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Good Monday to you my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
In our journey through the Bible very often we meet a person in the Old Testament who really understood how to ‘Walk with God’ long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Recently we’ve been looking at the stories of two such men, Daniel and Jeremiah, both of whom were positioned very strategically by God in their world and through whom God spoke powerful messages.
Both men lived about 2600 years ago, at a very tumultuous time in Middle East history, quite similar to our times. Do you remember their assignments from God and their audiences?
Jeremiah was first raised up by God in Jerusalem in about 627bc and his messages from God were vital to the last kings of Israel and the Jewish people, especially those living in and around Jerusalem in those years before Jerusalem was destroyed and most of Jerusalem’s inhabitants taken as slaves by King Nebuchadnezzar’s army to Babylon in 586bc. Jeremiah was horribly mistreated by the Jewish people who should have been very grateful for his messages both of hope and warning, but instead they refused to believe Jeremiah and they persecuted him.
Daniel was taken captive from Jerusalem as a teenager, in 605bc by Nebuchadnezzar’s army. Daniel was hauled off to Babylon, enrolled in Nebuchadnezzar’s three-year leadership training program and upon graduation and assignment by Nebuchadnezzar to a very high role in the Babylonian government, Daniel remained there in a very strategic, God given position, as senior advisor to the most powerful rulers in the world for 64 years!!
We’ve already worked our way through the first two chapters in Daniel’s record of his experiences in Babylon. You’ll recall I’ve suggested there is a gap of time of perhaps 10-15 years between chapter 2 & 3 of Daniel, and so we’ve returned to Jerusalem to witness what was happening there between about 600bc and 590bc. Yesterday we looked closely at Jeremiah’s powerful message from God in Jeremiah 9. Today let’s look at Jeremiah’s message in Jeremiah 17.
Because both the Jewish leaders and Jewish people refused to honor Jeremiah’s messages from God, the intensity of God’s message was increasing with every message and in Jeremiah 17 God’s words were frightening: “My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know for you have kindled My anger, and it will burn forever.” (Jer.17:3,4)
Probably all of us have heard the excuse from someone wanting to excuse their wrong behavior: “I didn’t know any better”. Or maybe even this excuse: “no one ever explained to me that behavior was wrong”. Well one of the often-repeated accusations from God through His prophets, to both the leaders and the people of Israel, was that they could not make the claim that they didn’t know they were breaking God’s laws.
From the days of Moses God’s 10 Commandments and so many other instructions God had given His people were very well known and passed from generation to generation. Many times in Israel’s history prophets or kings had called God’s people Israel to repent of their wicked ways and return to God and renew their covenant of obedience to God’s laws; and many times, the people had repented of their rebellion and renewed their covenant to Almighty God.
King Josiah had been the last king who had that great experience as recorded in 2 Chronicles 34&35. For 31 years Jerusalem had experienced a mighty outpouring of God’s great blessing and God’s protection as the people lived with determination to honor God in all their ways. But Josiah had died in 609bc and like an avalanche or landslide, the Jewish people and their leaders had rushed to embrace and fully engage in the idolatry, immorality and wicked decadence of their neighboring countries.
Therefore, God’s messages through Jeremiah were no longer invitations to come back to God, but rather warnings to prepare for approaching judgement and clearly, we see that in Jeremiah 17:3,4. All the blessing God had poured out on His people would be taken away by invading armies, God warned! As always, I urge us to apply it to our time in history and both your nation and mine, your city and mine. Has God’s patience run out on us and is judgment coming?
Jeremiah’s message continued with these powerful words from God found in Jeremiah 17:5,6 listen to the contrast between two types of people as God sees us: “This is what the LORD says: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD God. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.” (Jer. 17:5,6)
That’s very clear, isn’t it? For those who turn away from reliance upon God and turn to reliance upon politicians or governments or employers or ANY human being rather than God, they will find that human beings are unreliable, fallible, forgetful, selfish, prideful, manipulative, corrupt and eventually wicked. The end result will be despair as families, neighborhoods, cities and nations crumble. Look around my friends and look back through history, God’s words are so very right, aren’t they? In fact, maybe you are living in desperation because of the truth of these words from God 2600 years ago which have been ignored by ancestors in your family or leaders in your city!?
But Jeremiah continued with a message of great contrast from God: “But blessed is the person who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jer. 17:7,8)
Oh my, this is so powerful and true, isn’t it? Do you know some people who because of their unwavering trust in God live like well-watered, fruitful, strong trees regardless of the political climate or economic stability or even their own personal circumstances? Are you one of those people? Do you find God’s Word the Bible is like that nurturing stream of fresh water enabling the tree to stay strong and green and even fruit bearing even in times of drought and difficulty?
I think we need to pause right here. God says here through Jeremiah there are two and only two types of human beings. Those who trust in God and honor Him with their lives and those who trust in themselves or other human beings and live for their own agenda, their own fame and power and they disregard God. So, look around your town. Look at leaders and teachers and business owners. Look at pastors and politicians. Look in the mirror and at your kids and grandkids. Who belongs in which of the two groups as described by God and what can you predict the future will be for both groups of people? And where do you stand today my friends?
Oh, there’s much more in Jeremiah 17 and we’ll look at that tomorrow. For today, let’s worship with this song that calls us to careful reflection.
Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 17:1-8.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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