Year 6, Day 98: Jeremiah 46

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Jeremiah now turns to prophesying about the surrounding nations.  Up until now, Jeremiah had only dealt with Judah.  Now that we’ve seen Judah fall in rebellion – as those who weren’t captured fled to Egypt – we turn to the rest of the world and see what God has in store for them.  It’s only fitting that Egypt goes first.  After all, Egypt has been the bane of God’s attempt to work in and through the Hebrew people.

What does God have to say to the Egyptians?  In a quick summary, God wants to tell them the following things:

• The Egyptians think they are powerful.
• The Egyptians have fled from the Babylonians, who are the people that God has raised up to judge the nations and bring His people into humbleness.
• The Egyptians will ultimately fall to Nebuchadnezzar, God’s chosen judge of the nations at this point in time.
• Basically, everything that the Egyptians think is wrong.  Everything God purposes happens.  God is far more powerful than the Egyptians.

This should absolutely sound familiar.  What was God’s point in the Exodus with Moses?  God is king, Pharaoh is not.  What is God’s point with the Hebrew captivity and Nebuchadnezzar as it pertains to Egypt?  God is king, Pharaoh is not.

God is consistent in His message.  He is consistent because He is king.

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Year 6, Day 97: Jeremiah 44-45

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

Imagine being Jeremiah.  You promised that God would bring destruction upon Jerusalem if the people would not humble themselves before God and surrender to the Babylonians.  The people didn’t.  God fulfilled His promise.  You got to see the character of the people and the character of God.

Now Jeremiah has been kidnapped and dragged to Egypt.  Once more God warns the people to obey Him.  They disregard the message and desire their own ways.  They want to live their life the way they want it.  They want to make sense of the world around them based on their own thoughts, not based on a wisdom that is beyond the typical human existence.  They find themselves in judgment one more time.  God promises destruction, even in Jerusalem.

What a great lesson in character.  The people want what makes sense to them.  Their character isn’t to look for a greater truth and live by what is good for the community around them.  They want to sacrifice to gods that they think make a difference.  They want to flee rather than be humble and submit.  Their character is flawed, and we see it again and again in their refusal to submit.

What’s neat, though, is that the people in Babylon will be the remnant.  These people who have left for Egypt will disappear into history without a trace.  What do they get for their troubles?  They get to disappear in history as Babylon and Egypt clash.  God promises to forget them, and we forget them, too.  God is raising up more faithful people away from these people who have shown a disobedient character.

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Year 6, Day 96: Jeremiah 43

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Guidance

• Guidance: God grants us His guidance.  Sometimes this guidance is God leading us away from temptation.  Sometimes this guidance is helping us to follow in a direction for which He has chosen.  Our default position should be to wait for God’s guidance and then follow when it comes.

God will always give us guidance.  The real question is what we will do with that guidance.  Will we obey?  Will we submit?  Or will we reject His guidance and go on with our own will.

Of course, this is coming off of the reality that the people reject Jeremiah’s message.  Stop for a minute and think about Jeremiah’s track record.  Everything that Jeremiah has said so far has come true.  When Jeremiah prophesies from the Lord, it happens.  He’s got a really good track record of having wisdom from the Lord.  Why do they reject Jeremiah one more time?  They reject Jeremiah because it isn’t what they want to hear.

It really says something about us when we reject the voice of other people because it isn’t what we want to hear.  It is one thing to reject someone’s witness because they are wrong or because they are using faulty logic.  But it is another thing to reject someone just because we choose to think differently.  It shows much about our character when we are so willing to reject God’s guidance because we as human beings think that God is wrong.

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Year 6, Day 95: Jeremiah 42

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

The people who remain in Judah have much reason to fear.  Their leader has just been assassinated.  It’s highly likely that Nebuchadnezzar will take revenge.  Ammon has already proven its desire to meddle in their affairs.  All of the leaders of the country have been stripped away and dragged off to Babylon.  In this circumstance they come to Jeremiah and ask for help.

