Tag Archive | bible-study

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 246

Sep3

Day 246 – Reading EZEKIEL – 23 – 24

Read the Scriptures.  Meditate on what the prophets were saying.

Ezekiel 23.

This chapter about two sisters is a metaphor for Samaria, the capital of Israel, and Jerusalem, the capital of Judah.  Oholah represents Samaria, and Oholibah represents Jerusalem.  Both are presented as lewd and unrepentant prostitutes, decked and adorned like royalty by their paramours.  Both began as belonging to God, but proved unfaithful.

Oholah’s “lovers” were the Assyrians, warriors, governors, and commanders, all desirable men riding on horses. These betrayed her, took her sons and daughters, and killed her.

Oholibah observed her “sister’s” downfall and became more corrupt. Assyrian governors, commanders, warriors in full armor, horsemen, all desirable young men.  And Chaldean officers portrayed in vermillion, wearing belts and turbans.  All came to her and defiled her. And she lusted even more.

God says, He turned from her in disgust as He had with her sister. Yet she increased her evil, and played the whore with Egypt.

And so God turned her “lovers” against her, the Babylonians and Chaldeans, who would cut off her nose and ears, and even slay her.

  • “You shall drink your sister’s  cup that is deep and large;
  • You shall be laughed at and held in derision, for it contains much;
  • You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow.
  • A cup of horror and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria;
  • You shall drink it and drain it out.”

God told Ezekiel to judge the sisters.  “Declare their abominations for they have committed adultery with their idols and have offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me.”

“Bring up a vast host against her and make her an abject of terror and plunder!”

“Thus I will put an end to lewdness in the land, and ALL WOMEN may take warning and not commit lewdness as you have done. 

“You shall bear the penalty for your sinful idolatry, and you shall KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD GOD.”

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Ezekiel 24.

IN THE NINETH YEAR, IN THE TENTH MONTH, ON THE TENTH DAY OF THE MONTH, “This very day, the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem,” said the LORD.

Even though Ezekiel and the exiles were 900 miles away, he knew what was happening in real time in Judah.  The great city and the magnificent, adored Temple of God were under attack.  RIGHT THEN!  And like a war correspondent on the scene, Ezekiel was to write it down and describe it.

  • Set a pot on the fire.
  • Pour in the water.
  • Put in good pieces of meat.
  • Fill it with choice bones. 
  • Pile logs under it.
  • Boil it well.
  • Seethe its bones.”

“Woe to the bloody city, says the LORD, to the pot whose corrosion is in it.  Woe to the bloody city, says the LORD. Heap on logs, kindle the fire, boil the meat well, mix in the spices, and let the bones be burned up! Then set the pot on the coals that it may become hot, and its copper may burn, that its uncleanness may be melted in it, its corrosion consumed.”

“You shall not be cleansed anymore till I have satisfied my fury upon you. I am the LORD. I have spoken; it shall come to pass. I will do it. I will not go back. I will not spare. I will not relent. According to your ways and your deeds, you will be judged, declares the Lord GOD.

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And then, the news came to Ezekiel, so he could identify with the LORD losing Jerusalem.  “I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke.”  And that evening, Ezekiel’s wife died.  WOW.

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Ezekiel was not allowed to mourn or weep or let tears flow in public.  He could only sigh softly and not eat.

When the people in exile asked what this meant, he gave them God’s words.

“Behold, I will profane my sanctuary — the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul — and your sons and daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword.  And … you shall NOT mourn or weep.  When the time comes, then you will KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD GOD.” (When the messenger (a fugitive) comes with the news.)

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What a prophet Ezekiel was! His own life and peculiar actions had represented many things that would happen to Israel.  But to lose his wife, to experience the grief of sudden loss, must have been hardest of all.  And yet to portray God’s grief to the nation in exile was needful. And Ezekiel did what God said.

 (**** O LORD, I don’t know if I could be as dedicated and obedient to Your words as Ezekiel!  But I remember Jesus’ words, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and  follow me.”  (Matthew 16:24.)

