Jeremiah Inquires of God for the King

Jeremiah 21

Zedekiah Inquires. God replies.

I. Zedekiah sends messengers to Inquire of God v. 1-2. "Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds"

II. God replies. I myself will fight against you. 

  A. I will strike down this city. The people that are left well be sent into captivity.

  B. The reason for God's wrath against the city - an oppressive government. "Hear the word of the Lord, O house of David! Thus says the Lord: "Execute justice in the morning and deliver from the had of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil deeds."

So what does this say about my government as I see justice perverted? God hates it! My reaction needs to be like Jeremiah's. 1. He was respectful when the king came to inquire. He did as he was asked. He inquired of God for him. 2. He did not flatter the king and tell him he was a good guy and everything would be okay. 3.  He was honest. He spoke all the words of God without regarding the consequences. 4. He was not violent or vengeful.

God is patient and long suffering. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. At the same time he rewards the iniquity of the fathers to the third and forth generation. He is a consuming fire. A God to be loved, yes, but also a God to be feared and held in reverence. A truly incomprehensible awesome being.

Dear God, May the glory of your just character and actions be always in my mind. May I grow deeper in my reverence for you day by day. 

Green Leaf in Drought

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
     whose trust is the Lord.
⁸ He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8

Yesterday, I was looking for a book to read, and couldn't find the one I was looking for, so I picked up Green Leaf in Drought by Isabel Kuhn.  

Link to book review at CBD

Anything by this author is good. Not only is her writing lively, it is devotional and inspiring. 

Imagine my surprise this morning, when in the course of my regular Bible reading, I came to Jeremiah 17:7-8, the passage that is the spiritual thesis of the book. It is so reassuring when you see God leading in even the reading material you pick up.

Jeremiah Questions God - A Model for Us

Jeremiah 12

Jeremiah’s complaint and God’s reply- a model for how to question God’s doings

I.                    Jeremiah Compains and Requests v. 1-2

A.      He anchors his complaint in the bedrock of God’s righteousness v. 1

B.      He states his complaint v.1-2

1.       Why do the wicked prosper? v. 1

2.       You are the one that causes them to prosper. v. 2

3.       They are nothing but hypocrites. v. 2

C.       He asks for justice.

D.       He anchors his request for justice in God’s knowledge. V. 3

1.       God’s knowledge of him v. 3

2.       God’s knowledge of the wicked v.3-4

E.       He asks for vengeance. v. 3

F.       He asks how long God is going to put up with them. The land is desolate. v.4

II.                  God replies. V. 5-14

A.      God gives Jeremiah a gentle rebuke. “If you are distressed now, what are you going to do when real trouble comes? When you’re a refugee?” v.5

B.      God warns him not to trust even his family. v. 6

C.      God explains the situation v. 7-13

1.       The land is desolate because I have forsaken it. v. 7-9

2.       The leaders have caused the desolation. v. 10-11

3.       They are not going to get away with evil. God will take vengeance. v. 12-13

Jeremiah, a Man of Faith when Others were Faithless

“There is none like you, O Lord;

  You are great, and your name is great in might.

Who would not fear you among the nations?

 For this is your due,

For among the nations

  And in all their kingdoms

  There is none like you.”

Do I give God the reverence due him? Do I take his opinion into consideration about every aspect of my life? Do I ask him what he would have me do before I make decisions? Do I have the faith of Jeremiah?

Dear God, help me to fear you, to consider your opinions and desires above all else.

The Search for an Honest Man

In Jeremiah 5 God asks Jeremiah to search the land to see if he can find one honest person.

God to Jeremiah: Search to see if you can find one who does justice and seeks truth that I may pardon her.

(Jeremiah goes and looks)

Jeremiah prays to God: "O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?" They refuse to take correction from you. But these are the poor people. They have no sense for they do not know the way of the Lord. I will go to the great. They know the way of the Lord.

(He goes to the great.)

They all alike had broken the bonds.

Why does God have Jeremiah go through this exercise? Why does he have him try to find just one honest person so that he may pardon Judah? Perhaps Jeremiah is young and naïve. He doesn't understand the depravity of his nation. We know from chapter 4 that he doesn't understand that it is the prophets who are deceiving the people, not God. God justifies himself through this exercise. Jeremiah finds out that God's assessment of the nation is correct, and therefore the coming judgment is deserved.

So what does his prayer "O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth?" have to do with not accepting correction? Maybe truth begins with an honest acceptance of myself. Truth is what really is. It's reality. If I deny that I am a sinner, that I have a sinful heart, I am denying reality. I am not honest.

Dear Lord, help me to accept your appraisal of me. Show me where I'm wrong. Thank you for your Son's blood that cleanses me. Give me grace to change.

Jeremiah Misunderstands God

4:10 Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem saying It shall be well with you: whereas the sword has reached their very life.’  There was a discrepancy between the message God gave him, and the message all the other “prophets of Jehovah” were giving.  He still thought those other prophets were prophesying what God told them to prophesy. If they were, then it was God who was deceiving the people.