Jeremiah agrees to pray to the Lord and come back to the people with a response.  Notice that he is gone for ten days!  That’s really impressive.  How many of us would have given up after ten days?  Not Jeremiah.  Not the people waiting on Jeremiah.  Remarkably, everyone stays incredibly patient under the circumstances.  This is to their credit.

Then Jeremiah comes back with a message from the Lord.  The Lord wants the people to stay put.  The Lord promises that if they stay in the land that He will cause them to prosper.  The Lord promises protection.  The Lord promises that Nebuchadnezzar will not bring retribution against the people.  The message seems clear and good.  If the people obey this message, it will go well for them.

We’ll see what the people do tomorrow.  But for today the message for us is quite clear.  Patiently wait upon the Lord.  When we hear from the Lord, listen to Him and obey His voice.  In truth, this has been God’s point for this whole book.  Things go well for us when we are patient and obedient to the Lord’s desire.

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Year 6, Day 94: Jeremiah 41

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Appetite

• Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled.  When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus.  But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.

Ishmael is clearly a man who has an appetite for world goods.  He is driven by materialism.  After all, we see him in this story as a mercenary, doing the bidding of the king of Ammon.

For a price, Ishmael betrays Gedaliah.  For a price, Ishmael destroys the Babylonian vassal-king who was finally listening to the will of God for the people.  For a price, Ishmael counters the very hand and will of God.

But Ishmael doesn’t just work as a mercenary.  Mourners come from the northern kingdom to mourn with Gedaliah at Judah’s fate.  Ishmael sees their supplies and slaughters them.  Furthermore, ten of them reveal that there is a cache of supplies that Ishmael can have if he agrees to free them.  We see Ishmael’s appetite once more as he agrees to let them live in exchange for materialistic gain.

But we still haven’t seen the appetite of Ishmael come to it full force.  Ishmael takes what remains of Gedaliah’s court and begins to march them back to Ammon.  Ishmael thinks that he can use them as prisoners of war and sell them to the king of Ammon.  He is still looking for profit and willing to use his fellow human beings to make a profit.

While it is meaningful to look at Ishmael’s appetite for materialistic gain, it is especially enlightening to look at the consequences.  Many people end up dad because of Ishmael’s appetite.  If that isn’t bad enough, it is doubtful that Nebuchadnezzar is going to respond very happily when he finds out that his vassal-king, who was promoting peaceful servanthood to Babylon, was assassinated along with the royal guard that he left to make sure Gedaliah stayed in line.  There can be little doubt that Ishmael’s appetite will bring about a harsher relationship with Babylon.  The peaceful vassal life is quickly to be traded in, all because of the appetite of Ishmael.

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Year 6, Day 93: Jeremiah 40

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Jeremiah 40 gives us a great perspective on why God is God.  For 38 chapters the message that God gave Jeremiah has been resolute.  “Surrender to the Babylonians and all will go well for you.”  Chapter after chapter Jeremiah spoke those words.  Chapter after chapter the Hebrew kings rejected Gods message in Jeremiah.  Now the Hebrews are captive and being dragged off into captivity.

How do we see obedience in all of this?  God wins.  But after God wins, Gedaliah is appointed as governor over the people as a vassal king underneath Nebuchadnezzar.  But look at what Gedaliah says.  Gedaliah tells the people to settle down, submit to Babylon, and work the land.  Geadaliah advises the people to stop resisting and accept their consequences.

The neat thing is that the people actually listen to Gedaliah!  Once Nebuchadnezzar drags away the rulers, the people actually respond and listen.  They do accept their lot in life.  They do submit.  They are obedient to God’s will after all.  God just had to get the leaders out of the way.

