Tag Archive | Jeremiah

Journaling through the Bible Chronologically in 2025, Day 219

Aug7

Day 219 – Reading – Jeremiah 1 – 3

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

Jeremiah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Jeremiah 1.

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

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

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

Okay, Jeremiah. No excuse now.

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

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

WOW! Jeremiah was “royally” armored and commissioned.

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Jeremiah 2.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Jeremiah 3.

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

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

And yet, the LORD proclaims to Israel,

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

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

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

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

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

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

or be remembered,

or missed;

and it shall not be made again.” 

WOW!

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

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

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

2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, days 238 and 239

Aug26

    Day 238 & 239—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Lamentations about the destruction of their land.  And the beginning of the book of Ezekiel.

NOTE: Sundays and Mondays are posted together.

    Day 238 – Lamentations 3 – 5 (more acrostics in chapters 3 & 4 of sorrow and hope, a prayer)

Lamentations 3 is also an acrostic of the 22-character Hebrew alphabet but with 3 verses per letter. In the middle of his wailing about affliction and horror (of himself and Judah)…Jeremiah turns to God’s faithfulness.

“I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath.”  “He has broken my bones.”   He has made me dwell in darkness like the dead;”  “He has made my chains heavy;”   “He has made me desolate;”   ” Though I call and cry for help, He shuts out my prayer;”   ” He has made my paths crooked.”   He has filled me with bitterness;”   “my soul is bereft of peace;”   “I have forgotten what happiness us;”  

3:21-24
"But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope;
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases,
His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness.
The LORD is my portion, says my soul,
therefore I will hope in him.
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
to the soul who seeks Him.

3:31-33
For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
but though He causes grief, He will
have compassion
according to the abundance of His 
steadfast love;
for He does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men.

“Let us test and examine our ways and return to the LORD!  Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven; We have transgressed and rebelled….”

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Lamentations 4.  (another acrostic) Again, the lamentation turns to the destruction of Jerusalem and her People.

“The holy stones lie scattered at the head of every street. The precious sons of Zion, worth their weight in fine gold, how they are regarded as earthen pots…”     “Those who once feasted on delicacies perish in the streets; those brought up in purple embrace ash heaps.”    “Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger…”

“The LORD gave full vent to His wrath; he poured out His hot anger, and He kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations.”

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Lamentations 5 is a (non-acrostic) prayer to God for restoration.

“Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us…”   “Our fathers sinned and are no more, and we bear their iniquities.”     “The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has been turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head; woe to us, for we have sinned!”

“But you, O LORD, reign forever….. restore us to yourself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old…unless…You have utterly rejected us, and you remain exceedingly angry with us. 

(The godly sorrow over sin was the beginning of that restoration.)

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     Ezekiel 1 – 4 (The call & first visions of Ezekiel)

The book of Ezekiel backtracks some from where we finished in Jeremiah. Ezekiel was taken captive in the second siege of Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar took 10K Jews captive along with the surrendered King Jehoiachin. (Daniel was taken in the first invasion 7 years earlier).  Ezekiel was 25 when taken, and God called him at 30 to serve as a prophet. (He would have assumed duties as a priest at that age, before captivity.)  It would be about six more years before Nebuchadnezzar’s final siege and Jerusalem fell and was destroyed.

Ezekiel 1. While Ezekiel sat by a canal in Babylon, God showed him the first of his extraordinary visions. It’s a picture of the Glory of the LORD, and while many have tried to illustrate the vision, it stands as something unseeable and unknowable.  A stormy wind out of the north, a great, bright cloud, and fire flashing continuously with what seemed like gleaming metal in the middle of the fire. (Got that picture?)

Then, the “likeness” (he can’t actually describe it) of four living creatures…human in form, but not really. They had 4 faces and 4 wings. Their legs were straight, with hard callouses on the bottom of their feet. And they sparkled. 

Each had four wings; two went down, covering their hands and bodies. The other two wings were outstretched, tips touching the other creatures’ wings facing out at the four corners. The heads of these creatures each had four faces facing in four directions, human, lion, ox, and eagle.  They could travel straight forward in any direction.  They glowed like burning torches, and lightning shot from them. 

And beside each creature, but not touching it, was a gleaming wheel. They actually looked like a wheel within a wheel. The rims were tall and awesome and had eyes all around them.  (like a giant war machine)

Over the heads of the living creatures was a shining, awe-inspiring crystal platform. When it moved, the wings that covered the creatures’ bodies went into action with the sound of rushing water or the tumult of war.  On that shining, crystal platform was a throne, like a sapphire. Seated on the throne was “a likeness with a human appearance.”  And upward and downward from this being the appearance of gleaming, bright metal on fire. And a bright rainbow all around. 

And Ezekiel concluded this was “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.”  And when he saw it, he fell flat on his face.

