Jeremiah 22 -- The Nation Is Falling Apart

Jeremiah was given messages to deliver about the kings of Judah.  He disclosed what God had planned for Jehoahaz, Zedekiah, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachim.  It was a message none would want to hear.  He called out Zedekiah for his callousness.  He dashed the hopes that Jehoahaz would ever return from Egypt.

Jehoiakim was admiring his palace and wanting more cedar inside it using unpaid Jewish slaves -- he was so covetous that "it didn't worry him that god watched as he robbed the poor killed the innocent, and oppressed the just in order to satisfy his craving for luxury," my commentary said.

Jehoiachin would reign only 3 months and 10 days before being deported with his mother and his children to Babylon, where they would all die.

It all sounds terrible -- facing the utter destruction of all that they knew.  But God had warned them.  For the city of Jerusalem, it was the end.

Yet in the next chapter, Jeremiah will shine a ray of hope into the distant future.

Father, our own nation is facing so many trials.  It seems the population is hell-bent on doing everything it can to remove You from the scene.  But You are God.  You are sovereign and You will win.  America will be worse for having fought You.  Guide us to select a president who will help bring us back to You.

--

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford

Jeremiah 20-21 Almost Giving Up, And Then Trusting God

Jeremiah's message given to him by God infuriated those in charge of the Temple.  He was beaten and locked in stocks overnight in a public place so that he would be humiliated.  This led to his fifth and sixth complaints delivered privately to God.  He felt God had tricked him into delivering the message that led to his overnight confinement and public shame.  He admits to God that sometimes he decides it'g just not worth it anymore, and he determines not to say another word.  "But then His message becomes like a burning fire inside me, deep within my bones," Jeremiah said.  "I get tired of trying to hold it inside of me, and finally, I cannot hold it in."

Jeremiah was committed, but he was also suffering greatly for that commitment.  That caused him to even wonder if he should have been born.  My commentary answered that:  "God had a special purpose for your life and designed you to fulfill it.  God makes no mistakes when He calls His servants, and we should take care not to question His wisdom.  All of us have times of discouragement when we've felt like quitting, but that's when we must look beyond our feelings and circumstances and see the greatness and wisdom of God ... It's always too soon to quit."

Father, it's the perfect message I needed to hear today.  Thanks for arranging for me to receive it just when I needed it.

--

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford

Jeremiah 19 -- When Only Breaking Us Will Do The Job

In the last chapter, Jeremiah watched a potter working with clay that was resistant but still malleable.  This time, Jeremiah was told to take the leaders with him to the potter, and to buy a clay jar that had already been fired and was ready for sale.  God directed him to take the clay jar to the Potsherd Gate leading out of the city to the garbage dump.  He there declared God's pronounced judgment on them because of their unrepentant attitude toward their sins.  God promised right then and there that disaster was coming on Jerusalem and Judah and that Jerusalem and the nation would be destroyed.  Jeremiah was told to preach the sermon again at the Temple, and then to smash to clay jar to illustrate what God was about to do.  

My commentary said, "The nation was beyond discipline, beyond prayer, and now, beyond repair!  They had so hardened themselves against the Lord that all hope was gone ... Can nations and individuals sin so greatly that even God can't restore them?  Yes, they can.  As long as the clay is pliable in the hands of the potter, he can make it again if it's marred, but when the clay becomes hard, it's too late to re-form it.  Judgment is the only response to willful apostasy ... 'There is a sin unto death.' (1 John 5:16)."

Father God, I once walked away from You despite all You'd done to bless me, and I thank You for seeing that my heart was still pliable and also for pursuing me until You brought me back to Yourself.  Please do that for those I love.  Soften their hearts.  Cause them to see that You are pursuing them out of love, and lead them to repentance as well.

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford

(Note:  This was written on October 5th, but for some reason held as a draft.  I'm putting it out again since it didn't seem to get published.)

Jeremiah 19 -- When Only Breaking Us Will Do The Job

In the last chapter, Jeremiah watched a potter working with clay that was resistant but still malleable.  This time, Jeremiah was told to take the leaders with him to the potter, and to buy a clay jar that had already been fired and was ready for sale.  God directed him to take the clay jar to the Potsherd Gate leading out of the city to the garbage dump.  He there declared God's pronounced judgment on them because of their unrepentant attitude toward their sins.  God promised right then and there that disaster was coming on Jerusalem and Judah and that Jerusalem and the nation would be destroyed.  Jeremiah was told to preach the sermon again at the Temple, and then to smash to clay jar to illustrate what God was about to do.  

My commentary said, "The nation was beyond discipline, beyond prayer, and now, beyond repair!  They had so hardened themselves against the Lord that all hope was gone ... Can nations and individuals sin so greatly that even God can't restore them?  Yes, they can.  As long as the clay is pliable in the hands of the potter, he can make it again if it's marred, but when the clay becomes hard, it's too late to re-form it.  Judgment is the only response to willful apostasy ... 'There is a sin unto death.' (1 John 5:16)."