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Year 6, Day 92: Jeremiah 39

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

Jeremiah 39 is a dark chapter.  I’m still remember the day that I read this chapter 3 years ago.  I remember the study of the consequences upon Zedekiah.  But I’ll get to that in a second.  For the beginning, I want to focus on Jeremiah.

Can you see God’s protection?  Jeremiah had been tormented by the Jews in Jerusalem.  But Jeremiah remained faithful to God and stayed in Jerusalem.  Jeremiah proclaimed God’s messages – even when they were not popular.  But in the end, God protects Jeremiah.  Nebuchadnezzar’s men come for him and keep him safe even while the rest of the people head off into captivity.  God protects Jeremiah.

In fact, we also get to hear the story of God protecting Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian.  He is the man who went to Jeremiah in an earlier moment of captivity and then went to Zedekiah and pleaded for his safety.  Ebed-Melech watched out for God’s own and he now enjoys the protection of God.

Having looked in on two shining examples of God’s protection, we now turn to Zedekiah.  Here is a man who gets to watch his sons executed.  Then his own eyes are plucked out, ensuring that the last thing he ever remembers seeing is the brutal death of his own children.  Here is a man who refused God’s protection because he was too proud to surrender to Babylon while submitting to God.  Zedekiah had been given plenty of opportunities from Jeremiah.  But he refused to listen.  As a consequence of His stubbornness, Zedekiah does not have the protection of God.  He is punished hard by Nebuchadnezzar.  There are usually consequences for our rebellion, especially when we are unrepentant.

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Year 6, Day 91: Jeremiah 38

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Approval

• Approval: We all need to feel as though we are accepted.  When we seek the approval of God, our Up is in the right place.  But when we seek the approval of other people besides God, we open the door to pursuing false gods and risk putting someone or something other than God in our Up position. 

I love Jeremiah.  Here is a man who is repeatedly hated because of his message.  Here is a man whose messages largely didn’t bring comfort to the people who heard them.  But when we look at Jeremiah we continue to see a man who looked to God for approval.  Jeremiah didn’t look to men for approval; he looked to God.

How can we see this in this chapter?  Well, the first place is pretty easy.  Jeremiah is proclaiming that the Hebrew people need to surrender to Babylon and submit to God’s plan for captivity.  This is not a popular plan.  The leaders in Jerusalem don’t care for this message. They think that he is subverting the loyal Jews in Jerusalem.  So they throw him into a cistern.  In fact, they leave him to die.  They leave him without food or water.  If there is any greater evidence that Jeremiah wasn’t looking for the approval of mankind, I’m not sure what it would look like.

Second, look at what happens after Jeremiah is rescued by the Ethiopian out of the pit.  Zedekiah the king comes to Jeremiah and asks for a prophecy.  Jeremiah is in a place of potential favor.  If Jeremiah is looking for a place to get the approval of Zedekiah, here’s his opportunity.  But I commend Jeremiah for what he says.  Jeremiah passes on the opportunity to please Zedekiah and instead tells Zedekiah that he isn’t going to say anything because Zedekiah won’t like what Jeremiah has to say.  Jeremiah stays loyal to the truth.  Jeremiah cares more about God’s opinion of him rather than sparing his own life.  Jeremiah repeatedly gives us a picture of what it looks like get approval from God even if it costs us the approval of mankind.

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Year 6, Day 90: Jeremiah 37

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Authority

• Authority: Our calling.  This comes from God as king.  Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.

This is a neat chapter in which we can view authority.  At first pass, who does it look like has all of the authority?  Of course, the answer is Zedekiah.  After all, isn’t he king?  Isn’t Zedekiah the one who locks up Jeremiah?  Isn’t he the one who gives edicts and decrees?  Isn’t he the one to whom Jeremiah is brought when he is accused of deserting?  At first glance, it looks like Zedekiah has all the power and authority in the story.

However, look at what Zedekiah does.  Zedekiah comes and asks Jeremiah if there is any word of the Lord.  Even if Zedekiah won’t humble himself to God, he still is capable of demonstrating that God has authority.

