Archives

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 233

Aug21

Day 233 – Reading – Jeremiah 41 – 45

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah 41.

We are back in Jeremiah to finish the book in the next few days.  

Remember yesterday, that King Nebuchadnezzar had appointed Gedaliah as governor over the remaining Judeans after the majority of religious and political leaders were deported. 

(Gedaliah’s grandfather was secretary for the good King Josiah, and G’s father was in the group that brought the book of the law to King Josiah when it was found.  G. was a supporter of Jeremiah.)

A group of Judeans related to the Royal family, and led by Ishmael, came to the representative for the Chaldeans and killed him. They also killed all the Judeans who were with him, and all the Chaldean soldiers who happened to be there.

Ah-Oh.  Sounds like an act of war to me.

And just then, a group of 80 men from the old northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria, Shechem, and Shiloh) came bringing offerings to present at the Temple of God. (They obviously hadn’t heard that it had been destroyed!)  Ishmael pretended gladness to see them and welcomed them inside.  But then, he murdered 70 of them and threw their bodies in the cistern.  But TEN of them said, Wait!  We have supplies hidden in the field. Don’t kill us!  So Ishmael didn’t.

Then Ishmael took captive all the people left from the deportation and headed across the Jordan to the Ammonites.

But one of the men with Ishmael, Johanan, saw what he’d done and where he was going and fought against him. Ishmael fled, and Johanan led the people to Bethlehem.  He intended, then, to go to Egypt out of fear of the Babylonians, because they had killed Gedaliah, the governor. They were afraid of retaliation.

.

Jeremiah 42.

But there was some reluctance.  All the people and the forces, as well as Johanan, came to Jeremiah. “Pray to the LORD your God for us, for all of this remnant that are left are but a few. Pray that the LORD your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” They promised that whatever the LORD said, they WOULD DO.

(That was a good start!!)

Jeremiah prayed, and after 10 days, the LORD answered.  Jeremiah brought the answer to Johanan and the people.

  • Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent to plea for mercy,  “IF you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down; I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I relent of the disaster that I did to you. 
  • Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, declares the LORD, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand. 
  • I will grant you mercy that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land.
  • BUT, if you say, ‘We will not remain in the land,’ disobeying the voice of the LORD your God, and saying ‘No we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, or be hungry, and will dwell there…
  • THEN the sword you fear shall overtake you there in Egypt. 
  • And famine will follow you.
  • You will die. You will have no remnant or survivor.” 
  • As My anger and wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem… so it will be poured out on you in Egypt.   
  • O remnant of Judah…  DO NOT GO TO EGYPT! I have warned you this day.”

.

Jeremiah 43.

The leaders and the people listened, then they said, “Jeremiah, you are telling a lie. God did not say that to you. If we stay here, the Chaldeans will kill us.”

So, Johanan and the other guards took all the people, AND Jeremiah the prophet, and went to the land of Egypt.  They did not obey the voice of the LORD, for which they had asked.

So the LORD said to them,

  • Behold, I will send for Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon – my servant – and I will set his throne here. 
  • He will come and strike the land of Egypt. He will burn the temples and break the obelisks.
  • And he shall carry away captive those who are doomed to captivity. 
  • He will totally destroy Egypt.

.

Jeremiah 44.

  • “Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves?  Why do you provoke me to anger in the land of Egypt? 
  • Therefore, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for HARM, to cut off all Judah. 
  • As I have punished Jerusalem with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence…. so I will do to Egypt. 
  • And I will give Pharaoh Hophra into the hands of his enemies, as I gave Zedekiah into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.  Period. The End.

.

Jeremiah 45.

FLASHBACK to the time when King Jehoiakim was still reigning:  A message to Baruch, the secretary of Jeremiah, back when he wrote all the prophet’s words into a book. Baruch had been complaining, “Woe is me.” God had said to him, “Do not seek great things for yourself.  Seek them not.  I am bringing disaster upon all flesh. But I will give you (Baruch) your life as a prize of war in all the places to which you go.” 

(This was a similar message of hope that God also gave to Abed-Melech, the Ethiopian who had helped keep Jeremiah alive. Jer. 39:16-18)   

(God rewards those who even “offer a cup of cold water to a believer in His Name!” Matt, 10:42)

.

(So much turmoil and death in this lesson. The remaining people were confused and scared.  But they DISOBEYED the direct word of the LORD. And will suffer the consequences.  But a few will obey, serve the LORD, and be rewarded.  Only a very few.  LORD, oh, my I obey you always!  Please!)

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 229 & 230

Aug18

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted on Mondays.

Day 229 – Reading – Jeremiah 35 – 37

Day 230 – Reading – Jeremiah 38 – 40 and Psalm 74, 79

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Day 229 – Jeremiah 35.

This chapter again goes back in time more than 20 years, during the reign of King Jehoiakim, soon after the good King Josiah died, and the evil King Jehoahaz was taken to Egypt. 

In contrast to the Jews’ absolute disobedience toward the LORD their God, these Rechabites showed remarkable obedience to their ancestor for over 400 years!  These non-Jews, related to Moses’s father-in-law, had made a vow not ever to drink wine, to own no land, and to dwell in tents all their lives.  They were nomads living in Israel, peaceably.

But when Nebuchadnezzar first came to Judah, they decided to come up and dwell close to Jerusalem (for protection? Or, to be identified as God’s people?)

When Jeremiah told them to come up to the Temple and have some wine, they refused and told their story. 

The LORD told Jeremiah to remonstrate with Judah in the face of this loyalty, and challenge the Jews to listen and amend their ways … and not go after other gods, but incline their ears to their God.

As for these Rechabites, God told them they would never “lack a man to stand before Him.”  In other words, there would always be a remnant from that family to serve God.  (In Nehemiah 3:14, we see just such a man, working along with the returned Jews, repairing the wall of Jerusalem.)

.

Jeremiah 36.

A few years after the above story of the Rechabites’ faithfulness, the LORD told Jeremiah to write down ALL THE WORDS that He had given to him, so far. (Think: the first 35 chapters of this book!  WOW, that’s a lot!  This was done, so the “house of Judah” would be reminded of all the disaster God had planned for them … SO THEY WOUD TURN FROM EVIL, AND GOD MIGHT FORGIVE THEM.

(Doesn’t it twist your heart to see how much God cared for His people, and tried again and again to bring them back to Himself?  He does this today too.  He is slow to anger, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all would come to repentance.” See 2 Peter 3:9 & Exodus 343:6)

Jeremiah called Baruch, his secretary, and dictated all the words of the LORD, while the man wrote it on a scroll. It took about a year.   Then Baruch, at the command of Jeremiah, read the scroll in the Temple. 