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 245

Sep2

Day 245 – Reading – EZEKIEL 21 – 22

Read today’s Scriptures. Meditate on what the prophets were saying.

Ezekiel 21.

It is getting close to that time of Jerusalem’s fall and ruin, and God tells Ezekiel urgently to preach to the exiles in Babylon with him, and prophesy against the land of Israel.  God says,

  • “Behold I am against you and will draw my sword from its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked. Therefore my sward shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from south to north, and all flesh SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD. I have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again.”

Then he tells Ezekiel to GROAN with breaking heart and bitter grief.  “GROAN before their eyes.  And when they ask why you groan, say, “Because of the news that is coming.”

Every heart will melt, and all hands will be feeble; every spirit will faint and all knees will be weak as water.

BEHOLD, IT IS COMING!  Cry out and wail, O son of man, for the sharpened and polished sword is to be given to the hand of the slayer. Then God gives a picture of the flashing sword cutting left and right and reveals that the glittering, flashing, deadly sword is none other than the King of Babylon in the hand of God.  And Zedekiah, the profane and wicked “prince” (not king) of Israel, will be dethroned.  His day has come!

“Ruin, ruin, ruin,”

This must have been a totally freaky-scary message for the exiles!

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Ezekiel 22.

God asks Ezekiel (son of man) to judge the bloody city (Jerusalem), and declare aloud all her “abominations.” And he does.  

  1. Princes of Israel have been bent on shedding blood.
  2. Father and mother are treated with contempt;
  3. Sojourners suffer extortion,
  4. Fatherless and widows are wronged.
  5. They despised God’s holy things,
  6. Profaned God’s Sabbaths
  7. They slander to shed blood,
  8. Eat on the mountains (worshipping idols)
  9. Commit lewdness.
  10. Men uncover their father’s nakedness
  11. Violate women who are unclean
  12. Commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife
  13. Violates his sister
  14. Lewdly violates his sister-in-law,
  15. Take bribes to shed blood
  16. Take interest and profit,
  17. Make gain by extortion,
  18. And forgotten ME, their God.
  19. Her prophets have conspired to get rich
  20. Her priests have done violence to God’s law and profaned holy things
  21. Her princes are wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives for gain,
  22. Extortion,
  23. Robbery,
  24. Oppression of the poor and needy.

God said, “I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it.

“BUT I FOUND NONE.  Therefore I have returned their way upon their heads.”

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Another heart-wrenching two chapters!  I shutter at God’s anger. It is fully justified, but it is a horrible thing.  He is so good and does good to his people, but they (we?) turn their backs on Him and do all they can to defile themselves and insult Him. It’s like a fist (or a finger) in His face!  He is a God of mercy, but He is also a HOLY God, and there comes a time when He says,, “ENOUGH!”

I wonder if He has reaching that point today!

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 241

Aug29

Day 241 – Reading Ezekiel 9 – 12

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

Ezekiel 9.

If you remember, in chapter 8, God had just finished showing Ezekiel all the abominations in the Temple, and the pagan worship that had been established right at the door of God’s dwelling place. Ezekiel is horrified, and God is at the end of His patience. In this chapter, He calls for the nearest heavenly EXECUTORS, each with a destroying weapon in his hand.  Six of these fearsome men appear with their weapons of slaughter in their hands.

With these killers is a man, in linen, with only “a writing case.”  To this man, God said,

  • “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.”

The man left to obey.  And then to the six “hulks,” God says,

  • “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity.  Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women…. BUT touch NO ONE on whom is the mark.  Begin here at my sanctuary.”  

They began their gory duty with those 25 men facing the east and worshiping the sun, their backs to the Holy Sanctuary of God. 

Then the killers went out into the city, killing all they met, except those marked by the Man.

Ezekiel is aghast! “Will You destroy ALL the remnant of Israel in Jerusalem??“

God explains that the people’s GUILT is exceedingly great. 

  • “The land is FULL of blood, and the city is FULL of injustice. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity.”