Furthermore, if Zedekiah actually had authority over Jeremiah, would Jeremiah be able to speak to the king in the manner that he does?  Of course not!  If Zedekiah had any authority at all, Jeremiah would be in trouble.  Another way of saying this is that since Jeremiah speaks this way to Zedekiah, Jeremiah is enforcing the idea that he really has no authority over Jeremiah’s life.

So often this is true in the world.  People think that they have authority.  People pretend to have the power to rule over others.    But nobody has authority outside of what God has ordained for them.  In fact, we really only have genuine authority when we humble ourselves before God as we have seen Jeremiah do in this whole book.

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Year 6, Day 89: Jeremiah 36

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Imagine being as close to Jeremiah as Baruch is.  Imagine seeing all of the persecution that Jeremiah endures.  Then imagine hearing Jeremiah say to you, “Hey.  I can’t go into the temple anymore because they hate my messages and I’m banned.  So, guess who gets to go in my place?”  Then Jeremiah looks at you and winks.  Imagine for a moment what you feel.

It would be only natural to feel a little fear and panic.  Jeremiah has gotten nothing but grief for his messages from God.  Now they are your burden to carry.  What do you do?

This is a great chapter in obedience.  Baruch is obedient.  He doesn’t miss a beat.  He goes right into the temple and delivers the message as planned.  He knows what happened to Jeremiah, but he lived obediently in spite of the human reaction.

How is it that Baruch can respond?  He’s able to see Jeremiah’s example.  Even though Jeremiah has had to put up with personal rebuke, personal scorn, and even imprisonment, Jeremiah is still around and still hearing from God.  He hasn’t been silenced.  God has been with Jeremiah all along.  How can Baruch continue on?  If God has been with Jeremiah, then Baruch knows that God will be with him in his obedience as well.

The really cool thing is that what Baruch hopes will happen actually does.  Baruch finds a group of people who are sympathetic to the message.  Those people help protect him when the message has to be delivered to the king, who is less than sympathetic to the message.  God does protect Baruch as God protected Jeremiah.  Baruch’s obedience is rewarded.

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Year 6, Day 88: Jeremiah 35

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Imitation

• Imitation: This is the second over-arching step of the discipleship process.  First we gain information, then we imitate our spiritual mentor.  Imitation leads to innovation of spirituality in our own life.

Until I read this passage again today, I had completely forgotten about the Rechabites and the teachings of Jonadab.  If you don’t know the background, read my blog post from 3 years ago, to which I have created a link above.  I’ll summarize here:

• Jonadab was linked with Jehu as God judged Israel. 
• After the judgment, Jonadab turns to a nomadic lifestyle and swears off all alcohol.  After all, what nomad has time and space to make alcohol for themselves?
• Over 200 years later, the descendants are still following Jonadab’s instructions.

What I am blown away by is that this time span is approximately the same length of time that America has officially been a nation. How many of us still follow the moral directives of our ancestors who lived at the time of the forming of this country? How many of us even know who those ancestors are?

There is only one way that a moral directive like that can pass through a group of people with any kind of proficiency.  The culture of the Rechabites understood the need for imitation.  They understood that the way to remain faithful is to find faithful people around us, learn what they have to teach us, and then imitate it in our own lives.

The Rechabites are a great example of faith formation.  They are able to stay true for generation after generation.  They are able to stay true to their faith even when the world around them are forsaking God to pursue their own desires.  They can do it because they took seriously what it means to imitate the faithful people around them.

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Year 6, Day 87: Jeremiah 34

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Bear Fruit

• Bear Fruit: We bear fruit after we grow.  Bearing fruit is ultimately the goal of abiding and the goal of being called into the Kingdom of God.  However, while bearing fruit is our calling, it is not the end.  We bear fruit so that we can then prune, abide, grow, and bear more fruit in another season.  Bearing fruit is not the end, but rather only a portion of the whole rhythm of life into which God has called us.

