Jeremiah 39

Three different characters
Three different outcomes
Dependent on the different choices they made
And the eventual action they took

Zedekiah made king
But he chose not to give heed
Neither did the people listen
To the words of God through Jeremiah

Zedekiah instructed Jeremiah to pray for them
He secretly asked for the word from the Lord -
Once, twice.
But he has his fears
He chose to hold on to them
And chose not to heed the advice
He did not put his trust on God

The Chaldeans came
They took him captive
Gouged out his eyes
Set the city on fire
According to what the Lord had said,
it has happened
Because he has not heed the word he has heard

Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian enunch
He heard about Jeremiah’s plight
He knew Jeremiah as a prophet of God
He sought the king’s permission
He rescued the prophet
And he was not forgotten

The word of the Lord came for him
The promise of the Lord
Of deliverance, and comfort,
For he has put his trust in Him

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet
Many times he has spoken
In tears he pleaded
So that the people might live

Yet he was thrown into prison
He was misunderstood
He was cast into the dungeon
He sank in the mire

The Chaldeans came and besieged the city
According to the words he has spoken
According to the words God has spoken through him
Jeremiah chose to speak God’s words
And eventually was freed from prison

God remembers His people
He delivers those who seek refuge in Him

The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying,
“Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass,
And as I have purposed, so it shall stand (Isaiah 14:24)

Three different stories
Depending on their faith in God and their trust in His words

Beyond the fear that lies in front of you, 

What would you choose?
What would be your story?

Jeremiah 29

The unbeliever
The Lord has caused us to be taken captive to a foreign land
Into the hands of our enemy; O Why would He care?
Would it bother Him if we live or perish?
We might as well “curse God and die”,
For why should we suffer humiliation as captives,
I’d rather stay put and be merry.

The believer
We must heed His word! We must go!
The Lord has promised He will come again
We must have faith
He will gather us from all the nations
And bring us home to Him
Though seventy years is not short
It will come to pass
He has taught us how to lead our lives
And how to have peace
We must not be led astray
We must preserve ourselves
We must be multiplied!

The unbeliever
Seventy years is a long time..
Why should we suffer
when we follow God?

The believer
We have first done wrong…
and God has executed justice
Yet He has given us a way out
He will come back for us
 Are we going to stay put and
incur the wrath of the Lord
 or are we going to learn
to heed the word of the Sovereign?

 -----

It is sometimes difficult to walk on the path that God has called us to tread upon, especially when the road seemed rough, and the way not easy; especially when we find ourselves without the freedom to pursue or do what we really desire to do, it almost feel like we are in captivity.

Why have I been led to this place?
Why are we called to suffer?

We need to examine ourselves first to see if sins has crept into our lives and led us away from God. God desires to be close to each of us and sometimes it takes more than a nudge to bring us back to Him.

And even as we have acknowledged our wrongdoings, and have turned back to God, this seventy years might still feel like a long time…

However it is a period of training. God did not allow us to slacken. He said to build houses and plant gardens. He said to take wives and be married. He said to multiply, and not diminished!

During this seventy years, there might also be prophets and diviners out to deceive us but the Lord had not sent them. We need to be vigilant and hold on to God’s word.

While we are here on earth today, we need to go about our Father’s business. We have to do what is in our duty to do and multiply! For Jesus is coming soon to gather us from all over the nations, and bring us home to Him.

We must have faith in the word of God, for He has said, 

After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

I will be found by you, and I will bring you back from your captivity;

I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Amen.

Jeremiah 7

The Lord told Jeremiah,

“Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord!’” (Jeremiah 7:2)

The words that we are looking at today are directed to all of Judah who “enter in at these gates to worship the Lord”. Similarly, as worshippers of God who congregates at the house of the Lord regularly to worship Him, what is the message that is also applicable to us today?

Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? (Jeremiah 7:9-10)

God through Prophet Jeremiah was warning against trusting in lying words that cannot profit them. They have placed their trust on falsehood and even though God had again and again sent prophets to remind them and admonish them, they had not listened nor obey.

But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. (Jeremiah 7:23-24)

God described them as going backward and not forward. And the Bible tells us that God has no pleasure in the one who draws back (to perdition).

Now the just shall live by faith;
But if anyone draws back,
My soul has no pleasure in him."
But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:38-39)

Paul encouraged us through his own example that he reached forward to things which are ahead.

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forrward to those things which are ahead (Philippians 3:13)

As we read today's passage, we need to reflect on our own faith. Has our faith similarly gone backward, rather than forward? Are we still pressing on to lay hold of what Jesus Christ has prepared for us or do we think that we have actually attained it and so can "relax a bit"?

When I read Jeremiah 7:9-10, I get a certain pricking of my heart. While we may not have stolen, murdered, burned incense to foreign gods, have we truly been holy in our deeds and our speech? Do we truly not harbor any “idols” within us that is taking first place in our hearts over and above God? If we had searched our hearts and answered yes, how can we then go and stand before God in His house and declared that we have been set free! Have we been delivered to do all these abominations?

Everyone who is called by My name,
Whom I have created for My glory;
I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” (Isaiah 43:7)

We have been created for His glory.  Our purpose is to bring Him glory in all that we do, and that includes shining for Him in this dark world. If we find our candles getting dimmer, it is time to rekindle our flames to continue burning for the Lord.