Then the “man clothed in linen with the writing case” (possibly the pre-incarnate Jesus) returned to report that he had finished the task,

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Ezekiel 10.

Ezekiel then noticed the awesome, holy “chariot” with the cherubim and wheels.  God told the man in linen to go “among the wheels, under the Cherubim,” and fill his hands with the burning coals found there. He was to take them then, and scatter them over the city.

Other Cherubim  were standing on the south side of the Temple. When the man went between the wheels, these other Cherubim made the inner court and Temple to be filled with the bright cloud of the “glory of the LORD.”  Only the wings of the cherubim could be heard outside the court.  The man in linen got the burning coals and went out.

Then, a heart-wrenching scene, as the Glory of the LORD leaves the temple and then Jerusalem.  

The flaming, roaring “chariot” rose.  The Glory of God left the door of the Temple and stood over the the Cherubim.  The “chariot,” with the glory of the LORD, moved to stand over the Eastern Gate.

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Ezekiel 11.

The Spirit lifted Ezekiel and brought him to the Eastern Gate too.  God pointed out the men below as the officials and princes of Jerusalem “who devise iniquity and give wicked council.”  “Prophesy against them, PROPHESY, O son of man!” the LORD God instructed.

And so Ezekiel did, condemning these men with their false prophesies of being responsible for many deaths in the city.  And as he finished, one of the official men dropped down dead. Right then.  And Ezekiel feared the whole city was about to die. “Ah, Lord God!” cried Ezekiel.. “Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”

Then…. God reveals His plans. No, he will not completely destroy the remnant of Israel. 

  • “Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, YET… I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they’ve gone. 
  •  I will gather them and assemble them, and I will give them the land of Israel.  And when they come, they will remove the detestable things and the abominations. 
  • And I will give them one heart and a new spirit.  I will remove the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes to obey them.
  • They shall be my people and I will be their God.”

Then the Cherubim lifted up the flaming “chariot” and the glory of the God of Israel was over it.  The glory of the LORD went up from the city and stood on the mountain East of the city.

The Glory of the LORD had gone from the temple, Jerusalem, and Judah, then to Chaldea, where His people were.

And the Spirit carried Ezekiel back to the exiles and he told them everything he had seen.

(This is really a sorrowful scene to me.  God had dwelt with His people since they exited Egypt, in that brilliant cloud and fiery pillar, and then, when the Tabernacle and Temple were built, God had the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies, as “His footstool.” But now, He was gone from His Temple and His City.  O, what destruction was left for the people remaining!)   

(This reminds me of the end times when antichrist will rule and fool all the people (almost the very elect too!). But his real evil will come when “that which restrains” is removed. (The Holy Spirit in believers at the rapture.) When God departs.) (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12.)

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Ezekiel 12.

Again, Ezekiel was to perform another “object lesson” for the exiles.  He was to prepare “an exile’s baggage” and pretend to go into exile by day in their sight.  At night he was to go to another place, like an exile sneaking out at night.  At one point, he was even to dig through a wall and pull out his baggage in their sight. 

So he did this. (What an actor, Ezekiel was!) 

If the people asked what he was doing, he would explain what was happening in Jerusalem.  AND  explain how Prince Zedekiah had tried to sneak out, too.  He even pointed to the fact that Zedekiah would not see Babylon because he’d had his eyes put out. 

(NOTE: Ezekiel calls Zedekiah “Prince,” because he believed the “real king” was already in Babylon, King Jehoiachin, who had been taken when Ezekiel was taken.)

Then the LORD tells Ezekiel to speak against a  PROVERB” that is going around, saying, “The days have grown long, and every vision comes to nothing.”

In other words, they don’t believe what God and Ezekiel are saying about the total destruction of the city and Temple. They thought and were preaching that the “vision of destruction” was FAR OFF.

(It’s like what people were saying in 2 Peter 3:3-4, “knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days, with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning….’.”)  But they, like the people of Ezekiel’s time, didn’t KNOW God.

God was shortly going to put an end to that proverb. He was going to speak the word, and it WILL be performed.

