10/19/2024 – Day 118 – Jeremiah – Chapters 22 – 26
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Let’s get started, I encourage y’all to post your own reflections and questions on this reading:
Take a look at the “Righteous Branch” section – 23: 1 through 23:8. Here is verse 3: “I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and multiply in number.” I submit that fulfillment of this prophecy was not until May 14, 1948, when Israel became an independent nation in the Holy Land. There Israelites that returned to Israel some 70 years after they were exiled to Babylon only, they were not “gathered out of all the countries”.
The Lord still offers to hold back his judgment if only the wicked kings repent and do what is just and right. (22: 1 – 5). “Even prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness. ” 23:11. In the section “The Cup of God’s Wrath” (25 15 – 38), we read: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go made because of the sword I will send among them. (24: 15 – 16). And then, The Lord proclaims: “You must drink it! See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears my Name,, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword on all who live on the earth, declares the Lord Almighty.” (24: 28 – 29)
And our reading concludes with Jeremiah’s message from the Lord: “Then the Lord said to all the officials and all the people: ‘The Lord sent me to prophecy against this house and this city all the things you have heard. Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring the disaster he has pronounced against you. As for me, I am in your hands; dow tie me whatever you think is good and right. Be assured, however , that if you put me to death, you will bring the guilt of innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live in it, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.’
Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and the prophets. ‘This man should not be sentenced to death! He has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.’
Some of the elders of the land stepped forward and said to the entire assembly of people, ‘Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. He told all the people of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says:
‘Zion will be plowed like a field. Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.’
‘Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone else in Judah put him to death? Did not Hezekiah fear the Lord and seek his favor? And did not the Lord relent, so that he did not bring the disaster he pronounced against them”. We are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves!’ “
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.
Soli Deo Gloria!