Micaiah, the grandson of the secretary, heard all these words and went to the king’s house and into the secretary’s chamber.  All the officials were there, and Micaiah told them the words he had heard when Baruch read the scroll. 

They sent for Baruch and commanded that he “sit down and read it” to them.   When they’d heard the whole thing, they turned to each other in fear.  “We must report all these words to the king!”

They asked Baruch if HE had written the words, or if they had been dictated to him. Baruch answered, “He (Jeremiah) dictated all these words to me, while I wrote them with ink on the scroll.”

“Go and hide,” they said, “you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.”  Then they took the scroll to the secretary of the king, and he read it to Jehoiakim in the presence of all the officials..  It was during the winter, and the king had a fire going.  As the scroll was read … King Jehoiakim cut off a section of the scroll and threw it into the fire until the whole thing was read … and destroyed. 

And neither the officials nor the king were afraid, sorrowful, or repentant.  WOW.

So God told Jeremiah to WRITE THE SCROLL AGAIN. 

And concerning the king, his future was dreadful, and he would not have a single descendant to sit on the throne of David.  

.

Jeremiah 37.

Jeremiah jumps ahead to the kingship of Zedekiah, another son of Josiah, whom King Nebuchadnezzar had put in place when he took the 3-month reigning King Jehoiachin to Babylon. 

This was before Jeremiah had been put into prison.  It was when the Babylonian army had temporarily ended the siege of Jerusalem to deal with an invading Egyptian army. (They would soon return and destroy Jerusalem.)

Zedekiah had (surprisingly) sent for Jeremiah to pray for him and the people.  But no words of comfort came from Jeremiah. Instead, the LORD said that the Babylonians would return, fight against the city, capture it, and burn it with fire.  WHOA!

Interestingly, while the Babylonians had withdrawn, Jeremiah thought he would go out and visit his hometown in Benjamin.  But at the gate of the city, a sentry seized Jeremiah, accusing him of “deserting to the Chaldeans.” 

Jeremiah denied it, but the guard would not listen to the prophet.  The city officials were enraged.  The beat Jeremiah and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan, the secretary, for it had been made a prison.  He was thrown into the dungeon and remained there MANY days. 

Then King Zedekiah sent for him secretly, asking if there had been any new word from the LORD…. 

“Nope,” said Jeremiah.  You WILL be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.” Then Jeremiah asked, “What wrong have I done that you have put me in prison? Please don’t send me back to the dungeon in the house of Jonathan.”

Surprisingly, the king agreed and gave orders for Jeremiah to be held at the court of the guard. AND, that a loaf of bread be given to him daily … until all the bread in the city was gone.

.

###

Day 230 – Jeremiah 38.

Jeremiah kept telling the people the LORD’s compassionate words.  “This says the LORD, ‘He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence … BUT, he who goes out to the Chaldeans shall live. He shall have his life as a prize of war, and live. (Surrender and live.) This city shall surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and be taken.”

But the city officials said to the king, “LET THIS MAN BE PUT TO DEATH, for he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people by speaking such words to them.”

“Behold, he is in your hands,” said the king.

So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes.  There was no water in the cistern, only mud. Jeremiah sank into the mud.

When the Ethiopian eunuch, who was in the king’s palace, heard of that, he went to the king and said, “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern. He will die there of hunger.”

“Take 30 men with you and lift Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies,” said the king.

The Ethiopian took rags and clothes and let them down into the cistern to Jeremiah.  “Put these rags between your armpits and the ropes.”  

Jeremiah did that, and they lifted him out of the cistern and kept him in the court of the guard.  Later, King Zedekiah called for Jeremiah and said to him, “If I ask you a question, hide nothing from me.“

Jeremiah: “If I tell you, will you not put me to death. And if I counsel you, you won’t listen.“

“I will listen,” promised the King, “and not put you to death.”

Jeremiah:  ‘If you will surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house will live.”  “But if you do not surrender, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape from their hand.”

Zedekiah: “I’m afraid of the Judeans who have deserted already, let they hand me over and deal cruelly with me.

Jeremiah:  “You shall not be given to them. OBEY NOW the voice of the LORD in what I say to you, and it shall be well with you, and your life will be spared.   But if not…. oh boy will you regret it!!”

Zedekiah:  “Let no one know of these words, or you shall die.“

Jeremiah obeyed and remained in the court of the guard …. until the day that Jerusalem was taken.

(I guess the king did not surrender.)

.

Jeremiah 39.

No, the king did not surrender.  He tried slipping out a narrow gate and running for Jericho! (Seriously!)

Jerusalem – the City of Gold, the City of the LORD God, the Holy City where God had put His name – fell to the Chaldeans on the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh (and last) year of Zedekiah’s reign.  And the officials of the Chaldean army came flooding in. 

When Zedekiah saw it, he and his close soldiers slipped out the narrow gate in the king’s garden and ran for their lives toward Jericho that night.   He was heading towards the Arabah wilderness on the other side of the Dead Sea, where David had hid from King Saul those many years ago.

But the Chaldean army pursued and captured him before he got to Jericho.  They took him to Riblah, 230 miles north of Jerusalem, where King Nebuchadnezzar had his headquarters.  And so, Jeremiah’s prophecy came true. King Zedekiah saw the Babylonian king face-to-face and eye-to-eye.

Remember, when the Babylonians took King Jehoiachin off to Babylon (he’d surrendered)? King Nebuchadnezzar had made Zedekiah king of Judah in his place. Zedekiah promised to send tribute to Babylon and did so for a few years. Then he broke his vow and stopped it. 

So, now, Nebuchadnezzar saw him as a traitor, and treated him like one. The Babylonian King killed all of Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes (Oh, what a horrible sight!).  Then the Babylonian put out Zedekiah’s eyes, so the last thing he saw was his sons being massacred. Then he was hauled off to Babylon in chains.

Oh, if only he’d listened to Jeremiah.  But this was God’s plan.

Back in Jerusalem, the Chaldeans set the king’s house afire, and burned the House of the people (the Temple). They broke down the walls of Jerusalem, leaving the city in ruins.  Only the very poor remained to care for the vineyards and fields.

About Jeremiah…. King Nebuchadnezzar told his army captain, “Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but deal with him as he tells you.”  So the Captain took Jeremiah from prison and sent him home to live among his people.

God also took care of that Ethiopian who’d rescued Jeremiah. “I will deliver him on that day, declares the LORD.  He shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom he is afraid. For I will deliver him on the day the city falls.  I will save him, and he shall not fall by the sword… because he has put his trust in the LORD.”

.

Jeremiah 40.

A few more details about Jeremiah’s release are listed here.  The Captain of the guard gave him three choices….

  1. “If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look after you well.
  2. “Or, if not, the whole world is before you; go wherever you want.
  3. “Or you can return to Gedaliah and dwell among your people.

