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2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 235

Aug22

    Day 235—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.

    Day 235 – Jeremiah 49 – 50 (Judgments on Ammon, Edom, various cities and Babylon)

Jeremiah 49. Like the Moabites, the Ammonites were descended from Abraham’s nephew, Lot. When Assyria took the northern kingdom captive, the Ammonites moved right into the territories of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. 

“Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then has Milcon (god, Molech) settled in his cities?”  “I will cause  the battle cry to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites; it shall become a desolate mound.”    “Cry out….put on sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro among the hedges? For Milcom (Molech) shall go into exile with his priests and officials “But, afterward, I will restore the fortunes of the Ammonites, declares the LORD.

The Edomites were descendants of Esau, Jacob/Israel’s twin brother. They lived in the high country east and south of the Dead Sea.  “Edom shall become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.  As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities were overthrown, says the LORD, no man shall dwell there.”     

Damascus in Syria also comes under the LORD’s judgment. “Damascus has become feeble. She turned to flee, and panic seized her; anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her as of a woman in labor.”     “I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad.”       

Kedar and Hazor in Arabia, were descendants of Ishmael, and were struck down by Nebuchadnezzar as he headed for Jerusalem…“for the king has made a plan against you and formed a purpose against you.”    

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Jeremiah 50. And at last, God’s judgment will come upon Babylon.  

“Declare among the nations and proclaim….Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed.” 

” For out of the north, a nation has come up against her which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it; both man and beast shall flee away. “

Then, the captivity of Israel will be ended.

“In those days and in that time, declares the LORD, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the LORD their God.  They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, “Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.”     

And more, much more, against Babylon.

“Though you rejoice, though you exult O plunderers of my heritage… Because of the wrath of the LORD, she shall not be inhabited but shall be an utter desolation; everyone who passes by Babylon shall be appalled.”  “Raise a shout against her all around; she has surrendered; her bulwarks have fallen; her walls are thrown down.”   

“How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations.  I set a snare for you, and you were taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and caught because you opposed the LORD.”

“The LORD has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of His wrath, for the Lord GOD of hosts has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.”

“A sword against the Chaldeans declares the LORD, and against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her officials and her wise men!

A sword against the diviners, that they may become fools!

A sword against her warriors that they may be destroyed!

A sword against her horses and her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst that they may become women!

A sword against all her treasures that they may be plundered!

A drought against her waters that they may be dried up!

For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols. Therefore, wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon, and ostriches shall dwell in her. She shall never again have people nor be inhabited for all her generations.”

“Behold, a people comes from the north, a mighty nation……..the sound of them is like a roaring of the sea; they ride on horses, arrayed as a man for battle against YOU, O daughter of Babylon.”

“At the sound of the capture of Babylon, the earth shall tremble, and her cry shall be heard among the nations.”

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(More horribleness against Babylon for Israel’s sake tomorrow.”)

                                                                                                                                                                         

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, days 231 and 232

Aug19

    Day 231 & 232—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of the book of the history of Israel and prophecy.

NOTE: Sundays and Mondays are posted together.

    Day 231 – 2 Kings 24 – 25, 2 Chronicles 36 (back step into last days of Judah, 4 kings after Josiah, Babylonian captivity, hope from Cyrus)

2 Chronicles 36:1-4 and 2 Kings 24 recaps Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, becoming king in Judah and reigning for three months. The Pharoah of Egypt overthrew him, took him to Egypt, and made his brother Eliakim king (changing his name to Jehoiakim).

Nebuchadnezzar came. Eliakin/Jehoiakim became his servant for three years, rebelled, and was taken to Babylon in chains. His son, Jehoiachin, was made king. (Egypt came no more to Judah.)

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2 Chronicles 36:5-21, and 2 Kings 25. Jehoiachin reigned for three months, then surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, and he, as well as his family and servants, were carried away into captivity in Babylon.