“That they will KNOW that I am the LORD.”

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(So much to learn and apply in this book! Ezekiel’s obedience is one thing that stands out to me.  Whatever he is asked to do… Ezekiel does it … without question.) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 240

Aug28

Day 240 – Reading Ezekiel 5 – 8

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

Ezekiel 5.

Ezekiel – at God’s instruction – is to now shave off his hair and beard (a disgrace to a Jew) WITH A BATTLE SWORD! Whoa! Then he is to weigh it and divide it into three parts.  One third is to be burned in the fire, another part would be chopped with the sword, and the last third would be scattered to the wind. 

These actions were to represent: FIRE – plague and famine, SWORD – killed outright by the enemy, and WIND – being scattered throughout the nations. (And with this group, the LORD would also send a sword to slash some. 

Ezekiel was also to keep out a small part and put it in his pocket. And even from this small part, he was to throw a few into the fire to be burned. 

It sounds confusing, but these were to be the destinies of the horribly sinful people of the holy God.  The extent of Israel’s sins was:  rejecting God’s rules and statutes, doing wickedness MORE than the other nations. They had not even acted according to the laws of the nations around them!  AND, they had DEFILED GOD’S SANCTUARY with all their detestable things and abominations. 

“Therefore, I will withdraw (from them). My eye will not spare. I will have no pity. I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. 

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

  • “I will bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread.
  • I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children.
  • Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you.
  • I AM the LORD; I have spoken.”

. Ezekiel 6.

Again, the Word of the LORD came to Ezekiel. “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.” 

And God went on to tell of his “curses” against the altars, pillars, and the high places where His people had worshiped other gods. 

  • He would lay their dead bodies before the idols, and scatter their bones around their altars. 
  • All the high places will be ruined; the altars wasted, the idols broken and destroyed, the incense altars cut down, and all their works wiped out.

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

When the few that survive and are scattered to other nations remember how their God was “broken over their whoring hearts, they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they committed. 

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

“The house of Israel shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. He who is FAR OFF shall die of pestilence, and he who is NEAR shall fall by the sword, and he who is LEFT and PRESERVED shall die of famine.  In this way, I will send my fury upon them!”

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

“When their slain shall lie among their idols and around their altars, wherever they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols, I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate.”

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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Ezekiel 7.

Again the word of the LORD came to the prophet, and he wrote it down. 

  • “Thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel.
  • An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. NOW the end is upon you, and I will send my anger against you,
  • I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations.”

“And you shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

  • Disaster after disaster!
  • Behold, it comes. An end has come, the end has come; it has awakened against you.
  • Behold, it comes.
  • Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land.
  • I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst.”

“And you shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

  • “Your doom has come; the rod has blossomed; pride has budded. Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness. 
  • None shall remain, not their abundance, not their wealth, not their preeminence.  My wrath is upon all their multitude.
  • The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within.
  • They cast their silver into the streets; their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them on the Day of Wrath.
  • They will seek peace, but there shall be none. 
  • They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law perishes from the priests. 
  • I will judge them….

“And they shall KNOW that I am the LORD”

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Ezekiel 8.

Then one day, 18 months later, while Ezekiel was sitting in his house talking with the elders of Judah, the hand of the Lord God fell upon him.  He looked, and there was that appearance of God, brilliant, gleaming like metal, bright. 

God’s hand reached out and took Ezekiel by the hair. (Had it grown back in?)  And the Spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven and brought him in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the court before the Temple.

“Son of man, look toward the north. Do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that Israel is committing here, to drive me far from MY SANCTUARY?

Ezekiel looked and, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was a great pagan idol, with the people sacrificing and worshiping it.

At God’s word, Ezekiel then dug through a portion of the wall into the court and, at God’s direction, saw engraved on the inside wall all around every form of creeping things, loathsome beasts, and idols.   And worst of all, the 70 elders of Israel stood before them with censers, and a cloud of incense went up.

God then took Ezekiel to the entrance gate of the Temple. There, he saw women weeping before the idol Tammuz.