Jeremiah chose option #3, and after receiving an allowance of food and a present, went to live under Gedaliah’s leadership. 

When the captains of the scattered forces of Judah, who had escaped and dwelled in the wild, heard that Gedaliah was governor, they met with him. The governor assured them everything would be okay. “Live on your land, gather the fruits of the field and vine. As long as we serve (pay tribute) to the Babylonian king, all will be well.”

One of the captains later came to Gedaliah, saying the king of the Ammonites had sent Ishmael, his warrior, to kill the governor.  But Gedaliah did NOT believe him, and forbade the captain from going to “taking care of” Ishmael.

(Stubborn Gedaliah! We’ll see tomorrow that Ismael does come … and kill him. (Sigh.)

.

Psalm 74. 

Wow, this psalm tells of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by Nebuchadnezzar. 

  • “Remember Your congregation, which You have purchased of old, which You have redeemed to be the tribe of Your heritage!
  • Remember Mount Zion, where You have dwelt.
  • Direct Your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary!”
  • All its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers.
  • They set Your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of Your Name, bringing it down to the ground. 
  • They burned all the meeting places of God in the land.

.

Psalm 79.

This psalm also tells of that time.

  • “O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; they have defiled Your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
  • They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
  • They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem…. and there was no one to bury them.
  • “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name deliver us and atone for our sins, for Your name’s sake!

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 228

Aug16

Day 228 – Reading – Jeremiah 32 – 34

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

 

Jeremiah 32.

The first three verses give the setting of this chapter. (Remember, the pieces of the book of Jeremiah jump around a bit – probably the way Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch, put them together.)  It was …. 

  • During the 10th year of Zedekiah’s 11-year reign
  • During the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule
  • During Nebuchadnezzar’s 30-month siege of Jerusalem, about a year before his final takeover
  • While Jeremiah was shut up in prison for “preaching treason” (prophecy of the final siege & exile). 

In the prison cell, Jeremiah received a word from the LORD, saying his cousin Hanamel was going to ask him to buy his field at Anathoth (Jeremiah’s town, about 3 miles north of Jerusalem in the territory of Benjamin; a Levite city). Jeremiah was the closest relative to Hanamel and had the right to buy the field until Jubilee, when he would return it. It was a way to help out a family member in financial trouble.

And just like that, the man arrived with the offer, so Jeremiah knew it was from God and bought the field. (Yes, from prison, and yes, Jeremiah had the money to do so.)  Seeing it was only one year before Jerusalem would be destroyed and the people taken to Babylon, wouldn’t this seem like an unwise purchase?  Yes. But think of what Jeremiah knew.  The LORD would be returning the people to this land in 70 years.  This dispersion was not to be forever.

Baruch took the deed to the property in the presence of all who were around in the court who witnessed the purchase, and put them in an earthenware jug for safekeeping.  Jeremiah said aloud, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall AGAIN be bought in this land.”

Jeremiah then openly prayed to God.  First, he praised the “great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of Hosts, and listed the wonderful things He had done for His unworthy people. Then he got to the point.

“Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. What You spoke has come to pass, and You see it. YET, You, O Lord GOD, have said to me, “Buy the field for money and get witnesses,” though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans!

And God confirmed it. “Yes, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and he shall capture it. They shall come and set this city on fire and burn it.  This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight … because of all the evil the children of Israel and Judah have done. 

“But I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger … and bring them back to this place. They shall be my people and I will be their God.   

Behold, just as I have brought all this great disaster … so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them.  FIELDS SHALL BE BOUGHT FOR MONEY AND DEEDS SHALL BE SIGNED AND SEALED AND WITNESSED in the land of Benjamin, in the places about Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Negev.  I will restore their fortunes,” declares the LORD.

.

Jeremiah 33.

The LORD continues to declare His promises of good to the people (after the capture and exile).  Jeremiah is still in prison, the enemy is still at the gates, all the houses of the people of Jerusalem have been taken apart and stacked as defense against the enemy … and yet God’s word of hope comes to his prophet.

  • “Call to me and i will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil,  BU…
  • I will bring health and healing,
  • I will heal them and reveal an abundance of prosperity and security.
  • I will restore their fortunes,
  • I will rebuild them as they were,
  • I will cleans them from all the guilt of their sin against me,
  • I  will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me,
  • This city shall be to me a NAME OF JOY, A PRAISE, AND A GLORY before all the nations,
  • There again shall be heard the voice of mirth and gladness…
  • the voices of those who sing as they bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD.
  • I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
  • A righteous branch shall spring up for David and he shall execute justice and righteousness,
  • Judah will be saved; Jerusalem will dwell securely, being called “The LORD is Our Righteousness.”

And God swears to Jeremiah in two more visions, that He WILL DO what He has promised.

.

Jeremiah 34.

In this chapter, Jeremiah goes directly to King Zedekiah with a direct word of God, outlining his future. 

  1. God is giving the city to the king of Babylon,
  2. He will burn it with fire.
  3. You, Zedekiah, shall not escape but be captured.
  4. You will see the king of Babylon eye to eye and face to face and speak to him.
  5. You will surely go to Babylon and die there.

Perhaps because of this (that he would die in peace), Zedekiah, all of a sudden, proclaimed that all the people of Jerusalem should let their Jewish slaves GO FREE. This was part of God’s law that had been neglected. They could only enslave a fellow Jew for six years, and on the 7th year, they must let them go.

Everyone obeyed. All the slaves were set free.  But before they could hardly get their belongings packed, the King reversed his decision.  All the slaves were subjected again to their masters.  HUH??

(This may have been when the Egyptian army approached and the forces of Babylon withdrew from Jerusalem temporarily, and the people of Jerusalem believed that the danger had passed. But this angered the LORD, and He brought the Babylonian army back to the city.  This time to stay till they conquered it.)

.

(God is so good to His wayward children. Yes, He must discipline them (and us), but there is always His love present, and when the time is past, he will joyfully welcome them (us) back into the protection and joy of His arms.  Thank You, LORD, for your grace and mercy and the promises you give to us in Your Word!)

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 225

Aug13

Day 225 – Reading – Jeremiah 23 – 25

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah 23.

“The LORD is my shepherd. I shall not want (have any needs).  (Think of the following words in David’s Psalm 23, describing the Lord Jesus Christ.) He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still (peaceful) waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.  Even though I (will) walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me ALL the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

And now, in Jeremiah 23, see what God says about the “shepherds” who were supposed to look after and care for the “sheep” of Israel, but didn’t.

  • “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!
  • You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them.  Behold, I will attend to YOU for your evil deeds,” declares the LORD.

The “bad” shepherds were the false leaders in Israel who failed in their duty to take care/protect/teach the flock of God.  They included the kings, prophets and priests.  

