(Today's Scripture readings: Jeremiah 5:1-6:30; Psalm 117:1-2; Proverbs 27:3-4; Colossians 1:1-29)
I think we can identify today with the setting of Jeremiah chapter 5, as God says to see "If you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seek the truth". He says He will pardon Jerusalem if anyone can be found. (Remember when Abraham asked God if He would spare Sodom & Gomorrah if 50 righteous people could be found in the city? The number was gradually diminished to 10, and the city destroyed because there were not even ten righteous people found--Genesis 18 & 19.) God pointed out in Jeremiah, "Though they say, 'As the Lord lives,' surely they swear falsely" (v.2). God continues to try to get our attention today, however, like Jerusalem, we have not grieved as a nation, but have refused to receive correction. "They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return" (v.3). Our transgressions are indeed many. God says, "When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots houses" (v.7). (If you have not seen the documentary "Nefarious--Merchant of Souls", it serves to reveal the extent of the truth in these verses.) God asks in verse 9, "Shall I not punish them for these things . . and shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?" Unfortunately, these verses describe our nation in detail.
God says in Jeremiah 5:12, "They have lied about the Lord, and said, "It is not He. (America's disasters and calamities are never linked to our corporate sins and we fail to recognize God's attempts to call us to repentance.) Neither will evil come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine". He says "the prophets have become wind, for the word is not in them, thus shall it be done to them". God says because of all this He will bring a mighty nation against Israel. God is clear as to why He will allow this to happen--"Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours" (v. 19). (America, beware!)
As believers, we are not to be partakers of the sins of our culture. In contrast we are to be salt and light to the world, standing in the gap so that God does not destroy us as a nation (Ezekiel 22:30). As enlightened people, it should not be difficult to understand God's anger with us for a "a defiant and rebellious heart" (v. 23). We have not acknowledged the blessings of God and God says, "your sins have withheld good from you" (v. 25). Once again in verse 29, God asks, "Shall I not punish them for these things. . .shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?" God describes Jerusalem further and it certainly fits our nation today: "She is full of oppression in her midst. As a fountain wells up with water, so she wells up with her wickedness. Violence and plundering are heard in her. Before me continually are grief and wounds" (Jeremiah 6:7). God advises Jerusalem to "be instructed" (v. 8). Are we willing to receive God's instruction to us? Or, is the word of the Lord likewise, "a reproach" to us (v. 10)?
Our nation is known for materialism and God says in verse 13, from the least to the greatest, "everyone is given to covetousness . . . everyone deals falsely". He says, "Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls". (We are not a people "at rest".) However, even the sound of the watchmen goes unheeded and God warns, "Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people--the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded My words nor My law, but rejected it" (v. 19).
We are reminded by God in Psalm 117:1-2, that God calls all peoples to praise His name because "His merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!" Proverbs directs our attention toward the cruelty of wrath, the torrent of anger, and asks, "But who is able to stand before jealousy?"
In Colossians, Paul writes, "To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse" (Colossians 1:2). Christ has left us in the world for a purpose. Do I stand as "a saint" and "faithful" in Christ in the city in which I live? God also desires for me to be a recipient of "grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ". Am I in a position spiritually to receive these blessings in contrast to the judgment that God says is coming to a nation such as ours? Through the truth of the gospel, hope is made possible throughout the world to people in less than desirable conditions and situations. We are to pray for our fellow-believers worldwide and should be very thankful for faithful ministers of Christ, lifting them up in our prayers, that we would all "be filled with knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (v. 9). Pray "that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (we are fulfilling this through this Bible study); strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (v. 10-14) This is a beautiful passage worthy of memorization and for use as a guideline for prayer for our brothers and sisters in Christ worldwide!
"And you who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight" (v. 21). What hope we have, what joy! Living in a culture of sin and death, we have nevertheless been "conveyed into the kingdom of the Son of His love"! Praise the Lord!
No comments:
Post a Comment