a. We fall in love with the blessing not the blesser.
40:12 the people had known a great harvest.
2. Past grievances can tempt us to be free from any more tensions in life.
a. We fall in love with peace not the giver of peace.
Gedaliah was assassinated, they slaughtered Ishmael and now they are heading to Egypt for a peaceful life, v14.
3. Present fear will narrow the options down of what is possible and the fear becomes all-comsuming.
a. We fall in love with fear and not fear who we love.
God tells them what He would continue to tell generations of people: Do not be afraid for I am with you and will save and deliver you, v11.

Ten days ago they sounded committed to God. But no matter your words and intentions it is what’s in your heart that will determine what you do.

Jeremiah 41

Grief can cause you to lose good judgment
v5 they came with shaved beards, torn clothes, bodies cut and blinded to the approach of the enemy.

Holding onto the past can cause you to lose good judgment.
v5 they brought offerings to the house of the Lord which had actually been burnt down.

Tears from the important can cause you to lose good judgment.
v7 Ishmael was known as one of the kings officers and he is now weeping with them.

Invitations to be somebody can cause you to lose good judgment.
v6 Gedaliah was in charge of the remaining Jews and they we asked to visit this important man.

Beware of the circumstances and keep your head.

Jeremiah 40

Nebuzaradan released Jeremiah at Ramah
and Christ released you at Calvary.

He found Jeremiah bound in chains among all the captives
and Christ found you trapped in sin and disobedience.

He freed Jeremiah from the chains on his wrists
and because of Christ you can also sing, “my chains fell off”.

He set before Jeremiah a wide open space
and Christ has set before you an open door that no man will shut.

Jeremiah 39

It all begins with fear.
v1 they marched and Jerusalem saw them

There will be relentless attack in order to bring despair.
v1 a siege

The attack is simply in order to get in.
v2 the city walls were broken through

They came to take their seats of authority.
v3 they took the seats

The enemy is only a pawn in the overall plan of God
v16 all this was God’s intention.

Wisdom to remain

Jeremiah 38

“Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard” 37:21; 38:13,28

Know you are always in God’s hands.
v5 the King said to the officials ‘he is in your hands ‘ but Jeremiah was in God’s hands.

Live your life in such a way that when you are no longer around people talk about you lovingly.
v7 Ebed-Melech heard that they put Jeremiah in the cistern

The way out of a predicament needs adjustment from how you went into it.
v6 he was lowered into the mud; v12 rags and old clothes protected him from the ropes as they pulled him from the mud.

The root of disobedience is fear.
v19 Zedekiah feared the Jews and that’s why he would not surrender to Babylon.

The captain of the ship goes down with the ship.
v28 Jeremiah was the true leader trying to bring Jerusalem to surrender to God. It never did but Jeremiah remained nevertheless. Don’t give up because those you love refuse to see the truth.

Wisdom in the calling

Jeremiah 37

Will face a time when it will look like their work is not needed, v7-10.
( it looked like the Babylonians had backed off )
– when circumstances change God will confirm His calling, listen to Him.

Will face an enemy who never forgets and will continue attacking throughout your life, v13
(Irijah in the line of Hananiah, the false prophet who died because he spoke against Jeremiah)
– if the enemy can’t stop you it will try and contain you based on trumped up charges.

Will hold on to the message of God without deviating from it, v16
((After a long time in prison, Jeremiah on asked by the King spoke the same message regarding the Babylonians)

JEREMIAH 36

So Jehoiakim burnt a part of the Bible every time Baruch read from it.
Not the smartest move under the gaze of a holy God.
“Many of us read a certain passage of Scripture and say, “That’s so regressive, so offensive.” But we ought to entertain the idea that maybe we feel that way because in our particular culture that text is a problem. In other cultures that passage might not come across as regressive or offensive. Let me ask you a question: If you’re offended by something in the Bible, why should your cultural sensibilities trump everybody else’s? Why should we get rid of the Bible because it offends your culture? Let’s do a thought experiment for a second. If the Bible really was the revelation of God, and therefore it wasn’t the product of any one culture, wouldn’t it contradict every culture at some point? Therefore, if it’s really from God, wouldn’t it have to offend your cultural sensibilities at some point? Therefore when you read the Bible, and you find some part of it outrageous and offensive, that’s proof that it’s probably true, that it’s probably from God. It’s not a reason to say the Bible isn’t God’s Word; it’s a reason to say it is. What makes you think that because this part or that part of God’s Word is offensive, you can forget Christianity altogether?” Tim Keller, in the sermon Literalism: Isn’t the Bible Historically Unreliable and Regressive?
Don’t burn part of the Bible just because it offends you.

JEREMIAH 35

Are you a Recabite?
This was a nomadic people, descendants of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, through the Kenites. The Recabites had a history of knowing evil and why it was important to get it out of their lives.
God wasn’t trying to test the Recabites by asking them to drink wine. He was exposing the disobedience of His people in comparison.
Can we live within this culture without losing who we are?
Learning from the Recabites …
We can if we have conviction.
We can if we know what to say and how to give an account for our actions.
We can if we keep the values of those who have gone before us.

JEREMIAH 34

During the nineteenth century a group of missionaries in what is now Surinam in South America, wanted to reach the inhabitants of a nearby island with the gospel. Most of these islanders were slaves on the large plantations that covered the island. The plantation owners feared the gospel and its results, and would not even allow the missionaries to talk with the slaves. They would allow only other slaves to talk with slaves.
So the missionaries sold themselves into slavery in order to take the gospel to the islanders. Working in bondage in the harsh conditions of a tropical climate, they reached many of them with the good news. Ray Hoo, “Turn Your World Upside Down,” Discipleship Journal (July/August 1982)

Restoration
JEREMIAH 33

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is one of the greatest artistic triumphs in history. From 1508 to 1512, the artist Michelangelo lay on his back and painted the Fall and the Flood.
But Michelangelo’s magnificent art started to fade almost immediately. Within a century of completing his work, no one remembered what his original frescoes had really looked like. Painter Biagio Biagetti described it in 1936: “We see the colours of the Sistine ceiling as if through smoked glass.”
In 1981 a scaffold was erected to clean the frescoes that adorn the chapel. With a special solution, Fabrizio Mancinelli and Gianluigi Colalucci gently washed a small corner of the painting.
They invited art experts to examine the work. The result was stunning. No one had imagined that beneath centuries of grime lay such vibrant colours. This was not the Michelangelo known by art critics. That artist was the master of form, his paintings resembling sculpture more than painting. This “new” artist was also the master of colour azure, green, rose, and lavender of amazing nuance.
Their success prompted the restoration of the entire ceiling. The task was completed on December 31, 1989. It had taken twice as long to clean the ceiling as the artist had needed to paint it. But the result was breathtaking. For the first time in nearly 500 years, people viewed this masterpiece the way it was intended, in all of its colour and beauty.
Al Janssen, The Marriage Masterpiece
Perhaps you have begun to fade?
Jesus is our righteous restorer.