  • “Then I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them.  
  • I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply.
  • I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall ANY be missing,” declares the LORD.

After the exile, God will bring Judah back from Babylon to their homeland.  Men like Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah will be like good shepherds caring for them.

In a fuller sense, in the end times, the Great Shepherd, Jesus, will restore all His people to their land. This has yet to happen.

  • “The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch and He shall reign as King and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  In His days, JUDAH WILL BE SAVED, and ISRAEL WILL DWELL SECURELY.

Meanwhile, God’s heart is broken in him … for the land is full of adulterers, and the (formerly green) pastures of the wilderness are dried up.  Both prophet and priest are UNGODLY.  “EVEN IN MY HOUSE I HAVE FOUND EVIL!”  “And from the prophets of Jerusalem UNGODLINESS has gone out into all the land.”

  • “BEHOLD, the storm of the LORD! Wrath had gone forth, a whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.”
  • Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?  Do I not fill heaven and earth? 
  • “You false prophets and seers (evil shepherds) … “I will surely lift you up and cast you away from My presence, you and the city that I have given to you and your fathers.  I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.”

.

Jeremiah 24.

Jeremiah received a vision, then a word from the LORD explaining the vision. This happened AFTER King Nebuchadnezzar’s second attack, and his carrying King Jeconiah (Jehoiachin, Coniah – this king had several names!), back to Babylon (alive) along with his mother, officials, craftsmen, and metal workers.  

Jeremiah’s vision showed TWO BASKETS OF FIGS in front of the Temple.  One basket had VERY GOOD FIGS; the other had VERY BAD (rotten) FIGS.

The LORD:  “What do you see, Jeremiah?”

Jeremiah: Figs; very good figs and very bad figs.

The LORD: “I will regard as “the good figs” the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place. I will set my eyes on them for good, and build them up, and plant them, and give them a heart to know that I am the Lord. They shall be my people and I will be their God. For they will return to me with their whole heart.”

The LORD continues.  “But I will treat Zedekiah, king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem, who remain, and those who fled to Egypt … “as the very bad, rotten figs.”   I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places I shall drive them.  I will send sword, famine, and pestilence on them until they are utterly destroyed.”

WOW.  This reminds me of Jesus separating the sheep and goats on the Last Day, one to eternal life, and the other one to eternal punishment. Matthew 25:31-46

.

Jeremiah 25.

This chapter takes a few steps backward, to the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim in Judah, and the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in Babylon.  For 23 years, Jeremiah had been predicting this, but the people had not listened, nor turned from their evil ways.

And so … as prophesied … the Lord was going to send for Nebuchadnezzar “His servant” against all this land.  “I will devote it to destruction, and make it a horror, a hissing, a desolation.   This whole land will become a ruin and a waste, and you will serve the King of Babylon SEVENTY YEARS.”

There it is! 

But … “After seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their iniquity.“

Then figuratively, God gave to Jeremiah His “cup of wrath.”  He was to go to all the nations to which God would send him and MAKE THEY DRINK FROM THE CUP. 

So, Jeremiah took the cup and went …

  • to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, 
  • to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all the mixed tribes there, 
  • to all the land of Uz and the Philistines, 
  • to Edom, Moab, and Ammon,
  • to Tyre, Sidon, Dedan, Tema and Buz, 
  • to the kings of Arabia and the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert, Zimri, Elam, Media, 
  • and to ALL THE KINGDOMS OF THE WORLD on the face of the earth. 
  • And finally,  to the King of Babylon who SHALL drink. 

And the LORD said, “I begin to work disaster at the city THAT IS CALLED BY MY NAME, and shall you, Babylon, go unpunished? No, for I am summoning a sword against ALL the inhabitants of the earth … ALL FLESH.”

And a special disaster for the false shepherds and lords of the flocks. No refuge. No escape.

WOW.  The LORD is really raging.  Just think how it will be AT THE END OF THE AGE, when Jesus comes, and the world goes into the Great Tribulation before the final Day of the Lord, the destruction of evil!  PRAISE GOD!

*

(LORD, Thank you for the promise of Eternal Life through Jesus, the great Shepherd and the eternal King. Keep my heart turned wholly towards YOU. Help me to be obedient to your Word and to those who speak Your Words.)

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 224

Aug12

Day 224 – Reading – Jeremiah 18 – 22

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah 18.

God gives Jeremiah another picture prophecy. (Don’t you love those?) 

He is to go to a potter’s shop and watch the man work.  The potter sees a dry chunk, a flaw, in the clay and has to begin again.  He squashes the clay vase, picks out the hard chunk, kneads the “purified” clay, forms it into an oblong, puts it back on the wheel, and begins shaping again.  His clay.  His choice. 

Jeremiah watches. He gets it.  God is the potter, Israel/Judah the clay. There are flaws in the clay – sin.  God can decide to follow through on the judgment he’s planned because the flaw is just too great (crush the clay and form another), or … if the clay is pliable enough, He can work the bad spots out as it spins and finish that flawless vase.  His people.  His choice.

The people were not happy when Jeremiah finished the story and he said, “Behold, God is devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and deeds.“

They stubbornly replied, “We will follow our OWN plans.  We will, every one of us, act according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart.”  (So there! says the clay to the potter. What are you going to do about it?)

Here’s what: “Like the east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back and not my face, on the day of their calamity.” (God turning his back on me would be a scary thought!)

Scolded people never like the messenger. They say, “Come, let us plot against Jeremiah. Let us strike him with the tongue. Let us not pay attention to any of his words.” That seems pretty mild, but Verse 23 reveals that they were plotting to KILL him, as well.)

Jeremiah runs to God and complains.  “Listen to them!   Hear how they plot evil for me. Remember when I spoke up for You??  Therefore, God, give them over to famine, sword, and pestilence… just as you said.”  WHOA, Jeremiah has done an about-face.  He’d prayed that God would NOT bring those things on Israel before. 

(Boy, I’ve done that, haven’t you?  Touch a bit of me or mine, and I turn nasty!) 

Let’s see what God does.

. 

Jeremiah 19.

Back to the potter’s shop.  Only this time, Jeremiah was to buy a finished clay flask.  Then he was to take it to the Valley of Hinnom, called Topeth (where babies were burned alive to Molech), and say God’s words of disaster to the kings of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 

“Because they have forsaken God and profaned the city and Temple, making offerings in it to other gods, and because they have filled the place “with the blood of innocent babies, to burn them as an offering to a god….. “which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind!!    Therefore, I will make void all the plans of Judah. I will cause the people to fall by the sword. I will give THEIR dead bodies for food to the birds and beasts.  I will make them EAT the flesh of their own sons and daughters … and their neighbors…”   Yikes!