Father God, I once walked away from You despite all You'd done to bless me, and I thank You for seeing that my heart was still pliable and also for pursuing me until You brought me back to Yourself.  Please do that for those I love.  Soften their hearts.  Cause them to see that You are pursuing them out of love, and lead them to repentance as well.

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford

(Note:  This was written on October 5th, but for some reason held as a draft.  I'm putting it out again since it didn't seem to get published.)

Jeremiah 19 -- When Only Breaking Us Will Do The Job

In the last chapter, Jeremiah watched a potter working with clay that was resistant but still malleable.  This time, Jeremiah was told to take the leaders with him to the potter, and to buy a clay jar that had already been fired and was ready for sale.  God directed him to take the clay jar to the Potsherd Gate leading out of the city to the garbage dump.  He there declared God's pronounced judgment on them because of their unrepentant attitude toward their sins.  God promised right then and there that disaster was coming on Jerusalem and Judah and that Jerusalem and the nation would be destroyed.  Jeremiah was told to preach the sermon again at the Temple, and then to smash to clay jar to illustrate what God was about to do.  

My commentary said, "The nation was beyond discipline, beyond prayer, and now, beyond repair!  They had so hardened themselves against the Lord that all hope was gone ... Can nations and individuals sin so greatly that even God can't restore them?  Yes, they can.  As long as the clay is pliable in the hands of the potter, he can make it again if it's marred, but when the clay becomes hard, it's too late to re-form it.  Judgment is the only response to willful apostasy ... 'There is a sin unto death.' (1 John 5:16)."

Father God, I once walked away from You despite all You'd done to bless me, and I thank You for seeing that my heart was still pliable and also for pursuing me until You brought me back to Yourself.  Please do that for those I love.  Soften their hearts.  Cause them to see that You are pursuing them out of love, and lead them to repentance as well.

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford

Jeremiah 18 -- Sometimes Agreeing With God May Seem UnChristlike

I loved the image God showed Jeremiah of the potter destroying a forming clay pot that wouldn't comply with what the potter's hands desired, and then watching as the potter used the same clay to create another, perfect pot.  My commentary said, "The interpretation of the image was national, relating to Israel, but the application was individual, calling for a response from the people of Judah.  It also calls for a personal response from us today."

"God presented two scenarios that illustrated His sovereign power over nations.  If He threatened to judge a nation and that nation repented, then He would relent and not send judgment... On the other hand, if He promised to bless a nation ... and that nation did evil in His sight, then He could withhold the blessing and send judgment instead ... He has the sovereign freedom to alter His actions depending on the responses of the people."

"But the people were so chained to their sins that they chose to follow their own evil plans.  They would rather worship dead idols andsuffer for it than serve the true and living God and enjoy His blessings!  Truly, the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked!  In rejecting their God and choosing dumb idols, the people of Judah were acting contrary to everything reasonable ... God made them for Himself and they could not succeed apart from Him ... They were willing to enjoy God's blessings but not willing to obey the laws of God that governed those blessings."

"Like the patient potter, God is willing to mold us again when we resist Him and damage our own lives ... the victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings.  No failure in our lives need be fatal or final, although we certainly suffer for our sins."

Jeremiah complained privately to God about the people's plans to ruin him with lies.  When he began to ask God to let bad things happen to them, he wasn't doing so out of spite, so much as he was beginning to agree with God about what God was saying about them.

Father, Jeremiah was going through a lot of tough times, and I feel that You've timed my reading of this perfectly.  Help me to see You working on me, changing things up for what You have in mind next.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Jeremiah 16-17 -- A Problem Of The Heart

God told Jeremiah not to get married, not to mourn for the dead, and not to attend feasts.  "Whenever anybody asked Jeremiah why he wasn't married, he had opportunity to show God's message of the coming judgment ... God had removed His peace and comfort from the nation ...The judgment that was coming would be so terrible that the people would be unable to express their grief ... all joy and gladness would flee the land."

"The people were led astray by the false prophets and comfortable in their sins, and their consciences were dead ... They had not learned from the past judgment that God had sent.  This made them even more guilty than their fathers!"

"Jeremiah did give the people a message of hope:  the exiles would one day return to their land."

Finally, Jeremiah named six sins the people were embracing:  Idolatry, unbelief, greed, forsaking the Lord, rejecting God's servant, and profaning the Sabbath.  "He poured out his grief over the sins of the nation, and yet the people only hardened their hearts and stubbornly resisted God's truth."

Father, You tell us over and over that we don't know our own hearts.  Only You do.  Please show me what You know about mine, and cause me to agree with You!  Let the Spirit teach me.

--

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford