Read the Bible in a Year (17AUG19)

DAILY REMINDER – Today, August 17’s Bible reading is Jeremiah 18-22.

NEXT DAY REMINDER – Tomorrow, August 18’s Bible reading is Jeremiah 23-25. May God bless you with the reading of His WORD.

JEREMIAH MOMENT – (17AUG19) Jeremiah had a complaint against the Lord. He had gone to the potter’s house as the Lord commanded and gave Israel the message that He was their Potter and they were the clay in His hands. He was therefore able to do with them as He pleased and could even destroy them for serving foreign gods. Later, the Lord had Jeremiah to purchase a jar from the potter and break it into pieces symbolizing the destruction that He was going to allow at the hands of the Babylonians. This message, however, did not go over well with the priest Pashhur, so he had Jeremiah beaten and imprisoned. Jeremiah, in his moment of distress, says to the Lord, “O Lord, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled. You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me. Now I am mocked every day; everyone laughs at me. When I speak, the words burst out. “Violence and destruction!” I shout. So these messages from the Lord have made me a household joke” (Jeremiah 20:7-8).

Jeremiah was feeling the pressure of being God’s servant. He felt isolated, alone, depressed, rejected, and thought that God did not give him significant warning as to all the trials that he was going to go through. Even so, Jeremiah was unable to keep himself from declaring the Word of the Lord. He said that it was like a fire that was shut up in his bones, which he could not keep quiet about. Jeremiah praised the Lord for His goodness, and yet, he was depressed and discouraged – wishing that he was never born, so that he would not have to suffer as he had. Jeremiah said, “Yet I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth. I curse the messenger who told my father, “Good news—you have a son!” Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb, that her body had been my grave!  Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame” (Jeremiah 20:14-15, 17b-18). His feelings of despair were similar to that of Job’s because they both experienced pain, sorrow, grief, and rejection. Yet, they both had an underlying understanding that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord even before the Apostle Paul ever pinned those words.

     

If many of us were to be honest, we would probably say that we too have had similar moments as Jeremiah did. He was called the “weeping prophet” because he wept over the sins of Israel, and he went through bouts of depression. We see from Jeremiah 20 that he complains to the Lord, praises the Lord, and then become depressed at the thought of his birth. The struggles that come with ministry are not as elaborate as many compromised televangelists and popular pastors would have people to think. When one is proclaiming an unpopular message to the nation concerning judgment, repentance, salvation, and restoration, it is often frowned upon even by those who profess to know God. Even so, we must continue to warn people of what’s to come. Jesus had this to say about those who wanted to be a disciple: “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple. ‘But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it?’ ” (Luke 14:26-28). Unlike Jeremiah, we cannot claim to not know the cost for following Christ. It is all laid out in His Word for us to know that everything will not be all peaches and cream. There is much sacrifice involved, and those who choose to follow Him must be prepared to suffer scorn, mocking, ridicule, imprisonment, and even death in many parts of the world. Nevertheless, though we may suffer in this life, there is another life coming where we will have a great reward. Something to ponder….

QUESTION OF THE DAY - (17AUG19) What would be your response to someone who mistreated you in the worse way, but then, they came and asked you to pray for them? Jeremiah had a similar situation. He had been beaten and imprisoned by the priest Pashhur, but King Zedekiah wanted a Word from the Lord regarding the Babylonians who had arrived to attack the city as Jeremiah prophesied. The king had sent the priests Pashhur and Zephaniah son of Maasiah to deliver the message to Jeremiah. The Bible says, “Please speak to the Lord for us and ask him to help us. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is attacking Judah. Perhaps the Lord will be gracious and do a mighty miracle as he has done in the past. Perhaps he will force Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw his armies” (Jeremiah 21:2). Now, they wanted a Word from the Lord since they were in trouble. They were now wanting to hear what Jeremiah had to see despite all the years that they ignored, mocked, belittled, abused, and shunned him. Nevertheless, Jeremiah could not get caught up in his feelings, but he had to continue to deliver the Word as the Lord gave him utterance. The Lord was not going to protect them from Babylon. He was actually fighting on their behalf to render judgment to His people. Therefore, King Zedekiah’s request for help was denied. The Lord did, however, offer an olive branch and tell them that if they surrendered to the Babylonians, their lives would be spared. Either way, there was no getting out of the judgment that the Lord had pronounced through His servant Jeremiah against both Judah and Jerusalem because they refused to repent and turn from their wicked ways.

There is coming the day that many of us who have been watchmen on the wall will have to help those who have been defiant against God. There will be major judgments coming to this land, and we must not have the “I told you so” mentality. We are to operate in the love of Christ and show people the way even when they failed to listen to us during times of peace. We can learn from the apostles, although were treated horribly by the religious leaders of their day, kept spreading the Good News. Egos and pride should never get in the way of us doing our work for the Lord. We are to always serve with the greatest humility just as Jesus did. Jesus, although mistreated by those He came to save, never uttered an unkind word to them. The Bible says, “But when the leading priests and the elders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent. ‘Don’t you hear all these charges they are bringing against you?’ Pilate demanded.  But Jesus made no response to any of the charges, much to the governor’s surprise (Matthew 27:12-14). Jesus did not get caught up in earthly emotions when the accusations started flying at His trial. He stayed focused on His divine mission and that was to save mankind from their sins. If the Son of God could continue the work that He was sent to do for us, we too can be of a humble heart when the lost need our help in the days to come. Something to ponder….

 THE POTTER'S HOUSE: WHICH TYPE OF CLAY ARE YOU? by K L Rich 

Available on Amazon.com