Then Jeremiah was to break the clay flask against the wall and say, “Thus will I break this people and this city … as the potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended.”   (Great object lesson!)

.

Jeremiah 20.

When Pashhur (meaning “ease”), the priest and chief officer of the temple police, heard Jeremiah, he grabbed him and BEAT him (the 40 lashes of Deuteronomy 25:3).  Then he put the prophet into stocks – hands, feet and neck – and left him bleeding and bruised over night. 

The next morning, Jeremiah gave Pashhur the “what for!!” 

Your name will no longer be “Ease” but “Terror On Every Side.”  You will watch all those horrific things happen to Jerusalem, the Temple, and the people. And YOU will be carried into captivity in Babylon, where you will die and be buried … you and all your friends.

Understandably, Jeremiah was in excruciating pain – back raw, blood crusted on the stripes, bruised, and maybe still bleeding. And joints aching from the stocks.   He says to God,

  • I have become a laughingstock all day; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, cry out, and shout “‘Violence and destruction!’  Well, the word of the LORD has become a reproach and derision for me….   
  • I say, ‘I will not mention Him, or speak His name anymore.”  But there comes in my heart a burning fire, shut up in my bones.  I am weary of holding it in.  I CANNOT hold it in!
  • I hear many whispering to denounce me. “Let us denounce him,” say my friends. “We can overcome him and take our revenge on him.”
  • “But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior.  “O LORD of hosts … to you have I committed my cause.  “Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD. For He has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of the evildoers.”

(This is such an example for me.  When I feel down, and people make fun of me, I should never consider stopping my testimony.  I should look to God, preach his love and care to myself, sing praises to him, and say in my heart, and aloud, HE HAS DELIVERED ME!)

.

Jeremiah 21.

Okay…  the time is nigh. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is approaching to make war on them. (No surprise!)

King Zedekiah (the very last king of Judah) tries to do what his ancestor King Hezekiah did when Sennacherib, king of Assyria, surrounded Jerusalem. He had sent for Isaiah to pray and seek the LORD.

Zedekiah sent a priest (another Pashhur, not the one who beat Jeremiah) to the prophet to “Inquire of the LORD,” for him, thinking that maybe God would do one of His “wonderful deeds” for them and make the Babylonians withdraw.   But this was a different king, a different situation.  Zedekiah was not the righteous Hezekiah. 

Jeremiah spoke.  It was NOT what King Zedekiah wanted to hear.  God was NOT going to kill 185,000 of the enemy in a night.

No, the Babylonians were going to attack and prevail against Zedekiah’s weak weapons.  God Himself was also going to fight against Zedekiah and Jerusalem with a strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath.   He was going to give King Zedekiah and the people over to Nebuchadnezzar, who would strike them with the sword … without pity or compassion.  And then he would loot and burn Jerusalem.

Yikes!

.

Jeremiah 22.

Wow!! Surprise, surprise! See what God – O, the merciful and forgiving, LORD God of Israel – does!

He tells Jeremiah to go to the King of Judah and tell him this:

  • “Hear the word of the LORD< O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates.  THUS says the LORD, 
  • “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed.  And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place!
  • For… IF you will indeed obey this word, THEN there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. (Posterity and Success offered.)
  • But IF NOT …. the house of the kings of Judah shall become a desolation. (No continuing posterity.)

And then, the LORD gives a word – the end of each of the following kings, sons of Josiah.

SHALLUM (or Jehoahaz) – carried captive to Babylon, where he will die.  “Your father (Josiah) did justice and righteousness, and it went well with him. But YOU have eyes and heart only for dishonest gain, shedding innocent blood, and practicing oppression and violence.”

JEHOIAKIM – They shall not lament for him.  “With the burial of a donkey, he shall be buried, dragged, and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” 

CONIAH (or Jehoiachin) – I will give you into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldeans (of whom you are afraid). I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you shall die. “You are a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for.”

(These were the last kings of Judah, all despised.  Israel/Judah would have NO MORE KINGS until that last Glorious One.)

.

Wow.  Not the epitaphs I’d want! 

(But take heart. The next chapter (tomorrow) reveals the “Greater Son of David, the King of Kings, holy and righteous, who will sit on his throne forever!”)

.

 

 

  

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 221

Aug9

Day 221 – Reading – Jeremiah 7 – 9

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah 7.

The prophet was instructed to stand in the gate of the Temple to proclaim the following Word from God.  To all you men of Judah who enter these gates, the LORD says…

  • “Amend your ways and deeds …. and I will let you dwell in this place. 
  • “If you TRULY amend your ways and deeds,
  • …execute justice one with another,
  • …not oppose the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow…
  • …not shed innocent blood in this place,
  • …and do not go after other gods,
  • THEN I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.”

But, no.

  • “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known … and THEN come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My Name, and say, “We are delivered!” only to go on doing all these abominations?
  • “Has this house, which is called by My Name, become A DEN OF ROBBERS in your eyes?

God tells the people to go over to Shiloh, the place where they used to sacrifice and worship Him before the Temple was built.  God had destroyed it, and now He asks, if he will not do the same to the Temple in Jerusalem .. BECAUSE of their wicked deeds. 

Then God turns to Jeremiah. “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me … for I will not hear you. 

“Don’t you see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood. The fathers kindle fire. The women knead dough and make cakes …FOR THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN (the Assyrian goddess of fertility, Ishtar). 

God reminds the people that He gave them this one, most important command … “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.”

“But they did not obey. They did not incline their ear. They walked in their own counsels.  They walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. They stiffened their necks. They did worse than their fathers.

They have set their detestable things in the “Temple” to defile it. They have built Topheth, in the valley of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire (which I did not command … nor did it come into my mind!”

And so… the land shall become a waste.  Their bones are to be left unburied, as dung on the surface of the ground…

.

Jeremiah 8.

You shall say to them, Jeremiah, “Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding?  They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. I have paid attention and listened … but they have not spoken rightly; no man says of his evil, “What have I done?”

“From the least to the greatest, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.  They have healed the wound of my people “lightly,” saying, “Peace, peace,” WHEN THERE IS NO PEACE.”

Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? NO, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush.  Therefore, they shall fall among the fallen when I punish them.

Jeremiah grieves for his people.  

  • “My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick within me.   The wound of the daughter of my people is MY heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.  “Is there no balm in Gilead?  Is there no physician there? 
  • “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.”

(No wonder Jeremiah is called “the weeping prophet.”

.

Jeremiah 9.

Jeremiah wishes to escape to the desert to escape the pollution of the people. Then he lists all their sins:

  • Adultery, treachery, liars, deceivers, slanderers, committing iniquity of all kinds, heaping up oppression and deceit, refusing to know the LORD. Their tongues are as deadly arrows, they have mouths that speak peace but plan ambush. 