May God grant us strength daily to help us move forward in our faith day by day.

verses I adore from the Book of Jeremiah

"I remember you,
The kindness of your youth,
The love of your betrothal,
When you went after Me in the wilderness,
In a land not sown."
(2:2)

"For my people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns - brokern cisterns that can hold no water."
(2:13)
What folly! broken cisterns that can hold no water... yet we often fail to see that.

"Have you not brought this on yourself,
In that you have forsaken the LORD your God
When He led you in the way?"
(2:17)

"Therefore the showers have been withheld,
And there has been no latter rain."
(3:3)

"And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding."
(3:15)

"Nevertheless in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a complete end of you."
(5:18)
This was repeated so many times.... (:

"But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.'"
(7:23)
It is for our good that we obey Him... and walk in all His ways...

"But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth."
(9:24)
yes....this is what i desire to glory in, and not in any things else.

"O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself;
It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.
O LORD, correct me, but with justice;
Not in your anger, lest You bring me to nothing."
(10:23-24)

"If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you,
Then how can you contend with horses?
And if in the land of peace,
In which you trusted, they wearied you,
Then how will you do in the flood plain of the Jordan?"
(12:5)
interesting verse... aptly put... sometimes how i feel...

"Are You not He, O LORD our God?
Therefore we will wait for You,
Since You have made all these."
(14:22)

"I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings."
(17:10)

"But his word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not."
(20:9)
I need this, lord...

"Am I a God near at hand", says the LORD,
"And not a God afar off?
Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
So I shall not see him?" says the LORD;
"Do I not fill heaven and earth?" says the LORD.
(23:23-24)
You are everywhere, God.. (: I can never hide anything from You, for You know all things. The best thing is, You know, and You understand.

"Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart."
(24:7)
You want our whole hearts, in its entirety. That's all You really want from us actually.

"Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt"
(31:3-4)
I know that You will perfect me... I know You are working in me..

"Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden,
And they shall sorrow no more at all."
(31:12)
wahh. i thirst for this... the state of being a well-watered garden.

"They shall be My people, and I will be their God;
then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them."
(32:38-39)

"Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."
(33:3)
things that I can never imagine.... let me lean not on my own understandings, and let God be God.

"Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth."
(33:6)
peace and truth. two precious things from the Lord.

"They shall ask the way to Zion,
With their faces toward it, saying,
'Come and let us join ourselves to the LORD
In a perpetual covenant
That will not be forgotten.'"
(50:5)
:D

"For the LORD is the God of recompense,
He will surely repay."
(51:56)
Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.
(Deut 32:35)
Vengeance is the Lord's. Why should I worry or even feel short-changed?

----
I can see the differences between the book of Isaiah and the book of Jeremiah. The book of Isaiah appears to me to be more positive, since it ends with a note on the last days, when God shall reign. But Jeremiah ended with a summary of what happened - the temple and the city walls destroyed. :S

But I like each of their styles, the content of each book, and the message each brings. (:

some thoughts on Jeremiah 29

When the Lord God gave His people up to captivity in Babylon, it wasn't for evil, but for good. If you weren't aware of the story behind this action, nor understand the heart of God, probably you would find God very mean. But it's not like that.

See what Jeremiah said to them in the letter?

Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands , so that they may bear sons and daughters - that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace. (Jer 29:5-7)

It was a way to keep the people of God alive, till the Lord delivers them. These are the people who truly seeks after God, because it was actually like a second chance for them to turn back from their evil ways and follow after God. But there were those who still refused to believe and they were those who remained in Jerusalem. And the Lord would destroy them...

So, being carried away into captivity was a test of one's faith to God. Nobody would think that being taken captive is a good thing, nor is living in a foreign land something one would be comfortable with. It was a temporary place until the Lord comes to them again - seventy years, the Lord promised. It was a waiting place, until deliverance, until the day that they can return home.

And what were they supposed to do while waiting? Get on with life. Build houses, work, start a family, and pray for peace.

If today, the Lord says to us, "You have to be taken captive, but don't worry, I will come to you to deliver you when the time comes." How would we have responded to that? Do we have the faith to do it? Or we rather remain in Jerusalem, in our comfort zones, not wanting to move?

I don't know if it's a little too far-fetched to think of it this way, but I was just trying to apply this portion of the bible to my life (or anyone's life which might be similar). Sometimes, we have to endure certain strange and unfamiliar circumstances unwillingly. The original cause might be something that we have done wrongly, like how the people of Israel/Judah sinned. But subsequently, perhaps we really want to turn back to God, and God is ever merciful to receive us once again. Yet the path that He set before us might not be something that we have ever imagined. "Harrrr. I have to be taken captive to follow after God???" What would we do then? Do we still walk in it? Let's learn to endure through those seemingly strange circumstances that we might be currently facing. See it as a period of transition. (In fact, it is a period for growth, because through enduring, we grow.) Remember, all circumstances, whether good or bad, will change.

And then what happens when we are on this strange and foreign path? Jeremiah's letter said to get on with life! We don't just do nothing, thinking that oh, God is coming again mahh. We still have got to do the work that we have in this life, whether your job, for your loved ones, or for church. There's much to be done, so while waiting, we keep busy. But not forgetting to pray for the Lord's peace amidst all that buzz.

It's the same with us Christians on earth today. During this seventy years on earth, we are in a foreign place that is not exactly our home. At times, we will feel uncomfortable in it. This is good, because we yearn for our home, the place where we truly belong. And God promised, "After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place." (Jer 29:10)

"I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive." (Jer 29:14)

Lord, I am waiting.