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Ezekiel 2 & 3.  God speaks to Ezekiel and commissions him as a prophet.  As God spoke to Ezekiel, the Spirit entered him and stood him on his feet.   “Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to the nations of rebels, who have rebelled against me. Whether they hear or refuse to hear, they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

“Be not afraid of them nor of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. You shall speak my words to them whether they hear or refuse to hear.”

Then the LORD gives Ezekiel a scroll with the words of lamentation, mourning, and woe written on both sides. Ezekiel is to eat it.  He does, and it tastes like honey.  Then God tells him to speak to the exiles of Israel (not Babylon), but they won’t listen to him.  “Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks.”

Then a voice like an earthquake boomed, “BLESSED BE THE GLORY OF THE LORD FROM ITS PLACE.”  Then the roaring of the angel wings and the wheels and the earthquake. And the Spirit lifted up Ezekiel and took him away to the exiles at the Chebar canal and sat him there – silent for seven days.

Then God told Ezekiel how he would be a WATCHMAN FOR ISRAEL.  He was to warn them. If he doesn’t, THEIR blood will be on HIS hands. 

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Ezekiel 4. In this chapter, Ezekiel is to perform a series of “object lessons.”  He first builds a miniature replica of Jerusalem and places siegeworks around it, pressing in. 

Next, he was to assume the role of a scapegoat, be bound with ropes, and lie on his left side facing North 390 days, symbolizing judgment for the number of years of Israel’s sin. Then he was to do the same on his right side for 40 days, symbolizing Judah’s years of sin. 

(Whew, the life of a prophet was very hard!)

















			


	



			
				


	

		
2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 237


					
Aug24
			


	

		
    Day 237—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy/Lamentations.


    Day 237 – Lamentations 1 – 2 (loud cries, mourning the destruction of Jerusalem for unrepentant sins, probably written by Jeremiah. Lamentations 1 & 2 are acrostic poems; each verse begins with a letter of the 22-character Hebrew alphabet)


Lamentations 1. Speaking of the now destroyed and deserted Jerusalem, the City of God. 


“How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she, who was great among the nations! She, who was a princess among the provinces, has become a slave.”     “….because the LORD has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions…”


The vanquished people remember their beloved city for “all the precious things that were hers from days of old.”


The author confesses, “Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore, she became filthy…”     “Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future.”


“…the LORD has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.”


“The LORD is in the right, for I have rebelled against His word;”


“…I have been very rebellious.”




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Lamentations 2.  More of the LORD’s judgments on Judah.





“He has cast down from heaven to earth the splendor of Israel (the temple). He has not remembered His footstool (Ark of the Covenant) in the day of his anger.”





“In His wrath, he has broken down the strongholds (walls) of the daughter of Judah; He has brought down to the ground in dishonor the kingdom and its rulers (kings and princes).  He has cut down in fierce anger all the might (armies) of Israel; He has withdrawn from them His right hand in the face of the enemy.”





“All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem; ‘Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”





And did not the people remember the years that God called to them and warned them by His prophets? Did they not see the early and later warnings? Did they not remember his calling them away from idolatry and filthiness to worship Him, the one true and living God?  Did they not remember even Jeremiah’s warnings about death, famine, and destruction?





“The LORD has done what he purposed; He has carried out His word, which He commanded long ago; He has thrown down without pity; He has made the enemy rejoice over you and exalted the might of your foes.”





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(And may this be a warning to us today as well.)






			


	



			
				


	

		
2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 236


					
Aug23
			


	

		
    Day 236—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.


    Day 236 – Jeremiah 51 – 52 (Judgment on Babylon, Recap of Jerusalem’s fall)


Jeremiah 51. The judgment and destruction of Babylon is continued in this lengthy chapter.


Jeremiah predicts Babylon’s coming destruction even as it still takes captives of the lands around it. THEN, come those encouraging words….“For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the LORD of hosts…”  (Remember that all this was to happen WHILE the exiles of Judah were still in captivity in Babylon. It would have been terrifying to experience except for the words of prophets like Jeremiah, who told them it would happen and that they would not be forsaken by God and would be returned to their land.)


And here’s how it will end for Babylon: “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.”


Verses 20-23 show how God uses Cyrus of Persia (& Medes) as His war club. “You are my hammer and weapon of war: 1) with you I break nations in pieces; 


2) with you, I destroy kingdoms; 


3) with you, I break in pieces the horse and his rider; 


4) with you, I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer; 


5) with you, I break in pieces man and woman; 


6) with you, I break in pieces the old man and the youth; 


7) with you, I break in pieces the young man and the young woman; 


8) with you, I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock, 


9) with you, I break in pieces the farmer and his team; 


10) with you, I break in pieces governors and commanders.   


I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the LORD.”




“Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them shall sing for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers shall come against them from the north, declares the LORD. Babylon must fall for the slain of Israel, just as for Babylon have fallen the slain of all the earth.”





AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER IS A NOTE FROM JEREMIAH.  He wrote in a book all the disasters that would come upon Babylon, and he gave the book to Seraiah when he went with Zedekiah, king of Judah to Babylon.  Jeremiah’s instructions to Seraiah were to read all the words of the book about the disasters that would come to Babylon and how the LORD would eventually–surely–cut them off.   





And when Seraiah finished reading Jeremiah’s book to all the people, he was to tie a stone to it, throw it into the Euphrates River, and say,  “Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her.”





(What encouragement to the wounded, bedraggled captives! Although they must wait 70 years.)





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Jeremiah 52. NOTE THE FINAL ENDS TO THE LAST TWO KINGS IN JUDAH. THEY ARE QUITE DIFFERENT!





This closing chapter recounts the fall of Jerusalem under Zedekiah, the final king of Judah. When Jerusalem’s walls are breached, and the Chaldeans pour into the city, Zedekiah, his family, and his officials escape and make a run to cross the Jordan River.  They are captured in the plains of Jericho, sentenced by Nebuchadnezzar, and all are slaughtered in Zedekiah’s sight. His eyes are then put out, and he is taken to Babylon blind and in chains to rot in prison until he dies.





All in Jerusalem is broken and burned. It’s treasures are carried away, and a few of the very poorest are left to tend the fields. 





Then comes Jeremiah’s paragraph of hope.  It’s about king Jehoiachin, the next-to-the-last king of Judah.  After three months of reign, he listened to Jeremiah’s word from the LORD and SURRENDERED to the Chaldeans.  He was taken captive to Babylon. 





After Nebuchadnezzar died, the next king of Babylon…..





“GRACIOUSLY FREED Jehoiachin and brought him out of prison. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him 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 need, until the day of his death, as long as he lived.”





What a difference in the “ends” of the two last “evil” kings of Judah!  And why?  Because ONE of them–just as evil as the other–obeyed the LORD.

			


	



			
				


	

		
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, day 234


					
Aug21
			


	

		
    Day 234—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.


    Day 234 – Jeremiah 46 – 48 (non-chronological judgments on Egypt, Philistia, and Moab)


Jeremiah 46. God tells about Egypt‘s overthrow by Babylon. Here is a decisive call to get ready for defeat.  “That day is the day of the LORD GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, to avenge himself on his foes. The sword shall devour, and be sated and drink its fill of their blood.” (referring to Egyptian defeat)


God tells of punishment but later relief.  “Behold, I am bringing punishment upon Amon of Thebes, and Pharaoh and Egypt and her gods and her kings, upon Pharaoh and those who trust in him. I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his officers.  Afterward, Egypt shall be inhabited as in the days of old.”


But the Jews who fled to Egypt and then went to Babylon were to “Fear not.” “I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but of you, I will not make a full end.”


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Jeremiah 47. God tells of judgment on the Philistines by the Babylonians at the same time as they conquered Judah.  Later, it seems that Pharoah struck down Gaza before the Egyptians themselves were defeated by Babylon. 


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Jeremiah 48.  The Lord (through Jeremiah) calls down WOE on Moab (east across the Dead Sea from Israel). God’s judgment on Moab was intense. “The destroyer shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape; the valley shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the LORD has spoken.”   All the cities of Moab are to be destroyed “because he magnified himself against the LORD.“


Judgment and hope, even to Moab.  “Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone, for your sons have been taken captive and your daughters into captivity.  Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, declares the LORD.”


 





			


	



			
				


	

		
2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 233


					
Aug20
			


	

		
    Day 233—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading: Israel’s history and Jeremiah’s prophecy.


    Day 233 – Jeremiah 41 – 45. (Gedaliah murdered, Egypt?, Jeremiah kidnapped, Judgment on Egypt, a word to Baruch)


Jeremiah 41. Governor Gedaliah was warned twice that Ishmael (a royal descendant seeking power) was planning to assassinate him. But Gedaliah ignored Johanan’s warning and his open offer to kill Ishmael. (40: 12-16)  


Now Ishmael and his men, while eating dinner with Gedaliah, killed him and all the Judeans who happened to be there. Next, Ishmael slaughtered 70 of the 80 men, bringing grain into the city. He threw all their bodies in a large cistern. He then took all the people and left for Ammon.  Johanan and his men pursued them and got the people back, but Ishmael escaped.  Now, all the people were terrified of the Chaldeans because the Governor whom Nebuchadnezzar had appointed had been murdered. 


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Jeremiah 42. Johanan and his men and all the people came to Jeremiah.  “Let our plea for mercy come before you and pray to the LORD your God for us, for all this remnant–because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us–that the LORD your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” And they promised to do whatever the LORD said.


Jeremiah prayed for ten days.


God said: “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…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.”