  • Next, in the inner court of the Temple, between the porch and the altar was THE CROWNING INSULT TO GOD!  There, 25 men, with their backs to the Temple of God, where His Presence dwelt, were facing the east and worshiping THE SUN.

“Have you seen this, O son of man?

Therefore, I will act in wrath.

Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I WILL NOT HEAR THEM.

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Ezekiel, who was preparing to be a priest, would have been horrified too, at this sight. 

(As for us, for me, how horrified am I to hear the Name of God or Jesus insulted?  When I see pagan centers of worship, how affronted am I for my Lord?   O LORD God, forgive us, forgive me. Turn my heart my face, and my adoration towards YOU alone!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Days 236 & 237

Aug25

NOTE: Sunday and Monday studies are posted on Mondays.

Day 236 – Reading – Jeremiah 51 – 52

Day 237 – Reading – Lamentations 1 – 2

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

Day 236 – Jeremiah 51.

Yes, I’ve learned, this is one of the longest chapters in the Bible!  It ends with, “Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I AM bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.  Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.”

Even though we read of the fall and destruction of Babylon in chapter 50, this one goes over it again. And even as the destruction of Babylon, Judah’s fierce captors, nears their end, God encourages His people. “For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts…”

“Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; wail for her.  (This speaks of the Babylon that captured Judah, but it also has echoes of the Babylon in Revelation 18, the Great, wicked Babylon that will also fall to the joy of heaven.

Jeremiah even names the nations that will conquer Babylon in verse 11. “The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it — for that is the vengeance of the LORD, the VENGEANCE FOR HIS TEMPLE.”

“I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for ALL THE EVIL THEY HAVE DONE IN ZION, declares the LORD.”

There are many hints at how the Medes/Persians will attack the “unapproachable” Babylon and conquer it.  The inhabitants will be drunk (Belshazzar’s party), the river Euphrates diverted, and the moat dried up, so attacking soldiers could go under the wall.  Then, like Babylon did to Jerusalem, the tall and mighty walls will come down, and the gates will be burned.  (This happened in Daniel’s time.)

The last couple of paragraphs tell how Jeremiah gave this “book of all the disaster that should come on Babylon,” to Seraiah when he was taken captive to Babylon with the blinded King Zedekiah. 

Jeremiah’s instructions were to “Read all these words, and say, ‘O LORD, You have said concerning this place that you will cut it off, so that nothing shall dwell in it, neither man nor beast, and it shall be desolate forever.'”  

Then, when he was finished reading it, he was to tie a stone onto the scroll and throw it into the Euphrates River and say, “Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I AM bring upon her, and they shall become exhausted.”

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

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Jeremiah 52.

This last chapter is a recap of the fall of Jerusalem.  It was so vital that the account is told FOUR TIMES in the Old Testament.  Here, Jeremiah 39:1-14, 2 Kings 25, and 2 Chronicles 36:11-21.

The conquerors plundered the magnificent Temple of God that Solomon built, and took the articles to Babylon.  Belshazzar would use some of these at his immoral banquet, gloating over victory that he attributed to his gods. (Daniel 5).  He would die holding one of the golden bowls full of wine … while looking at “the handwriting on the wall” telling his doom.

A count of the people of Judah taken into captivity totaled 4,600. (3,023 in the first round, with Daniel and his friends, 832 in the second round with Ezekiel and King Jehoiachin, and 745 in the third and final round, with King Zedekiah.)   

(TO ME, that seems like a small number. I imagined tens of thousands.  That only means that MANY Jews were killed by “sword, famine, and pestilence” as God had said.

Then…. that last paragraph (verses 31-34) tells of an amazing thing.  Thirty-seven years into the exile, King Jehoiachin was taken out of prison by Evil-merodach. The Babylonian king graciously freed him, spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings that were with him in Babylon.  WOW!!!

“So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life, he dined regularly at the king’s table.  His allowance was given to him by the king regularly according to his daily needs … until the day he died.