How slow we are to understand what is really going on. How quick we are to blame God. How patient God is with us. He never upbraided Jeremiah for this accusation.

Thank you, God for being patient with me even when my heart is slow to understand and slow to believe. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. 

How Can I Endure Suffering Without Losing my Mind

I am starting to go back through Jeremiah/Lamentations. Meditated a lot on Lamentations 3 yesterday. It really is a source of strength and comfort. I think chapter 3 gives us the theological underpinnings to endure suffering/judgment from God. Our survival really begins when we take our eyes off of ourselves and our problems and anchor into the character of God. He truly is good. If he does not want to afflict me, then that means he intends this to be for my good- my ultimate happiness. When we immerse our minds with the character of God, we can then respond rightly to suffering.

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:” (Lamentations 3)

      1.The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end.  He believed that right after losing everything.

      2.The Lord is my portion. He had nothing else, but he had the Lord- and therefore had everything.

      3.The Lord is good for those who wait for him, even when circumstances appear to contradict this.

      4.The Lord will not cast off forever.

      5. He does not willingly afflict the children of men.

      6. God is sovereign. Good and bad come from him. (v.38) 

Right Responses to the judgment of God- to suffering (Lamentations 3)

1.        1 .Hope in him. (v. 24)

2.        2. Wait quietly for the salvation of God (v. 26)

3.        3. Submit to the suffering (v. 27-30)

4.        4. Test and examine our ways. (v. 40)

5.        5. Return to the Lord.

My responses do not come from looking at a list of right responses and trying to act that way. They come, and can only come, when I have a deep loving relationship with the One who has sent them my way. Only then can I rejoice through suffering, because I find my enjoyment in God.

God's Love is Amazing

Finished Jeremiah this morning. In many ways this is a depressing book. But if you look at it from the angle of God’s love for Israel, you can take hope. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” he tells her. Up until the last minute he is offering her deliverance if she will  believe him and do what he says. It’s like he’s in the divorce court and tells her, “I’ll drop the whole thing if you will give up your affairs.” But she won’t. So he sends her away. But even as they are literally being dragged off into captivity, he has Jeremiah send a prophecy with them promising vengeance on their captors and promising their return to the land. There is no human being who loves like that. Truly the love of God is awesome.

1. The love of God is greater far
   Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
   It goes beyond the highest star,
   And reaches to the lowest hell;
   The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
   God gave His Son to win;
   His erring child He reconciled,
   And pardoned from his sin.
   • Refrain:
     Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
     How measureless and strong!
     It shall forevermore endure—
     The saints’ and angels’ song.
2. When hoary time shall pass away,
   And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
   When men who here refuse to pray,
   On rocks and hills and mountains call,
   God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
   All measureless and strong;
   Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
   The saints’ and angels’ song.
3. Could we with ink the ocean fill,
   And were the skies of parchment made,
   Were every stalk on earth a quill,
   And every man a scribe by trade;
   To write the love of God above
   Would drain the ocean dry;
   Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
   Though stretched from sky to sky.

Verse 3 was penciled on the wall of a narrow room in an insane asylum by a man said to have been demented. The profound lines were discovered when they laid him in his coffin. Taken from http://library.timelesstruths.org/music/The_Love_of_God/

Jeremiah: a man of faith in a disintegrating culture

Impending doom
Treacherous people
Open hostility, especially from the religious community
Persistent unbelief
Life threats
War
Imprisonment
Captivity

How would you like to be Jeremiah and face all of this and more? Yet through all this, Jeremiah was a man of faith. He never stopped believing God. Yes, he was depressed. Yes, he despaired of life. But he persisted in his faith.And God never left him. And today he is in paradise.

And so it must be with us. God wants us to trust his word and his character. And he has promised to never leave us. Never to forsake us. And someday we too will be in paradise. 

Rejoice - in the Lord Always

The command is given. Rejoice. Thankfully it doesn't stop there. If we look around, we may at times have trouble finding something to rejoice in. But the command is Rejoice in the Lord always. He is always with us. He is always seeking our good. He is always working out our circumstances for his glory and our good. In that we can always rejoice.

You Left Me for That? - God

As I was reading Jeremiah 2 this morning it hit me that God was using the same words people use when they are hurt by infidelity. 

God says"“What wrong did your fathers find in me
    that they went far from me". A wounded spouse will often say "What's wrong with me? Am I so bad that you left me?"

God then lists all the things he did for his people. A wounded spouse will often say "Look at all I've done for you. You still left after all of this."

God says you traded me for "no gods" and "broken cisterns." A wounded spouse will sometimes say, "You left me for her/him? Look at what kind of person they are."

When I read it from this perspective, I see the deep pain I cause God when I become obsessed with anything but him. He feels like a wounded spouse.

Dear Lord, please help me to put my focus on you. Let my mind continually dwell on you. Let no other thing or person take control of my thoughts.