And so the LORD plans payment:

  • “I will refine them and test them. Shall I not punish them and avenge myself on a nation such as this?  I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins… I will make the cities of Judah a desolation…” “I will scatter them among the nations… and send the sword after them until I have consumed them.

WHY? asks Jeremiah.

“Because they have forsaken My law that I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice or walked in accord within it, but stubbornly followed their own hearts.”

Thus says the LORD, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom … let not the mighty man boast in his might … let not the rich man boast in his riches … BUT, let him who boasts, boast in this …THAT HE UNDERSTANDS AND KNOWS ME, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these things I delight.”

.

(I’m seeing so clearly in Jeremiah, the people of the world today: gross denial of God and Jesus, minds that desire supremely, self-glory/fame, wealth, and physical pleasure.  I’m also learning what God wanted from His people, because they are the same today.  Righteousness, and a heart in love with Him and His law (Word).  As another prophet says,  “to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before the LORD.”  Oh, that THAT may be MY heart’s desire.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 220

Aug8

Day 220 – Reading – Jeremiah 4 – 6

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer.

Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah 4.

This chapter opens with a call to RETURN to the LORD in truth.  Are they able to remove the “detestable things” from His presence, and “circumcise” or cleanse their hearts?   If not … God’s wrath will go out like fire and burn with a flame no one can quench, and consume them. 

Jeremiah then predicts that destruction and disaster will come from the north (Babylon).  A lion … a destroyer of nations has set out … to make your land a waste and your cities into ruins.  (Babylon is often symbolized by a winged lion.)  Judah’s kings, officials, priests, and prophets will be appalled and terrified.

“Woe to us, for we are ruined,” will be the cry as the speeding horses and chariots appear.   And Jeremiah cries again for the LORD, “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved!”

“I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light.  I looked at the mountains, and behold, THEY WERE QUAKING AND THE HILLS MOVED TO AND FRO.  I looked … and all its cities were laid in ruins before the LORD’s fierce anger.

.

Jeremiah 5.

God wants his servant to run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, to look (if he can) for a man who does justice and seeks truth, so the LORD may pardon the city.

But the result is: They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent.

Then Jeremiah said, “These are only the POOR; they have no sense; for they do not know the way of the LORD, the justice of the LORD.  I will go to the GREAT and speak to them. They KNOW the way of the LORD. 

But, they ALL alike had broken the yoke and burst the bonds. And all say to the LORD, “He will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine.  The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them.”

The LORD’s answer?  “Behold, I am bringing against you a nation from afar, O House of Israel.”  “As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.

.

Jeremiah 6.

And again, impending disaster for Jerusalem!

“Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin in the midst of Jerusalem!”

“Blow the trumpet … raise a signal for disaster looms out of the north and great destruction.”

“This is a city that must be punished; there is nothing but oppression within her.”

“Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn from you in disgust…”

“Therefore I am full of wrath; I am weary of holding it in. Pour it out upon the CHILDREN in the street, upon the YOUNG MEN, both HUSBAND AND WIFE, the ELDERLY and the VERY AGED!””

“Hear O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to MY words; and as for MY law, they have rejected it. 

.

WOW. What horrible disaster.  Sometimes I think that this very same disaster is coming upon the United States. Because we have not repented of the despicable ways we follow. Because we have neglected and rejected God, and played around with science and occult and technology as our “gods.”

O LORD, we are helpless! Please cleansed our hearts and minds. Turn us to You, our Savior and Redeemer!

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 219

Aug7

Day 219 – Reading – Jeremiah 1 – 3

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Jeremiah.

Jeremiah was a priest before he was a prophet, but God called him to that office. Jeremiah thought himself too young, and like Moses before him, said, “I do not know how to speak.”  His excuse was youth, whereas Moses’ was that he stuttered.  In both cases, the LORD overruled their objections. “I will be with you.”

Jeremiah’s ministry lasted for 50 years or more (through Judah’s last 5 kings). It began in the 13th year of King Josiah’s 31-year reign (before he began his reforms), and lasted beyond the fall of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah was first carried along into captivity to Egypt, and then, when Egypt fell, to Babylon.  His last words written were about the captive King of Judah, Jehoiachin, who was freed from a Babylonian prison after 31 years, and “every day of his life dined regularly at the king’s table, and got an allowance for his needs.“

Jeremiah would have been between 85 and 90 years old. (A tough old guy!)

Jeremiah prophesied about the coming invasion from Babylon, and pleaded for the people to turn from their wickedness and seek the LORD. He especially preached against sin, religious hypocrisy, adultery, and injustice to the poor and helpless.  And when invasion was inevitable, he begged the people to submit and not to resist the Babylonians, to prevent total destruction.

Jeremiah’s contemporaries were Zephaniah and Habakkuk, and later, Ezekiel and Daniel.

.

Jeremiah 1.

Jeremiah’s story begins with God’s beautiful statement, “I knew you in the womb before you were born… and I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah’s response (like Moses) was, “Ah, Lord GOD! I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”

“Don’t be afraid. I am with you to deliver you,” declared the LORD. Then the LORD put out His hand and touched Jeremiah’s mouth, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.”

Okay, Jeremiah. No excuse now.

Then God gives Jeremiah a couple of “vision tests.”  “What do you see? (an almond branch).  What do you see now?” (a boiling pot). The new prophet passed the tests. 

And then, the LORD ordered, “Dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I commanded you. Don’t be dismayed by them. Behold, this day I make YOU, a “fortified city,” “an iron pillar,” and “bronze walls” against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, priests, and people. They will fight you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I AM with you.”

WOW! Jeremiah was “royally” armored and commissioned.

.

Jeremiah 2.

Then comes Jeremiah’s first Word from the Lord to Jerusalem.  It starts with memories of love and devotion. 

  • “I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness… Israel was holy to the LORD, the first fruits of the harvest.”
  • “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became … worthless.”
  • “I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things….  But when you came in, you defiled My land and made My heritage an abomination.
  • “The priests didn’t seek Me…. those who handled the law, did not know Me…. the shepherds transgressed against Me…. Therefore I will contend with you.”

(This reminds me of Revelation 2:4-5 when Ephesus “lost their first love” for God and He urged them to return.)

  • “My people have committed two evils.   1) They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and 2) they hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
  • “And now, what do you gain by going to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what do you gain by going to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? 

When they heard of Babylon, they sought help in Egypt and  Assyria.

  • You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were by Assyria.  From Egypt, too, you will come away with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will NOT prosper by them.”

.

Jeremiah 3.

The LORD speaks a message against Israel (north) as well as Judah (south).  He speaks of their idolatry as adultery, a woman’s promiscuousness against her husband.   She is defiled by many lovers.  She has polluted the land with her vile whoredom.  

(Remember all those horrible kings in Israel. Not one was good. Remember the golden calves, the statues of Baal and Asherah, the pagan prophets.  This is how Israel in the north went crazy. This is what caused her ultimate demise.

And yet, the LORD proclaims to Israel,

  • “RETURN, faithless Israel. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful. I will not be angry forever, only acknowledge your guilt that you rebelled against the LORD your God, and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice.
  • “RETURN, O faithless children, for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city  and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” 

Then God says, through Jeremiah, that Israel’s sister Judah SAW Israel’s whoredom, “yet she did not fear, but went too, and played the whore. She did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense.”

“Faithless Israel” has shown herself more righteous than “treacherous Judah,” said the LORD.

In that “Day of the LORD,” when the Messiah will reign in Zion, God promises to give them GOOD shepherds, and they will multiply and increase. 

And – this is interesting, in the Kingdom of Messiah…

The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord will not come to mind,

or be remembered,

or missed;

and it shall not be made again.” 

WOW!

  • So, where is the Ark of the Covenant? 
  • NO, it’s not in some gigantic warehouse in Washington D. C. from an Indiana Jones movie. 
  • Did it get melted down and/or carried off to Babylon? 
  • Was it in that simple Temple that the returnees built? 
  • Was it in Herod’s rebuilt Temple in the days of Jesus?
  • Did it get destroyed (melted) when Titus destroyed the city in 70 A.D.? 
  • Some say that Jeremiah or another prophet hid or buried it so it couldn’t be taken to Babylon. 
  • If so, that’s a mighty good hiding job! 
  • Surely archeologists would have discovered it by now.

All we know is what Jeremiah recorded here, that in the Millennium, there will be NO ARK OF THE COVENANT, because Jerusalem, herself, shall be called the “throne of the LORD.”  

The Ark of the Covenant, “representing” the presence of God, will NOT be needed then, for God will be there, Himself, in person.

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 218

Aug6

Day 218 – Reading – Zephaniah 1 – 3.

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

 

Zephaniah 1-3.

Zephaniah prophesied “in the days of Josiah.” These were probably in the early years of the boy king’s reign, before the Book of the Law was found and Josiah began those massive reforms. Perhaps Zephaniah had an influence on those reforms.  He was a contemporary of Jeremiah.

Zephaniah was unique among the prophets in that he was a descendant of King Hezekiah (his great-grandfather). This may have given him more access to the royal court and more respect for his prophesies. 

Remember how the LORD told King Josiah that he would have PEACE in his day, but in no way was the wrath of God on Judah and Jerusalem to be abated.  It was still going to happen.  (After Josiah died, it came on rapidly.)

.

Zephaniah 1..

NOTE: The prophesies of Zephaniah spoke of two judgments: first, the victory of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and second, the “great” Day of the LORD yet in the future. Zephaniah quotes God’s words.

  • “I will utterly sweep away everything from the face of the earth … I will sweep away man and beast … the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea … the rubble and the wicked … I will cut off mankind from the face of the earth.”  

Wow, that sounds like the flood, but we know it isn’t.  The message continues and is more specific.

  • “I will stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal … the idolatrous priests … those who bow down to the hosts of heaven … who swear by Milcom … and have turned back from following the LORD.

Then He lists those whom He will punish.

  • “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps. I will punish the men who are complacent and say, ‘The LORD will not do good or evil.'”

But the warning is –

  • The great day of the LORD is near; near and hastening fast!  A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, ruin and devastation, darkness and gloom, clouds and thick darkness, a day if trumpet blast and battle cry!”

.

Zephaniah 2.

  • Then hope…
  • “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, who do His just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the LORD>”

Zephaniah then list WOES on surrounding cities and countries:  the cities of Philistia, the inhabitants of the seacoasts, Moab, Ammon, Cush, Assyria (He will make Nineveh a desolation), 

.

Zephaniah 3.

And then the LORD turns to His own people.

  • Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled, the oppressing city!”  (Jerusalem)  She does not trust in the LORD; she does not draw near to her God.  Her officials, judges, prophets, and priests “know no shame.”

But judgment is coming to them as it was with all the surrounding nations

Then Zephaniah’s prophesies turn to the blessings of RESTORATION for God’s people and the nations, after “that great and terrible “DAY OF THE LORD.”

  • ” … all the peoples will call upon the Name of the LORD and serve Him with one accord.
  • ” … for then I will remove from your midst your proud, haughty ones, and will leave a people humble and lowly … who see refuge in the name of the LORD.

.

The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil.

“Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel!  Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you;

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty One who will save;  He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by His love; He will exult over you with loud singing!

“I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes,”  says the LORD.

###

(The sin of the world today will also bring judgment, woe, and sorrow. The LORD will sweep it all away.  And He will make a new Heaven and Earth with holiness, joy, and peace.  And He will be the righteous King. And the people who love and serve Him here and now will join Him there and forever. Thank YOU, LORD!)

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 215 & 216

Aug4

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted together on Monday.

Day 215 – Reading – I2 Chronicles 32 – 33, 

Day 216 – Reading – Nahum 1 – 3

Read today’s Scriptures … ANYWHERE you find yourself this summer. Stay in the WORD!

Day 215 – 2 Chronicles 32.

This chapter repeats some of what we learned about this time from 2 Kings and Isaiah. 

After chapter 31 listed all the good things Hezekiah did in removing idolatry and his faithfulness to God, Sennacherib and his hordes invaded Judah.  (Was this a test from the LORD?  If so, Hezekiah passed with flying colors.)

At the (verbal and written) threats from the king of Assyria and his commander, itemizing how “weak” and “impotent” Israel’s God was compared to their great army, God showed them up. Hezekiah went to the LORD and prayed, and Isaiah encouraged him.  Then God acted. The whole Assyrian army was killed in one night, and the King went home (with “shame on his face”), only to be assassinated by his own sons.

Then chapter 32 reviews the grave illness of Hezekiah, his prayer, and God’s answer of 15 more years of life.  After this answer to prayer, it seems that Hezekiah’s heart became proud. (Of his wealth?  Of his amazing answers to prayer? Of his extreme wealth? )  Regardless, self-pride over something that GOD DID brought God’s wrath on him, in the foretelling of Jerusalem’s eventual destruction. However, Hezekiah humbled himself, and God’s wrath did not come during his lifetime.

This chapter also reviews his foolishness in revealing all his riches and military strength to an “envoy from Babylon.” 

The other accounts say they came because they heard of Hezekiah’s illness, but this account adds that they were sent to “inquire about the sign that had been done in the land.”  You know it, that reversing of the sundial ten degrees.   If the sun went back in Israel, so it did everywhere, including Babylon.  That “far away land” was known for its astronomers (just like at Jesus’ birth, when that special star appeared), and they came to investigate.

Isaiah scolded Hezekiah for showing off all he had, and told him what he had revealed would be taken away by that very country (about 100 years later), Jerusalem would be destroyed, and his son’s taken captive.  Hezekiah, like us, shrugged and said, “Well, at least not in MY time…”

At Hezekiah’s death, those 15 years later, “all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem did him honor.”  Then his son Manasseh, who was conceived and born in those very 15 years, became king, and a very wicked one at that.

.

2 Chronicles 33.

This whole chapter is about Manasseh, who reigned in Jerusalem 55 years, and the horrible evil he did for most of them.  He reversed all the good that his father, Hezekiah, had done (So he KNEW what was right! What got into him???), and restored all the idolatrous places for pagan worship, EVEN IN THE TEMPLE of the LORD GOD, and caused the people to stray into more evil than had King Ahab in the north.  

He went farther into devilish evil that had existed before Hezekiah. He sacrificed his sons on the burning altar of Molech, as had his grandfather, Ahaz.  And in direct violation of God’s law, Manasseh used fortunetellers, omens, sorcery, mediums, and necromancers to divine truth and direction.  (Not like Hezekiah, who went before God in the Temple for help and to pray for direction.) 

God warned Manasseh through his prophets about the coming fierce judgment for Judah and Jerusalem and the people, but he and the people “paid no attention.”  Tradition says Manasseh killed Isaiah, the prophet of God, by torture (maybe because he didn’t want to hear those awful coming events.).

As a foretaste, the LORD brought upon them commanders of another king of Assyria (Ashurbanipal), who captured Manasseh “with hooks!” and put him on trial in their vassal city of Babylon.  There, a miracle happened!!

In distress, Manasseh “entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his Kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.”

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT???

OH, THE MERCY AND FORGIVENESS OF GOD!!

GOD HEARS AND ANSWERS THOSE OF A BROKEN AND CONTRITE HEART – even the most wicked!

.

NOTE: (This reminds me of the story of the “Amazing Grace” songwriter, John Newton. He learned about the things of God from his mom at an early age, but then strayed into all kinds of cruelty and debauchery for most of his life. But at an older age, with death by shipwreck facing him, he turned and cried to God.  And God saved him.  Later he wrote, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!”)

.

Manasseh went home and “took away the foreign gods and the idol from the temple, and all the altars he had built in Jerusalem. He restored the altar of God and offered sacrifices of peace and thanksgiving. He commanded Judah to serve the LORD, the God of Israel.”

(NOTE: It’s mentioned in this chapter that Manasseh’s prayer was recorded in “the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah” and “the Chronicles of the Seers (or Prophets).” Hmmm, I’d love to read those, but God determined it wasn’t necessary to preserve them for us.)

Eventually, this converted sinner king died, and his son, Amon, reigned.  This man was not affected by his father’s conversion.  He learned early the horrible practices of Idolatry and again sacrificed to idols and images.   He “incurred more and more guilt.”  And eventually, his servants killed him in his house.

Then the people of the land (Jerusalem’s leaders) killed Amon’s assassins and installed the very young Josiah (8 years old) as king in his place.

(Sneak preview:  Josiah did what was RIGHT in the eyes of the Lord…)

.

###

.

DAY 216 – Nahum 1-3 

Not much is known about the prophet Nahum (meaning “comfort”). He was from Elkosh, but that is an unknown place. (It could have been Al Qosh in northern Iraq, meaning he was a descendant of one of the early Jewish captives of Assyria. He could have been from Capernaum (“Town of Nahum”) in the northern kingdom, or even from southern Judah. (see Nahum 1:15).  We don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter.)

He prophesied a message against Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, probably before the death of King Ashurbanipal. (Remember him? He was the king who captured Manasseh “with hooks” and took him to Babylon for trial?)  Assyria had recovered from the defeat (and embarrassment) of Sennacherib.  Now, the great Assyrian Empire spread from Babylon to Egypt.

This was probably 100 years after Jonah preached to Nineveh, and they repented. Now they have returned to idolatry and violence, at the height of their power. 

Think of Nahum as a “sequel to Jonah.”

Nahum predicted the FULFILLMENT of the judgment that Jonah SO wanted.

.

Nahum 1.

Verses 1-2, and 6 describe the LORD towards his enemies, the guilty.

  • “The LORD is a JEALOUS and AVENGING God, the LORD is AVENGING and WRATHFUL; the LORD takes VENGEANCE on His adversaries and keeps WRATH for his  enemies.
  • “The LORD is low to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.”
  • “Who can stand before His INDIGNATION? who can endure the heat of his ANGER?

Specific prophecies against Nineveh.

  • “With an overflowing flood, He will make a complete end of the adversaries. (Nineveh’s walls reached 100 feet high.  The moat surrounding the city was 150 feet wide and 60 feet deep.  The “overflowing flood” that God brought was when the Tigris River flooded, joined the moat waters to destroy enough of the walls of Nineveh to let the Babylonians through.)
  • “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut down and pass away. (As the LORD cut down the 185,000 soldiers encircling Jerusalem in one night, so shall he do to Nineveh.)

But to those who put their hope in the LORD … “He is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows those who take refuge in Him.”

.

Nahum 2.

This is a vivid picture of the destruction of Nineveh. (Jonah would have LOVED this!)

  • “The SCATTERER has come up against you.”  Assyria made a practice of scattering it’s captives throughout its empire. Now it would happen to them.
  • “The shield of his mighty men is red; his soldiers are clothed in scarlet…” Shields were covered with hide, dyed red to absorb flaming arrows and mask the sight of blood.
  • “Chariots come with flashing metal, they race madly, rush to and from through the streets; they gleam like torches…  Polished metal on the chariots would catch the sun and flash like lightning.
  • And the conquerors raise a siege tower, while the waters of the flooding Tigris river and moat “melt the palace away.”  “Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.”
  • “Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble.”
  • “Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of the treasure or of the wealth of precious things.”  Assyria plundered other nations, including Israel. Now it was there turn.

.

Nahum 3.

Nahum continues on with the gruesome details of the end of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.

  • “Woe to the bloody city.”  
  • “The crack of the whip… the rumble of the wheel… galloping horse and bounding chariot.  Horsemen charging, flashing sword, glittering spear… 
  • Try to picture or imagine the carnage of the city of Nineveh.  “A HOST of slain, HEAPS of corpses, dead bodies WITHOUT END… They stumble over the bodies!  Your shepherds are ASLEEP, O king of Assyria; your nobles SLUMBER. Your people are SCATTERED on the mountains with none to gather them (THEIR BODIES). 

 

And “all who hear the news about you clap their hands over you.”

Yes, Jonah is clapping his hands, no doubt.