The king of Babylon made Mattaniah (another son of Josiah) king of Judah and renamed him Zedekiah.  Mattaniah/Zedekiah reigned for eleven years (and did awful things to Jeremiah- see yesterday’s study). He rebelled against Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar came with his army, laid siege to Jerusalem, and breached the walls.  They took Jerusalem, and when Zedekiah tried to escape, they captured him, killed all his sons in his sight, and then put out his eyes.  They took him to Babylon in chains.

And Nebuchadnezzar took the city, burned it, and carried away the rest of the treasures and all the people, leaving only a few of the poorest to look after the land.   He set up Gedaliah (a son & grandson of some of the good men in former King Josiah’s court) as governor.

Gedaliah gave wise advice to the remaining people (remember Jeremiah had come to stay with him). He told them to “Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.”  However, a plot among his own men arose, and Ishmael, of the royal family (perhaps wanting to reinstate himself as king) assassinated Gedaliah.   Then, fearing the Chaldeans, all the people and captains of the forces got up and went to Egypt. Now, there was no throne, no king, and no royalty at all left in Judah. 

(NOTE: When we continue in the book of Jeremiah, we’ll learn more details about this time, the prophet’s warnings, and what happened to him.)

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2 Kings 25:27-30.  This book ends with hope.

After Nebuchadnezzar dies, Evil-merodach, the new king in Babylon, “graciously freed Jehoiachin, king of Judah, from prison.” (Remember, this king surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, as Jeremiah had advised, and was taken away – but not in chains.) “He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the other kings with them in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life, he dined regularly at the king’s table, and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, as long as he lived.”

(WOW! This almost sounds like what happens when a person becomes saved and a child of the living God!)

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    Day 231 – Habakkuk 1 – 3 (Habakkuk argues with God, God’s sovereignty, faith)

Habakkuk 1. Habakkuk knows Judah has sinned and deserves judgment but asks for revival and complains that God is using a far worse nation – the Chaldeans – to judge them.  He thinks the Chaldeans should be judged.  God says He is using them to judge Judah. No revival. But that the Chaldeans will also be judged.

Habakkuk acknowledges that God is sovereign and righteous and that Judah will not be wholly destroyed.

“Are You not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One?  We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong…..”

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Habakkuk 2.  Habakkuk reminds God of how horrible the Chaldeans are (“mercilessly killing nations”). Then, he takes up a post on the wall and waits for God’s answer.

God answers in three ways. 1) He will also judge the Chaldeans. 2)  He lists the character traits of the wicked (his soul is puffed up, not upright) and the righteous (they shall live by their faith).  3) He gives His prophet a list of “woes” coming to the Chaldeans in verses 6-20, including,

a. THEIR becoming plunder,

b. THEIR houses will be taken from them,

c. THEIR labors will not last but also be burned with fire,

d. THEY will drink the cup of God’s wrath and be utterly shamed,

e. THEIR trust in false idols will demonstrate the superiority of the LORD over all gods.

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Habakkuk 3.  Now, the prophet pleads for God’s mercy (“…in wrath remember mercy”),

describes God’s power on Israel’s behalf (“You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.”), and

praises God for His grace and sufficiency (“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail, and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the deer’s; He makes me tread on my high places.”).

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 230

Aug17

Day 230—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy from Jeremiah and Psalms.

    Day 230 – Jeremiah 38 – 40, Psalm 74, 79 (Jeremiah pleads God’s words, is put into a cistern then, rescued, Jerusalem falls, Jeremiah delivered.  Psalms of woe & hope.)

Jeremiah 38. At the LORD’s word, Jeremiah keeps telling the people of Jerusalem to surrender to the Babylonians. They will save their lives, and the city will not be burned. The leaders don’t like this, say it is terrible for morale, and throw the prophet into an empty cistern. (Usually full of water, it’s been emptied during the long siege and has only a few feet of mud in the bottom…which Jeremiah sinks into.) 

Done and dead, they think. But an Ethiopian eunuch serving in the king’s house hears and goes to Zedekiah. He pleads for Jeremiah’s life and is given men and permission to rescue him.  Later, the king secretly sends for Jeremiah. But Jeremiah’s message is the same.  “Surrender to the king of Babylon, and your life will be spared. Stay here, and the city will be burned, and you and yours will die.”  Zedekiah doesn’t want to hear this.

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Jeremiah 39. So, 18 months after the siege begins, the walls of Jerusalem are breached, and the city falls. Zedekiah tries to escape out the back door, but they catch him.  They kill all his sons and officials in his sight and then gouge out his eyes. He is removed to Babylon in chains. A few impoverished, homeless people are left in the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

However, Nebuchadnezzar commands that Jeremiah be freed and allowed to go anywhere he chooses — to Babylon, where he will be cared for, or to stay in the land with the appointed Governor, Gedaliah. Jeremiah decides to live with Gedaliah among the people. 

Before he was released, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah about that Ethiopian eunuch who had seen that he was rescued from the cistern. 

“I will deliver you on that day, and you shall not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are afraid. For I will surely save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life as a prize of war because you have put your trust in the LORD.      (WOW!)

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Jeremiah 40 gives more details about how Nebuzaradan, the captain of the Babylonian guard, let Jeremiah go free, listing all his choices: Babylon and be well taken care of; Judah and stay with the appointed Governor Gedaliah; or anywhere Jeremiah thought it right to go.  In any choice, he would be free. The Captain then gave him an allowance of food and a present and let him go.  Jeremiah went to Gedaliah and lived with him among the people left in the land.

Many other people who had fled Jerusalem at the siege now trickled back to Gedaliah. But soon, he received a message that the Ammonite king was sending a man named Ishmael to kill him. But the governor ignored the message.

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Psalm 74  begins, “O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?”   

“Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place;”   

“They have set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground.”

“How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever?  Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand? Take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them!”

 

Psalm 79 says, “O God, the nations have come into your inheritance; they have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.”   

“How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?  Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you, and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your Name!  For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.”

“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!”

“Let the groans of the prisoners come before You; according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die.”

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 229

Aug16

Day 229—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy from Jeremiah.

    Day 229 – Jeremiah 35 – 37 (the Rechabites, scroll burning, Zedekiah warned, Jeremiah in prison)

Jeremiah 35. God uses the obedience of a non-Israelite people to shame his own.

The Rechabites were a Kenite group related to Moses’ father-in-law. They lived within Israel’s borders, and when Nebuchadnezzar attacked, had come to Jerusalem.

Two hundred years earlier, their ancestor Jonadab had commanded them NOT to ever drink wine and to live in tents.  They had wholly obeyed.  When Jeremiah brought them in, at the LORD’s command, and offered them wine to drink, they refused.  God blessed them, not for their abstinence, but for their obedience, and held them up as an example to the disobedient Judahites.

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Jeremiah 36. In a bit of a flashback we see God telling Jeremiah to write down everything He had told the prophet about Israel, Judah, and the nations in one scroll. Jeremiah (in prison) called the scribe, Baruch, and dictated God’s words to him.  Then he told Baruch to go to the temple and read the words to the people, for they were fasting, and perhaps their hearts were more open. “Maybe every one of them will turn from his evil way.”

Baruch obeyed. Then, King Jehoiakim’s officials demanded that Baruch read the scroll to them as well, and he did. They were afraid but said the king HAD to hear it too.  They told Baruch to hide, took the scroll, and had another official, Jehudi, read it to the king.  However, as he read, the king cut off each portion of the scroll and tossed it into the fireplace.  And no one in the room feared that the king was burning the WORD OF GOD.

God then told Jeremiah to dictate another scroll (which he did, because we are reading it). And “many similar words were added to them.”

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Jeremiah 37. We are back in the time of King Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had appointed.  And neither this king, his servants, or the people of the land listed to the words of the LORD that He gave to Jeremiah. Nevertheless, Zedekiah asked Jeremiah to PRAY for them.

God, through Jeremiah, told the king that, Nope, nothing will help now.  The Chaldeans WILL fight against the city, capture it, and burn it with fire. “Don’t deceive yourselves saying, “the Chaldeans will surely go away,” for they will NOT go away. For even if you should defeat the whole army who is fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men… they would rise up and burn this city with fire.”