WHAT??  Why such grace shown to this captive king?  In Judah, he was one of the “evil” kings who did evil in the sight of the LORD.  BUT.  He obeyed in one point.  When God told His people through Jeremiah that they would be kept alive and treated well in Babylon …IF THEY SURRENDERED TO THE INVADING KING AND WENT PEACEABLY, only King Jehoiachin (18 years old) listened and obeyed. (See 2 Kings 24:11-12) It was 37 years, but God honored that promise. 

He always does. 

And it was through King Jehoiachin, a descendant of King David, that Jesus’ step-father, Joseph, descended, giving Jesus the “legal” right to the throne of David. (Matthew 1:12-16)

Hey, obedience matters with God, no matter the sinful life you may have lived before.

(Lord, thank you for this good lesson in my own life. Thank you for showing me the importance of obedience to your Word is. Help me to always choose to obey.)

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Day 237 – Lamentations 1.

  • The verses in these chapters are written in acrostic style, meaning the first letter of each verse begins with the next letter of the alphabet. (a-b-c-d etc.)  There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Chapter three, has three verses for each letter (aaa-bbb-ccc-ddd. etc.)  Of course you can’t see this in an English Bible.)

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Lamentation = loud cries of dismay.   

The entire book of Lamentations is a distressful dirge, marking the funeral of the once beautiful city of Jerusalem.  (Lam. 2:15) “Jerusalem; is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the earth?”

This book keeps alive the memory of the fall of Jerusalem and teaches believers how to handle suffering. Although not stated, Jeremiah is the author.  He was an eyewitness to Jerusalem’s fall. Jeremiah wrote it soon after the city and then the Temple fell, before his forced departure to Egypt. 

This book is read in Jewish synagogues to this day, on the 9th of AB (July/August) to remember the date of Nebuchadnezzar’s destruction of the Temple. (Interestingly, it is also the exact date of the destruction of Herod’s temple by the Romans in A.D. 70. So lamentations of both are read aloud.)

  • 1:1 – “How lonely sits the city that was full of people,”
  • 1:4 – “The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival; all her gates are desolate;
  • 1:5b – “the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions;
  • 1:7 – “Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and wandering all the precious things that were hers from days of old.
  • 1:8 – “Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she has become filthy;
  • 1:9b – “O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!
  • 1:10 – “she has see the nations enter her sanctuary, those whom You forbade to enter…
  • 1:18 – The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against His word;
  • 1:20b – I have been very rebellious…

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Lamentations 2.

  • 2:1 – “How the LORD in His anger has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud! He has cast down from heaven to earth, the splendor of Israel; He has not remembered Hos footstool in the day of His anger.
  • 2:3 – “He has cast down in fierce anger all the might of Israel; He has withdrawn from them His right hand in the face of the enemy;
  • 2:7 – “The LORD has scorned His alter, disowned His sanctuary; He has delivered into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces;
  • 2:9 – “Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has ruined and broken her bars; her king and princes are among the nations; the law is no more; and her prophets find no vision from the LORD.
  • 2:14 – “O daughter of Jerusalem… O virgin daughter of Zion...” “Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity…  but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading.
  • 2:19-21 – “Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to Him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.  LOOK, O LORD, and see!  Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?  In the dust of the streets lie the young and old; my young women and my young me have fallen by the sword; You have killed them in the day of Your anger, slaughtering with out pity.

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 (We may hate to read this, hate to see the anger of the LORD in such gruesome details, but such is the hatred and wrath of the LORD for those who forsake HIM, the Living God, and worship man-made  idols. Over and over and over, He pleaded with them to turn from their wicked ways and come back to him. He would forgive, He promised. He would restore, He promised.  But they would not.  And so….)

 

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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)

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(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, Day 232

Aug20

Day 232 – Reading – Habakkuk 1 – 3

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

Habakkuk 1.

This guy prophesied just before the coming of Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldean army.  Good King Josiah had just died, and the prophet was seeing evil seep back into Judah through kings Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim and the wealthy. And now… the rumors of the approaching Babylonian army!

