10/12/2024 – Day 111 – Jeremiah – Chapters 17 – 21 / Jeremiah’s Complaint: 20: 7 – 18 – “If Almighty God placed an ad for a prophet, would you answer it?” / Post 1 of 3
Bewildering question, but not quite so much if one really dig’s into today’s reading. The question in retrospect entails one of my most impactful five minutes of my life, although I didn’t know it at the time. As you might guess by the word “ad”, it took place over twenty years ago. It was asked by one of the brother’s at the conclusion of our long study in the OT prophets. There was five or six of us at the table, we all fell dead silent until one brother answered it with a firm “No!” Then the rest of us echoed his response without any dissenting voices. I can speak for myself here, suspecting that my reflections would be generally echoed by my brothers today: If I had been asked before our study, I would have answered: “You bet, I’m in!” But after our study, the fear of the Lord would come over me with an answer like that.
I really resonated with the Bibleoutlines.com commentary on this section:
We used Wiersbe’s book: “Be Decisive” (Jeremiah) at least a few times as I recall in our ten week study of Jeremiah in our last cycle, in and around June 22. Here is the Amazon description, summary and reviews of the book:
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More rough stuff: Check out John Gill’s commentary to 17: 1 -4, with the ending verse: “I will ensnare you to your enemies I a land you do not know, of you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”
https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/gills-exposition-of-the-bible/jeremiah-17-4.html
And look at the last sentence of Gill’s commentary: “These first four verses are left out by the Septuagint interpreters, Jerom thinks, to spare their own people.”
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Within the section, “At the Potter’s House: 18: 3 – 10:
“Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, ‘Can I not do with you Israel, as this potter does? declares the Lord. ‘Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to built up and planted., and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.”
Question: Do you think the last sentence applies to the U.S. , with the contrast from the time of our founding as a nation to our present day, with the evil that is all around us?
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Notice what Jeremiah was hearing from the Jewish leaders: “They keep saying to me, ‘Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled.” (17:15) Well, with our look back in history, they didn’t have to wait very long at all.
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Questions for fellowship generation, the lifelong sanctification process:
- What does the text reveal about God’s character?
- How has this reading generated prayer for you and/or us?
- What themes stand out to you in this bible study?
- How does our reading fit into the bigger picture (creation, the fall, restoration, etc.)?
- What verse(s) jumped out at you like never before? Is it explainable at this point?
- Do you have any questions you would like to put before the group as to how to interpret any particular verse(s) in our reading. Let scripture testify to scripture: Share with us where you sense contradiction between passages elsewhere.
- What did you find convicting and inspiring at the same time? Share with us how the Spirit of God is working within you as a messenger, both within and outside of our fellowship group.
- Share with the group how our study is calling or confirming to you a new mission to glorify God in our times.
Thoughts, reflections, questions?
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Soli Deo Gloria!