During a break in the fighting, Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to Benjamin to receive the land he had purchased earlier. But the sentry thought he was defecting to the Chaldeans. And although Jeremiah argued he was not, they brought him back, beat him, and imprisoned him.  And he remained in the dungeon many days.

Secretly, King Zedekiah called for him and asked, “Is there any word from the LORD?”

Jeremiah said, “Yes,” and gave him this prophecy. “You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”  Then, Jeremiah begged the king not to send him back to the dungeon lest he die.

Zedekiah ordered him to the court of the guard (better circumstances) and fed him with daily bread until it was all gone in the famine.

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 227

Aug14

    Day 227—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy.

    Day 227 – Jeremiah 30 – 31 (Bad news, but then glorious news, future, then WAY future)

Jerimiah 30. The promises of God (more than 22!) stand out in this chapter: restoration, return, bonds & yokes broken, end of servanthood to foreigners, salvation, a King, medicine and healing, retaliation against their oppressors, compassion, rebuilding, their position as the people of God.

What a glorious, hopeful message this must have been to the exiles! And a Messianic hope!  “Their Prince shall be one of themselves; their Ruler shall come out from their midst; I will make Him draw near, and He shall approach Me, for who would dare of himself to approach me?, declares the LORD. And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

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Jeremiah 31.  Prophecies of the nation’s restoration are continued in this chapter, both closely future and distant, end-times future.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I have continued my faithfulness to you.  AGAIN, I will build you and you shall be built, O virgin Israel (What???)  AGAIN, you shall adorn yourself with tambourines and shall go forth in the dance of the merrymakers.  AGAIN, you shall plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planters shall plant and shall enjoy the fruit.”

“For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD…”

“I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow. I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, declares the LORD.”

And in the far future… “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, NOT like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke (the law)…”    “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel AFTER THOSE DAYS,  I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD’ for they shall ALL know me, from the least to the greatest.  For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.”

“Behold the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the city shall be rebuilt for the LORD.”    “It shall not be uprooted or overthrown  anymore forever.” (see Revelation 3:12, 21:2)

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 226

Aug13

    Day 226—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy.

    Day 226 – Jeremiah 26 – 29 (Jeremiah threatened & spared, Zedekiah & Nebuchadnezzar, a false prophet, letter to the exiles)

Jeremiah 26 repeats the message and threat to our prophet from 11 years earlier when God offered the relenting of the disaster if the people would repent. (More recently, there is no such offer.) Jeremiah’s life is/was threatened, but the city officials spare him, listing other prophets whose lives were spared in the days of Hezekiah and Jehoiakim.

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Jeremiah 27. Jeremiah’s message now is to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. As the object lesson to accompany the message, Jeremiah was to make and wear a wooden yoke on his neck.

The message from the Creator of earth and everything in it, “I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, MY SERVANT, (in that he serves God’s plans).  All the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his grandson until the time of his own land comes. Then, many nations and great kings shall make him their slave. 

BUT if any nation or kingdom will NOT serve this Nebuchadnezzar and put its neck UNDER THE YOKE OF THE KING OF BABYLON, I will punish that nation with sword, famine, and pestilence.”   

“But any nation that WILL bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land to work it and dwell there,” declares the LORD.

Then Jeremiah warns the people of Judah and Jerusalem not to listen to false prophets and priests but to submit to Nebuchadnezzar’s yoke.  God promises to bring back the vessels of the House of the Lord when He brings back the exiles…in 70 years. (One year for every Sabbath year they did not honor.)

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Jeremiah 28. In that same year when Zedekiah (the last king to reign), the false prophet, Hananiah spoke against what Jeremiah said, saying instead that the LORD would break the yoke of Babylon and bring back the people in TWO YEARS.  To illustrate his false prophecy, he went to Jeremiah, took the yoke off his neck, and broke it.  

Soon after Jeremiah went to Hananiah with this word from the LORD, “You have broken wooden bars, but you have made in their place bars of iron. I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar, and they shall serve him.”

“Furthermore, listen Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a LIE. Therefore, behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the LORD.”

Hananiah died in the seventh month.

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Jeremiah 29. Then Jeremiah sends a letter to the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with King Jehoiachin, the queen mother, and all the officials and craftsmen. 

