Category: Devotions

JEREMIAH 32

Buy a field now whilst the enemy is coming against you.
Buy a field now whilst you are in prison, confined and limited.
It sounds crazy to invest in land in such situations.
This is faith.
Jeremiah knew God was asking him to prepare for the future.
If all you do is for now. If all the decisions and plans are about the circumstance you are in now what happens when it is all over?
Prepare for your future because there is one. Do something to demonstrate trust that God will bring you through.
Buy a field.

What has God wanted all the time?

JEREMIAH 31

God has always wanted to be our God and for us to be His people.
Mentioned many times in the Bible and 6 times by Jeremiah we read today that in the context of the new covenant, “I will be their God and they will be my people.”v33.
How?
God writes His law on our hearts.
Our heart is who we are as a person, what defines us; the reason why we act and react is our heart. It is our very being.
Thomas Keneally, the author of Schindler’s List, was asked what he thought was the difference between Oskar Schindler, rescuer of Jews and hero of his story, and Amon Goeth, the Nazi commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp. His answer was revealing. “Not much”, he said. “Had there been no war, Mr. Schindler and Mr. Goeth might have been drinking buddies and business partners, morally obtuse, perhaps, but relatively harmless”. What a difference a war makes, especially to the moral choices that lead to good and evil.
We do not know when war will break out. We do not know what stress will be placed upon us. But we do know that we need to let God write upon our hearts so that when that day comes we act like people who belong to Him.

The outcast is an inside job.

The term ‘outcast’ in the OT means ‘thrown out’.

Jer 30:17 I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the LORD, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares’ – this is a person who is degraded in society.
We can think of many people who may fit this category.
But perhaps there exists an outcast in normal clothing. Maybe they are not the beggars on the street, the drunks in the bar, the criminals and low-life.
Maybe the outcast are God’s people v3; people who have not been where they should have been v3; people who have been oppressed for many years v8; people who struggle with fear v10; people who are hurting from their wounds v12; people with guilt v14; people with enemies v16.
Maybe you are the outcast, uncared for:
I will restore … and heal, says the Lord.

7 things to do whilst you’re waiting for things to improve!

JEREMIAH 29

1. Accept God knows where you are, He may have even put you there! v4
2. Make things as easy as you can for yourself, v5
3. Think of ways you can be sustainable in this place, v5
4. Grow, increase, don’t diminish just because you are not where you want to be, v6
5. Get on with the people of your circumstance and bless them, v7
6. Pray for everyone around you, v7
7. Do not be deceived into thinking short-cuts out of this circumstance is God, v8

CAN v WILL

JEREMIAH 28

By the end of the year you will be pregnant.
At this time next year you will have found the man of your dreams.
As quickly as this sickness came so as quickly it will leave.
Receive NOW.
We are all familiar with these kind of statements.
Nothing new.
Hananiah was one of those who gave such statements.
In 2 years I will break the yoke that binds you, I will bring back what your enemy has stolen from you and I will also bring back people that have left you.
Wonderful words! But …
Within months Hananiah had died, a false prophet. A prophet who not only spoke the truth of what God can do but what He will do. However, he stepped over the mark to say what God would do and when He would do it simply because he knew God could.
There are still prophetic words centring on the CAN, we focus our lives around His ability. But His CAN is in submission to His WILL and so must we be.
Not my will but yours be done.

It doesn’t always have to be a good day.

JEREMIAH 27

With a very clear illustrated prophecy, Jeremiah counters the prophets who say that the exile under Nebuchadnezzar will be short-lived. It won’t be.
God called Jeremiah to wear the yoke that oxen would wear. He told the Kings to come under Babylon for the people will remain controlled for the allotted time.
There are always prophets prophesying that life is going to get better. That a believer will not go through difficulty. They can be in fear of saying the truth.
Why do we think that God would make sure we did not have tough times and face the challenge of our enemy? It is wrong. It is not God. We need to speak truth. Life is tough.
Maybe staying in a difficult situation with no change is actually God.
Come under the yoke, submit and learn how to live with patience.

Everyone has mates
JEREMIAH 26

Baruch was the scribe for Jeremiah. We will see this stated in chapter 36. As secretary and friend he wrote down all of Jeremiah’s prophecies. We are reading Jeremiah today because of Baruch. We can see Baruch in today’s chapter in v20-23. Read it again, see the brackets? This is Baruch, adding his own insight into the situation where Jeremiah’s life is on the line as he faces his attackers. He mentions Uriah, another prophet like Jeremiah, but who in similar situations fled to Egypt but who then was killed.
The point is this: Baruch tells us that just like Jeremiah did, we must face up to that which opposes us and not run from it. Do not flee in fear, stand in faith. The Apostle Paul wrote “we face death all day long” (Rom 8:36); Isaiah prophesied the Messiah would set his face like flint (50:7) and Luke records how Jesus “resolutely set out to Jerusalem” (9:51). I used to sing as a child: “Because He lives I can face tomorrow …” So face it, don’t run from it.