I felt a little weird picking this topic today.  After all, Jeremiah 34 is about going into captivity under the Babylonian threat.  How on earth can this chapter be about bearing fruit?

The way to bearing fruit starts with God’s mercy.  God sends Jeremiah to the elite in Jerusalem.  He tells them that if they give up their slaves that God will be merciful.  Interestingly enough, they do give up the slaves!  Emancipation abounds!  The people in Jerusalem bear fruit in their relationship with God.  They listen and obey!

Historically speaking, what happens is this.  The Babylonians surround Jerusalem getting ready to take the final steps towards conquest.  The people in Jerusalem emancipate their slaves.  Suddenly, Pharaoh comes out of Egypt – no coincidence in timing, of course – and the Babylonian army has to give up the siege to defend themselves against the Egyptians.

But then they take their slaves back.  They break the emancipation.  They prove that their fruit wasn’t real fruit.

Historically speaking, here is what happens.  When the siege is broken, the Hebrew people realize how much clean-up needs to happen.  They’ve torn their city apart.  The Babylonians left all kinds of debris outside the city.  With so much work to do, the elite decided they needed someone to do it.  They took their slaves back to make them do the work of clean-up.

Unfortunately, we see the dark side of humanity really well in this chapter.  The Hebrew people repent, but why do they repent?  They repent because they want to escape punishment.  The repent because they want to get out of the crummy life they were in.  But their repentance wasn’t because they genuinely wanted to be godly.  They repented because they wanted God to make their life easier.

In God, we are to bear fruit in keeping with our repentance. The problem we see here is that there is no repentance.  The Hebrew people bear fruit in keeping with God’s command, not in keeping with their repentance.  Their fruit isn’t real.  It doesn’t last when the consequences are withdrawn.

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Year 6, Day 86: Jeremiah 33

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

Jeremiah 33 is a curious chapter.  God begins the chapter talking about how destruction will come to Jerusalem and how much the people are ignoring the inevitable future.  This is not a new message; we should not be surprised at this message.

However, look at how God talks about the people.  They are dismantling their own city to fight against the Babylonians!  Their own precious Jerusalem is being torn apart by the very people who love it.  The very people who want to resist and hold on so dearly to Jerusalem are the ones tearing it apart piece by piece!

I think that this has a lot to say about our human ambition.  How often do we get an idea in our mind and we pursue it at the expense of other things in our life?  How often do I let relationships slide when I pursue personal ambition?  How often do I sacrifice things that I really need for personal goals that in the end really aren’t as important as I make them out to be?  How often in my sin do I end up tearing down the very life that I have fought so hard to build in the first place?

This really is the sin of ambition.  The people in Jerusalem are tearing apart their own town because they are too proud and too stubborn to go into captivity as God desires for them.  The people in Jerusalem have the ambition to be free, but their freedom only leads to sin and distance from God.  Their ambition is pulling them away from the one thing that can bring them closer to God: humble submission through captivity.

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Year 6, Day 85: Jeremiah 32

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

“Buy the field, Jeremiah.”  I don’t know what Jeremiah’s reaction to all of this was, but I know what my reaction would be.  If I lived in a city that was being besieged by a foreign army and a relative came to sell his land to me, I would think him crazy.  Why would anyone buy land hen the country is under foreign occupation?

Of course, I don’t also have the vision of God.  God wants Jeremiah to buy the land as a sign to the people.  They are going into exile, but the exile will not be permanent.  There will be a time when they own the land once more.  There will be a time when life returns back to normal.  The imminent future looks bleak; the long-term future with God looks outstanding.

Notice also that Jeremiah tells Baruch to go and put the deed in an earthenware pot.  The reason is that the deed needs to last a long time.  Here’s the hidden message in that verse: while the future looks good with God, it will be a while before that future is realized.  God does provide for us and for what we truly need.  But He provides in His time when He knows it is best.  He doesn’t always provide for us on our time frame.