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem.…

” Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
“When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

Jeremiah 29:5-14

But to those who refused to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar, the LORD said…

“Behold I’m sending on them sword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like vile figs that are so rotten they cannot be eaten. I will pursue them with sword, famine, and pestilence and will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, a terror, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them because they did not pay attention to my words.”

The LORD trashes the lying words of the false prophets Ahab and Zedekiah. Then the king of Babylon “roasts them in the fire!!!” God also curses the false prophet Shemaiah, and all his descendants, none of whom will see the return from exile…. for speaking “rebellion against the LORD.”

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, days 224 and 225

Aug12

    Day 224 & 225—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of the book of Jeremiah

NOTE: Sundays and Mondays are posted together.

    Day 224 – Jeremiah 18 – 22 (potter & clay, broken flask, Jeremiah persecuted, Nebuchadnezzar, Sons of David & Josiah, )

Jeremiah 18 continues with the inevitable destruction of Judah/Jerusalem, this time with the illustration of the potter and the clam (Isaiah used this three times.). Shaping, re-shaping, and destroying pots is what the potter and what God does… as it seems good to them. 

When the people plot against Jeremiah for his counsel, the prophet prays to God.

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Jeremiah 19. Jeremiah again goes to the potter to buy a flask. He’s to take the elders of the people and the priests and go to the Valley of Hinnom. He is to proclaim God’s disaster on Jerusalem and its people because of “the blood of the innocents”, the sons burned as offerings to Baal. He is to tell them of the bodies of their own sons and daughters in that “Valley of Slaughter” and then break the flask in the sight of the men.  “So I will break this people and this city, so that it can never be mended.”

(NOTE: The place, Topheth (drums) mentioned here, is another name for the valley of Hinnom or the Valley of Slaughter, where, when the children were burned as sacrifices to Baal, drums were beaten loudly to drown out their screams.)

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Jeremiah 20. After hearing these things, Pashhur, the priest and chief officer in the house of the LORD, persecuted Jeremiah by putting him in stocks. When he was released, Jeremiah proclaimed a curse on Pashhur and his house. They would be taken to Babylon and die there.

Jeremiah laments his calling, saying he is persecuted whenever he speaks the Word of the LORD.  But if he tries to keep in the words, “there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot.”

“O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.”

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Jeremiah 21.  Judah’s last king, Zedekiah, sends Pashhur and Zephaniah to Jeremiah to inquire about Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. “Will God do his wonderful deeds and make this king withdraw from us?”

But the LORD tells Jeremiah a different message. On the contrary, God will not help them fight the Chaldeans but will take their own weapons and fight against Judah Himself, “with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of great pestilence. Afterward, I will give Zedekiah, king of Judah, and all his servants and the people in this city who survive… into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.”

But the merciful God warns the people, “I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. But he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans… shall live. For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good.  It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.”

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In Jeremiah 22, God warns both the king of Judah, and the sons of Josiah (the last four evil kings), “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness.”   And to “Coniah” (Jehoiachin), “I give you into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you shall die.  Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days for NONE of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”

(NOTE: Jehoiachin wasn’t actually childless. This points to the fact that none of his descendants… down to Joseph, the husband of Mary, would ever sit on the throne in Israel.  So then, how can Jesus then be the Messiah?  It was because Joseph was NOT involved in the bloodline of Jesus (as His step-father).  Jesus’s blood right to the throne of David came through Mary from David’s son Nathan (not Solomon), bypassing the curse. See Luke 3:313-32 and Jeremiah 36:30.)

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    Day 225 – Jeremiah 23 – 25 (Promise of the righteous Branch, evil/false leaders of His people, good & bad figs illustration, 70 years of captivity)

Jeremiah 23. God curses the evil leaders (shepherds) who have led his people astray and tells of a time when a Good Shepherd, a Righteous Branch of David’s line will reign as king and deal wisely, 

Jeremiah is heart-sick for all the false prophets and ungodly priests in the land, who, like Sodom and Gomorrah turn the people to evil.  God says to pay no attention to them when they prophesy peace and prosperity, for God WILL bring disaster on them and all who listen to them.  God is EVERYWHERE. He fills the heaven and earth. The false prophets cannot hide from Him.