Habakkuk doesn’t speak “TO” the growing-more-wicked people & leaders of Judah, but his statements and complaints are laments TO GOD.  WHY hasn’t He punished these kings and the people???  Why will He let these cruel pagans devour His own people?

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Have you ever ranted against God for His seeming to ignore the injustice around you? Especially if it’s against YOU or a LOVED ONE?  Habakkuk does.

  • O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to You, “violence!” and you will not save?
  • Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.
  • So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous: so justice goes forth perverted.”

God answers Habakkuk’s rant. He was sending … NOT REVIVAL … but the dreaded and fearsome judgment.

  • “Behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.
  • They are dreaded and fearsome….  They all come for violence….. They gather captives like sand.
  • They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it. Then they sweep by like the wind and go on…. their own might is their god!

Habakkuk is aghast!  NO!, he cries.

  • “Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my HOLY One? 
  • You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, WHY do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he??

Pretty brave, is our prophet, Habakkuk!

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Habakkuk 2.

Habakkuk really wants to know the answer to his “why?”.  He says he will – like Ezekiel (3:33) will go up on the wall of Jerusalem, and be as a watchman.  Habakkuk will wait and “see what He will say to me … and what I will answer.”

Habakkuk was to write down on a tablet the VISION God was going to give to him. But He cautions Habakkuk, “If it seems slow in coming, wait for it; it will surely come and not delay.” Then he speaks of the Chaldeans, and their fall to the Medes & Persians.

  • “HIS SOUL is puffed up, it is not upright within him, (but the righteous shall live by his faith.) 
  • Wine is a traitor, an arrogant man who is never at rest. 
  • His greed is as wide as Sheol; like death, he has never enough. He gathers FOR HIMSELF all nations and collects AS HIS OWN all peoples.
  • Woe to him who heaps up what is not his own…. 
  • Will not YOUR debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble?  Then YOU will be spoil for THEM… 
  • Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house …
  • Woe to him who builds a town with blood…
  • Woe to him who makes his neighbors drink and get drunk — in order to gaze at their nakedness…
  • Woe to him who says to a wooded think, Awake! and to a silent stone, Arise!…

And then God’s slight reprimand…  “But the LORD is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!

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Habakkuk 3.

Our prophet seems rebuked.  His tone has changed. Now he switches from judgment on his fellow Judahites, to … mercy for them.

  • O LORD, I have heard the report of You, and Your work, O LORD, do I fear.  In wrath … remember MERCY.

He recalls all the mighty works God has done, and then, it seems the TRUTH hits him.  Whatever comes at HIS HAND, will for His people’s good, and His glory. They must experience judgment at the hands of evil men, but God will “take care” of them one day.

  • “Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.

And this glorious statement of TRUST, no matter what the circumstances.

  • “Though the fig tree should not blossom, 
  • nor fruit be on the vines,
  • the produce of the olive fall
  • and the fields yield no food,
  • the flock be cut off from the fold
  • and there be no heard 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.”

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WOW. This is a reminder to me.  Though the politics of my time, and the wonton actions of the people of this country make me want to plead for judgment …  I am thankful for God’s mercy and patience.  And I pray that as I wait for His Coming, I will be able to pray, or sing, this last refrain of Habakkuk’s. “Though the worst may happen, I will rejoice in the LORD.  He is my strength.

 

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.

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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.

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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.)

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(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 226

Aug14

Day 226 – Reading – Jeremiah 26 – 29

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

Jeremiah 26.

Okay, here’s where the chronological timeline gets a bit confused. (The notes and prophesies of Jeremiah were assembled by Baruch, Jeremiah’s assistant, whom we’ll learn about later. They are sometimes out of order.)

The happenings and words of THIS chapter would have been earlier than chapter 25  and way before chapter 24 (Babylon’s first and second deportations of Judeans).   This is when Jeremiah said that God would send for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, against Judah and Jerusalem.

Here, Jeremiah is speaking to them urgently, that Jerusalem WILL become ruins and a curse.   But the religious leaders “poo-pooed” his words and said that Jeremiah should be killed as a false prophet. 