When I think about this chapter and the messages contained within, I think it is a great analogy for the life to come.  We are here, living in this world.  Sometimes we enjoy life and sometimes the outlook is bleak.  But we know that a time is coming when we will be with God and our outlook will be outstanding!  But that time isn’t now.  That time isn’t likely to be tomorrow, or even next month.  That eternal life with God is a way into the future.  But it is coming.  It is promised.  There will be a day when God’s full and complete provision wraps around us in His eternal presence.

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Year 6, Day 84: Jeremiah 31

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Provision

• Provision: God gives us what we truly need.  God knows our needs better than we can know them.  We learn to trust God to provide for us.

As we move through Jeremiah, we find ourselves stepping more and more into the land of grace.  This is an especially unusual chapter in that we hear a prophecy given towards Israel rather than Judah.

Jeremiah did most of his prophesying towards Judah because that was the nation that was not yet in bondage.  But here we get to hear Jeremiah talk to those who are already in captivity.  In truth, they’ve been in captivity for a few hundred years.  Here Jeremiah gives them a reason to hope for the future.  God tells them that a time will come when they are no longer blind, lame, and pregnant.  {For an explanation of these three analogies, see the blog post linked above.}  Instead, God tells the people of Judah that they will become the grain, wine, and oil.  The people of Israel will go from mourning to joy.

This is a really neat point to remember.  If we recall the history of Israel – that is, Israel after the split following Solomon’s reign – we can remember that at no time was the nation loyal to God.  Their leaders were evil.  They created new places to worship with their own idols.  The people worshipped Ba’al and the Asherah.  These people could easily have been dismissed by God and forgotten.  But they aren’t God provides for them as well.  Even in their rash and bold sin, God provides for them, too.

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Year 6, Day 83: Jeremiah 30

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: King

• King: This is the pinnacle of the Kingdom Triangle.  When we look towards God’s position in the universe, we acknowledge that He is an omnipotent king.  Authority comes from Him.  Power comes through His authority.  He is looking for representatives for His kingdom.

Jeremiah 30 gives us a really great opportunity to look at the sovereignty of God.  We have just come through several chapters declaring God’s sovereignty.  God sends His prophets to declare that the Babylonian captivity will be long.  The people who are declaring that the captivity will be short are lying.  As this chapter ends, the wrath of God has gone forth.  The wrath of the Lord will not turn back until it has been expended and served its purpose.  Who among us can change the course of God’s wrath once His mind has set upon its direction?

However, Jeremiah 30 also gives us a perspective that the wrath of God will not be eternal.  There will be a restoration.  There will be redemption.  The faithful people of Judah and Israel will be able to return to their land.  This is also evidence of God’s sovereignty.  The King can certainly hand out judgment.  But the king can also extend grace and forgiveness.

We have yet another moment of evidence of the sovereignty of God.  God promises judgment upon those who have taken advantage of the Hebrew people.  The Assyrians and the Babylonians were called by God to bring His people into captivity.  But they went too far.  So they will also be judged and feel God’s wrath.  This is proof of the sovereignty of God.  God pursues justice.

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Year 6, Day 82: Jeremiah 29

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11. The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

The prophet brings God’s truth to the people around him or her.  That is the job and the duty of the prophet.  They are concerned with whether or not the people are actually hearing from God.

Or at least they should be.

You see, that is the very problem that Jeremiah’s letter discusses.  Apparently there are prophets in Babylon who are telling the captives that the captivity is going to end shortly.  There are prophets that are telling the people that God told them that the captivity would end in a small amount of time.  The problem with this is that God never said such a thing.  We know that God wouldn’t have said it because the captivity lasted 70 years!  Why would God tell the prophets that the captivity would end in a few years and then drag it on for several decades?