Thanks to Baruch we are introduced to another friend of Jeremiah early on, Elnathan. He was an accomplice to the murder of the prophet Uriah. However by chapter 36 he has become one of a group of godly leaders who defended Jeremiah and Baruch.
The point is this: How you start, what has happened is one thing but how you turn out, what you will become, is another.

The third friend of Jeremiah is Ahikam, v24. As one of King Josiah’s counsellors he had been sent to seek God over what the finding of the book of the Law meant in 2 Kings 22. His past work meant he had authority, power and influence in the present and he used it to support Jeremiah.
The point is this: Use your influence to help those who are doing God’s work. Use your skills, your status, the people you know to do all you can to give support and the hand of friendship.

The cup

Want to read what must be one of the most frightening chapters in the Bible?
Then read Jeremiah 25.
There is a cup filled with the wine of God’s wrath.
It is for those who have not listened to God even though He has spoken many times to them.
It is for those who have committed sinful ways.
It is for those who worship idols.
It is filled, a full measure of His wrath, “complete destruction … everlasting ruin” v9
It is banishment, v10.
It is disaster, v32.
There will be weeping and wailing, v34.
Can you drink from this cup? (Matthew 20:22)
The disciples of Jesus did drink from the cup of suffering, many of them dying as martyrs. The disciples of Jesus still drink from the cup of Jesus. As they do they mirror Jesus who drank the full measure. But the cup Jesus drank was not only that of suffering, the pain of torture, of being crucified and it was not only mental distress of the rejection from His own people.
The cup Jesus drank was this cup of Jeremiah 25. He endured spiritual suffering for coming under the wrath of God for the sins of the whole world.
Because of Jesus we will not drink the cup filled with the wine of God’s wrath. Jesus drank it for us. Instead He offers a new cup; a cup of a new covenant, a cup of forgiveness and grace.
Let us drink.

FIGS
At long last! Jeremiah is hopeful!

JEREMIAH 24

He is hopeful after judgment has come.
But where does his hope lie?
It is not with those who have survived the exile and have remained in the land. Though the human mind may look at these and think they are the ones where the future looks better than the ones who have been taken away. They still have their king and they still have their temple to worship. They still have their lives and their freedom.
These people think they are better than the others who are now in exile. They have false security based on a fake righteousness.
God calls them the bad figs!
Where is God?
He is with those who have no hope.
He is with those who have no earthly trappings of success, they have no future.
He is with those who are robbed and who have become the outcast.
He is with those who cannot control their lives.
He is with those who need a miracle every day.
He is with the vulnerable, with those who have nothing left to give.
He is with those who having no hope, have hope because He gives it to them.
God calls these the good figs!
Let’s go where He is.

JEREMIAH 23

I had just finished preaching and was standing at the door of the church shaking hands with the people, giving and receiving pleasantries. The tired old man on walking sticks shuffled towards me with his tears in his eyes. “I believe today is my new day”. He told me his story how many years ago as a policeman he had committed a crime and went to prison. On release from prison he had become a businessman but had embezzled the money and went back inside. A womaniser, a sinner and a Christian throughout all this. Today, because of Jesus, he could begin again. With tears in my own eyes I agreed with him that he could.
I believe when I stand before Jesus I will be standing with this old man. But also with the prostitute who from an early age never knew any other way; the vicar who through burn-out and loneliness sold his integrity; I could make a list of all the people who never really made it in this life who not only did not look good but who also knew they were not good, I will be standing with them.
I am confident because of Jehovah Tsidkenu: The Lord Our Righteousness.
1. No man can do this …. (the shepherds and prophets of this chapter)
2. He enters a broken family line and makes it right …. (of David’s line, v5)
3. He is able to fulfil the Creation mandate: to rule and take dominion, as a King, v5.
4. It is Him who is wise, v5.
5. It is Him who does what is just, v5.
6. It is Him who does what is right, v5.
7. I cannot save myself, v6.
8. I cannot create the peace I need, v6.
9. I cannot find the way out of my own Egypt or exile, v7-8.
10. What makes me right is all of Him and nothing of me.

The Lord Our Righteousness

Suffering, failure, loneliness, sorrow, discouragement, and death are part of my journey, but the vehicle and the destination is Jesus!