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Jeremiah 24. After Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem, King “Coniah” (Jehoiachin, grandson of Josiah), his officials, craftsmen, and metal workers, to Babylon, the LORD showed Jeremiah a vision of two baskets of figs. One basket held delicious, good figs, while the other one had very bad, disgusting figs.

God pointed to the good figs as “the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not uproot them. I will give them a heart to know 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.”

As for the stinky, bad figs, God said, “…and so I will treat Zedekiah, (the last) king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land (those last 11 years), and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them.  And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”

(NOTE: These verses quote Deuteronomy 28:25, 37, and are also fulfilled in the history of the long dispersion until Messiah returns.)

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Jeremiah 25 again speaks harsh words by God to the people who “persistently did not listen to Him, or obey his words, but provoked Him to anger.  

God will “devote the cities of Judah and their inhabitants to destruction.” (Think Jericho.)  “This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these peoples shall serve the king of Babylon SEVENTY YEARS. After the seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their iniquity. 

Then the LORD sends (literally?) the prophet Jeremiah with “the cup of God’s wrath to all the nations.  First to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, Egypt, Uz, all the cities of Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, the coastland across the sea; Dedan, Tema, Buz (and all who cut the corners of their hair), Arabia, the mixed tribes of the desert, Zimri, Elam, Media, the north far and near, all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them, Babylon shall drink it.” 

“Behold, I begin to work disaster at the city that is called by my name… I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth.”  Prophesy against them, Jeremiah, “The LORD will roar from on high…. against His fold and against all the inhabitants of the earth.”  ” for the LORD has an indictment against the nations,”   “He is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked will be put to the sword.”

(NOTE: Although against the nations at Jeremiah’s time, this has “end-time” implications and must ultimately be fulfilled in the time of tribulation. (Revelation 6 – 19)

 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 223

Aug10

    Day 223—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy.

    Day 223 – Jeremiah 14 – 17 (Terrible drought, false prophets, no turning back, famine-sword-death, trust & the Sabbath) These chapters reveal the sternness of the Lord, the pleading and depression of Jeremiah, an a glimmer of hope for the obedient.

Jeremiah 14 begins with a dire picture of drought and famine and Jeremiah pleading for God to relent.  ONCE AGAIN, God tells Jeremiah, “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

Jeremiah then points out FALSE prophets who say Judah will not see those things, and God responds, “I did not send them, nor did I command them to speak. They are prophesying a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.” 

The rest of the chapter is either Judah or Jeremiah for Judah pleading for God to relent, even acknowledging their wickedness. They tell God they know the false gods cannot bring rain; only He can!

 

Jeremiah 15.  Here, God responds to their pleading. It’s too little, too late. “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would NOT turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight.”   “I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.”  See 2 Kings 2:2-7, 10-15

Jeremiah is overcome with grief at this and wishes he had not been born.

God reminds him of His promised protection for the remnant of Judah who obeys.

Still,  Jeremiah, in self-pity, asks God not to fail him like a streambed that’s dried up.  God reprimands his prophet for feeling sorry for himself and tells him to repent.  He does, and God promises to protect him.

 

Jeremiah 16.  God tells Jeremiah NOT to take a wife and have children because those who are born then will suffer deadly diseases, perish by the sword, and by famine.  Both great and small shall die in the land. They shall not be buried or lamented.

When the people ask why these predictions, Jeremiah is to say, “Because your fathers have forsaken me and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, AND because YOU have done worse than your fathers.”   ” Therefore, I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and THERE you SHALL SERVE OTHER GODS DAY AND NIGHT, for I will show you no favor.”

HOWEVER….. for the faithful remnant, the LORD promises restoration.  And their deliverance from Babylon will be greater than their former deliverance from Egypt.  And such deliverance will result in Israel never again turning to idols. They will entirely and permanently renounce idolatry.

 

Jeremiah 17. After that vision of hope, the passage turns again to their horrendous sins of idolatry, depending on their own flesh, and dishonesty in gaining wealth.

Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the man who trusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,
whose heart turns away from the LORD."

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

The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
I the LORD search the heart
and test the mind,
to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds."

"Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed,
save me, and I shall be saved,
for you are my praise." (Jeremiah)

Then the LORD tells Jeremiah to go to the gates of Jerusalem, and remind the people of the importance of “keeping the Sabbath Day holy unto Him.”  He tells them the results of their hearing and obeying His words (blessings) or NOT listening and keeping the day holy (destruction). 

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 222

Aug9

    Day 222—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.

    Day 222 – Jeremiah 10 – 13 (Idols & the Living God, Judah breaks covenant, Jeremiah & God, a loincloth)

Jeremiah 10 writes of the stupidity of fashioning your own idols of wood, silver, and gold, of dressing them up and taking them where you go. How foolish! They can neither do good or evil. Unlike the LORD.

There is NONE like Him. He is the true God, He is the living God and the everlasting King. He is the one who formed all things. The LORD of hosts is His name.

 

Jeremiah 11 tells again how God is righteous, caring for His own people and promising them the land of milk and honey if they would but obey His voice. And THEY did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his evil heart.  And so, the LORD is bringing disaster upon them.

Again God tells Jeremiah, “Do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their trouble.”

 

Jeremiah 12. Jeremiah now argues with God about why the wicked still prosper, seeming foolish because he could not see their end and in judging God.  But God reminds him of the invaders coming, overwhelming the land like a flood.  Both the Babylonians and God’s sword of condemnation are the same.

But, God, ever so merciful, says, “After I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again, each to his heritage and each to his land.”   

In His compassion, God even promises the other nations, “And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, “as the LORD lives,” even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.”

 

Jeremiah 13. God gives Jeremiah an object lesson.  He is to go buy a linen loincloth, wear it for a few days, then take it off, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there.  After many days, he was to go and dig it up. But it was spoiled and good for nothing.  God said THIS was His spoiling the “great pride” of Judah, who stubbornly followed their own heart and went after other gods. 

Since a loincloth clung close to a person’s skin, so God made the house of Judah cling to Him that they might be His people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen. 

Then God gives the message, “Hear and give ear; be not proud, for the LORD has spoken. Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness… before your feet stumble on the twilight mountains, and while you look for light, He turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.”

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 221

Aug8

    Day 221—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy (Jeremiah).

    Day 221 – Jeremiah 7 – 9 (God’s ultimatum, the people’s response, & dire results, Jeremiah’s grief for the people & God’s response)

Jeremiah 7.  The “faithless” people of Judah were holding the Temple of the LORD as a kind of “lucky charm,” thinking that as long as they worshiped God in the Temple, they could do whatever abomination they wanted outside the premises.

“Don’t trust in these deceptive words, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD,” to keep you from exile.” No!  God wants heart evidence of repentance.

“Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.”   

“For if you TRULY amend your ways and deeds, if you TRULY execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm…. THEN I will let you dwell in this place.”

However, God knows their hearts.

“Behold you trust in those deceptive words (the Temple, the Temple) to no avail. will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known (all those 10 commandments) and then come and stand before ME in this house 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?“

And then God gives Jeremiah instructions concerning them. “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.”

Wow, that is truly serious for God to tell him that there are people beyond prayer.

Jeremiah 8. The LORD tells His prophet that the land of Judah will be covered with their bones like dung. And death shall be preferred to life for all the Remnant that remains. Then Jeremiah mourns the unrepentance of the people of Judah.

“Why has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding…they refuse to return.”

“I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why, then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? 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.”

Jeremiah 9. The “weeping prophet” continues to mourn for the people and the land that will be desolate and destroyed. “I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste…”

“WHY???” asks the sorrowful prophet, and God answers.

“Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals,”

And so, God says He will feed them with bitter food and give them poisonous water and scatter them among the nations and send the sword after them till they are consumed. I will punish ALL those who are circumcised merely in the flesh — all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”

EXTRA: Read God’s words in 9:23-24 about what a person should be boasting about, and compare with how Paul uses this in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31