Instead, what we have happening is a group of prophets who are saying what the people want to hear and using God’s name as reason for the people to believe it.  They aren’t listening to God; they are getting their cues from the people!  They aren’t proclaiming God’s truth; they are proclaiming what the people want to hear so that they can have the esteem and the honor of the people.  They aren’t prophets, they are con men!

This is why Jeremiah sends the letter that we have in this chapter.  God wants the people to know that He never gave the message of a short captivity.  God has not ordained that path.  God’s truth is in Jeremiah.  Jeremiah wants to make sure that the people of God hear the words of God.

The problem is that many of the people just can’t be made to want to hear God’s truth.

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Year 6, Day 81: Jeremiah 28

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11.  The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

Clash of the Titans.  Jeremiah meets up with an adversary who tells him that he is completely wrong.  The false prophet Hananiah declares that the bondage to Babylon will be over in two years.  In other words, Hananiah has just contradicted Jeremiah’s message.  The Lord told Jeremiah that the bondage would last 70 years.  Hananiah says it will be less than two.

Of course, we know Hananiah was wrong.  We also know that Hananiah died before he could ever see whether he was right or Jeremiah was right.  Clearly Hananiah was the false prophet.  He wasn’t interested in bringing God’s message to the people.  He was interested in bringing what the people wanted to hear to their ears.

This isn’t the only thing that I want to address, though.  Did you hear how Jeremiah defended himself?  Jeremiah says that prophets always speak about death, war, famine, and destruction.  In fact, it is expected that this is the case.  We don’t even need to wonder if such a message is from God!  How do we know this?  We know humanity.  If there is anything that we can know, it is that humanity will always bring about war and strife and conflict.  We’ll never get away from it.  That’s why we always need prophets around us.

When do we need to wonder about a message or a messenger?  When a messenger brings a message of peace, we should stop and check with God.  When in the face of human existence upon this planet has there ever truly been a time of peace?  True peace will only come when Christ returns and brings the world under His authority and under His judgment.  Until that time comes, we should look upon the prophet of peace with skepticism and always remember to test his message.  For the most part, human beings typically just don’t have it in us to live at peace without the help of God.

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Year 6, Day 80: Jeremiah 27

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Nobody likes to be underneath someone else’s thumb.  Nobody really likes taking orders – especially if we are in a situation that isn’t particularly enjoyable.  Human beings like to do what we want, when we want it, and how we want to do it.  Human beings enjoy having their own resources and doing what they want with them.

Jeremiah 27 is about God’s response to an international coup.  The nations have been put under Babylonian sovereignty by God.  None of the nations are happy, and they decide to get together in a meeting to see if through their collective power they might be able to overthrown Nebuchadnezzar.  They want to form a coup to get rid of Nebuchadnezzar’s ability to control them.

There is only one problem.  God wants them under Nebuchadnezzar’s control.  God sends Jeremiah to tell them to stay where they are.  The nations have some things to learn about humbleness.

God gives the nations a choice: rebel against Him or learn to be humble in any circumstance.  I’ve found that God gives us a choice, too.  We can learn to be humble in any circumstance to rebel against Him, too.  I find this to be one of my most reoccurring battles.  I am constantly struggling against my own will because my own will wants to do my own thing.  I want to be in charge of my life.  But I’m far better off letting God be in charge of my life and humbling myself before Him.  I’m much better off learning to be His servant in whatever situation that I find myself rather than always looking for ways to free myself to do whatever it is that I want to do.

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Year 6, Day 79: Jeremiah 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Grace

• Grace: Grace comes to us when we make mistakes and have a failing of character.  Grace comes to us when we have a typical D₂ moment.  Grace comes to us when we need space to recognize a mistake, repent of it, and allow God to redeem it while calling us back into His will.  Grace is partnered by Time and Vision.

Here is another chapter where God tells Jeremiah to go before the people and proclaim their need to repent.  Of course, the people don’t like it.  Nobody likes to hear that they are wrong and need to change.  Nobody likes to hear how their actions cause other people to suffer.