At that time, the LORD still held out a hope, saying that IF the people would repent and obey His Voice … He would relent of the disaster coming.  

The priests and prophets didn’t like what they heard and decided to kill Jeremiah.  BUT … the leading officials of the city came to his rescue, stating that a former prophet had told of Jerusalem’s destruction in the past, and King Hezekiah had not killed him.  Ahikam, a civil leader under Josiah, used his position to free Jeremiah..

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Jeremiah 27.

This chapter is after Nebuchadnezzar’s second deportation of Judeans.  Zedekiah, the final son and king of Judah, is on the throne.  His nephew, Jehoiachin, who had reigned before him, had surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar and been taken into captivity in the second deportation. (He will be the only one of King Josiah’s sons (David’s line) to survive, and later prosper there.)

(NOTE: Daniel was taken in the first deportation to Babylon; Ezekiel went in the second deportation along with Jehoiachin.)

God again tells Jeremiah to give the people an OBJECT LESSON.   He is to take a yoke (used by oxen to pull plows and carts) with the straps, and put them on HIMSELF.  He is to send word to Zedekiah, as well as the kings of the surrounding nations under Nebuchadnezzar’s rule, to come to Jerusalem for his message from God.

The message? 

  • “I, by My great power and outstretched arm, have made the earth, with the men and animals on it, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me.  NOW, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, “my servant.”  All of (you) nations shall serve HIM, HIS SON, and HIS GRANDSON, until the time of his end.
  • “But if any nation will NOT serve this Nebuchadnezzar, and put its neck under the yoke of this king … I will punish that nation with sword, famine, and pestilence.. So don’t listen to the “false voices” that say not to serve him.  IT IS A LIE!
  • And to King Zedekiah of Judah, specifically, ‘Bring your neck under the yoke of this king of Babylon and serve him and his people … AND LIVE.

Then Jeremiah spoke to the priests and people.  “Do not listen to the words of your false prophets who say the vessels of the LORD’s house will shortly be returned.  It’s a lie! Do not listen to THEM.  Serve the king of Babylon … and LIVE.  As for the taken vessels … the rest will be taken by Babylon, there to remain until I (the LORD) bring them back and restore them to this place.”

*

(WOW. Those are amazing words. Serve your evil captors.  Why?  Because, for a specific time, they are “servants of God,” designated for your discipline. Submit to the will of the LORD for a time, and LIVE. 

So… why don’t I also obey and submit to the hard times that God uses to discipline ME, and learn from them, and live?  In His time, God will make all things good.)

*

Jeremiah 28.

In that same year that Jeremiah did the “yoke” object lesson, there arose a FALSE PROPHET, named Hananiah.  THIS prophet (speaking falsely for God) said, “The yoke” of Babylon would be broken in two years (instead of 70), and the vessels taken would be brought back to the Temple. AND … King Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) and all the exiles who went to Babylon would also be brought back.”

Jeremiah answered facetiously. “Amen! May the LORD do so. May the LORD make the words you prophesied come true!”  HA! 

Then Jeremiah called him a false prophet along with all prophets who said PEACE, when there was NO PEACE.

But Hananiah took the yoke from around Jeremiah’s neck and broke it.  “Thus will the LORD break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar from the neck of all the nations … IN TWO YEARS!”  Then he left.

WHOA!  A battle of the prophets!

God told Jeremiah to go to Hananiah and tell him he MAY have broken the wooden yoke, but God is putting an IRON YOKE on the nations, and he will not break that.  And because Hananiah made the people trust in his false words and made the people rebel against the LORD … “This year you shall die.”

In that same year … Hananiah died. 

WHOA. So there, you false prophet!

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Jeremiah 29.

Then Jeremiah sent a letter to all the surviving elders of the exiles and the priests, prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem to Babylon (in the second deportation).  It said…

  • “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile:  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; 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. 
  • “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD.
  • “For thus says the LORD: 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, declares the LORD, 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 in exile.

 

 

 

 

     

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.”

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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

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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.)