Wow. Praise God! What news!!


But God continued… “IF you set your faces to enter EGYPT and go to live there, THEN the sword that you fear shall overtake you there, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and you shall die.”     “Do not go to Egypt. Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day.”


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Jeremiah 43. When Jeremiah finished telling them God’s word, the leaders responded, “You are telling us a lie.”  “You want to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans to kill us or take us to Babylon.”


So all the leaders and all the remnant of Judah did NOT obey the voice of the LORD to stay in the land. The commanders took them — all the people that Captain Nebuzaradan had left with Gedaliah — AND JEREMIAH — and went to Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD.


God’s message to them in Egypt was that now He was sending Nebuchadnezzar to Egypt to strike the land, bring pestilence & sword, and take captives to Babylon. He was also going to burn the temples of the gods of Egypt and break down the obelisks and pagan temples. 


Those disobedient Jews were now “out of the pot” but “into the fire.”


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Jeremiah 44. There, the LORD spoke condemnation to the people through Jeremiah. “They have not humbled themselves even to this day, nor have they feared nor walked in my law and the statutes that I set before you and your fathers.  Behold, I will set my face against you for harm to cut off all Judah.”   


“None of the remnant of Judah who has come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the Land of Judah.”


The LORD even gave them a sign; Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, would be given into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands. (It happened 2 1/2 years later.)


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Jeremiah 45 is a flashback to the time of King Jehoiakim, when Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, was writing the words of Jeremiah in a book by dictation, and then the king burned it.  Baruch was grieving over the “things that might have been” and his own aspirations of fame & glory. Jeremiah told him God’s words for him, “Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not, for behold I am bringing a disaster upon all flesh. But… I will give you your life as a prize of war in all the places to which you may go.”


 


Up next: the LORD’s judgments on the nations, beginning with Egypt. (chapters 46-51)





			


	



			
				


	

		
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 228


					
Aug15
			


	

		
 Day 228—We are in the eighth month of Bible reading, with more of Israel’s history and prophecy from Jeremiah.


    Day 228 – Jeremiah 32 – 34 (Jeremiah buys land, God’s assurance, future promises, everlasting covenant with David, Zedekiah’s heart & actions)


Jeremiah 32.  During the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the LORD told Jeremiah to buy a field in Benjamin.  (Say what?  Right when we are being attacked & carried away??)  But Jeremiah obeyed the voice of the LORD, bought the field, paid for it, signed the deed, and preserved the legal papers.


Then Jeremiah went to the LORD, saying he knew God was powerful, that nothing was too hard for Him, that He had done great and marvelous deeds for Israel, and that He had now brought disaster on His disobedient people and given Jerusalem into the hands of the Chaldeans.  Jeremiah said he KNEW that what God says, comes to pass, but… um… You said to buy a field, though this land is in the hands of the Chaldeans….  (Basically, he is asking God ‘why?”)


And the LORD answered him, “Behold I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? (repeats Jeremiah’s words).  Yes, I’m giving the city into the hands of the Chaldeans.  Yes, it’s because my people have done so wickedly such abominations.


BUT!!!  “I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I WILL BRING THEM BACK TO THIS PLACE to dwell in safely. They shall be my people and I will be their God.”   “Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, 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, and in the cities of Judah.”


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Jeremiah 33.  Then the LORD promises even greater and FUTURE blessings for his people.  “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.”


God promises to bring Jerusalem to health and healing, to prosperity and security. He will restore their fortunes and rebuild them. He will cleanse them of all sin and will forgive them of rebellion.  Jerusalem will become “a name of joy, praise, and glory” to God and before all the nations. 


And, fantastically…. “the days are coming when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. …I will cause a “righteous Branch” to spring up for David, and HE shall execute justice and righteousness.”   “And this is the name by which Jerusalem will be called: “The LORD is our righteousness.”


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Jeremiah 34.  Then comes a chapter about Zedekiah, the final king to rule Judah.  Jeremiah was to tell the king, “I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. You shall not escape from his hand but shall surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face. And you shall go to Babylon.”


For reasons we don’t know but might surmise, King Zedekiah makes a proclamation of covenant with all the people of Jerusalem to set at liberty all their Hebrew male and female slaves. (God’s law was that a Hebrew could only be an indentured servant for 7 years, and at the 7th year, would be freed. But the greedy for wealth and power people had not done that and had kept them in slavery.)


And they obeyed and set them free!  (WOW!!)


BUT…afterward, they turned around and took back the male and female slaves that they had set free and put them into subjection as slaves. (WHAT??)




Then God told them through Jeremiah, “You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes….”    “But then you turned around and profaned my name when you took back the male and female slaves.”    “Therefore…..I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine.”    





“I will give you into the hand of your enemies and to the hand of those who seek your lives.”     “…into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. Behold, I will command and bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it, and burn it with fire.”