Character is shown by how we respond in such moments.  People with high character at least take the time to listen and ponder if they might be guilty.  People with little character immediately lash out and reject the message.  That is what we see here.  The people who hear Jeremiah demand that he be executed for his treasonous prophecy.  There is little character to be found in the leadership of the Hebrew people in Jeremiah’s time.  Of course, for anyone who’s been reading Jeremiah since the book started, there’s not much of a surprise there.

What I love in this chapter is what we see in Jeremiah.  Jeremiah gives them grace.  Jeremiah reminds them that if they repent that God will forgive them and spare their calamity.  Jeremiah even offers up his life in a willing submission to their illegitimate authority.  He doesn’t lash back.  He gives grace when every human instinct would say to give wrath.  He truly is a man of God.

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Year 6, Day 78: Jeremiah 25

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11.  The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

Twenty-three years is a long time.  Twenty-three years is a third of a lifetime.

This is how long Jeremiah has been bringing the message of repentance before the people.  But this is also how long the message has been ignored.  Jeremiah has been bringing messages from God asking them to repent for over two decades and his words have gone on deaf ears.  Twenty-three years is a long time; twenty-three years is an even longer time to have a fruitless endeavor.

Of course, this also shows a certain perspective.  Fruitlessness depends on perspective.  From a worldly perspective, Jeremiah is fruitless in his work.  The people ignore Jeremiah.  But that doesn’t mean that he is fruitless.  He is a prophet from God.  His job is to deliver the message.  It is not his job to force them to hear or force them to obey.  Jeremiah may not show human fruit of his labor, but he is absolutely accomplishing the work that God has put before him.

It is common for prophets to experience a feeling of fruitlessness.  Not everyone who hears about the grace, love and mercy of God responds.  Not everyone who hears the call to repent and change their living receives the message.  Yet that doesn’t mean that the prophet has done anything wrong.  The prophet’s job is to give the message.  The people to whom the message is given need to decide for themselves how to respond.

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Year 6, Day 77: Jeremiah 24

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Protection

• Protection: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray that God might deliver us from evil – even the Evil One.  Sometimes we need God’s protection from the sin around us.  Sometimes we need protection from the sinful people around us.  Other times we need protection from the sin that lies within ourselves. In any case, Jesus’ point is clear.  We need protection from the Father to make it through each and every day.

When I was growing up, the Babylonian captivity was always an enigma to me.  After all, why would God let His own people go into captivity?  Why would God let some nation that worships other gods triumph over His own people?  From the perspective of a naïve child, this makes no sense.  The strongest God should have the strongest people, after all.

It is chapters like Jeremiah 24 that are lost on the naïveté of childhood.  What I didn’t understand is that God was actually protecting His people by ushering them into captivity.  In captivity the faithful would be pressed into faithfulness.  In captivity, the faithful would have to choose to remain faithful.  We know that great pressure makes the best diamonds.  We know that good steel is only make through much exposure to fire.  In the same way, faithful people are built under the pressure of trials and persecution.  That’s why the good figs in Jeremiah’s parable are the people who are already exiled.

On the other hand, we hear that the bad figs are the ones who remain in Jerusalem.  The good figs are removed so that the bad figs can spoil all the faster.  The good figs are removed so that the bad figs can prove what they really are.  The exile happens to forge strong faith out of the faithful and to expose the faithless for what they really are.

How does this all come back to protection?  As a child, I saw the Babylonian exile as a place of doubt in my understanding of God’s desire to protect His own people.  As an adult, my perspective has changed.  The exile is a means for protecting the faithful from the rottenness of the rest.  God is protecting His people even in the midst of an exile.

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Year 6, Day 76: Jeremiah 23

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Prophet

• Prophet: A prophet is one of the fivefold ministry categories that is used throughout the Bible and especially lifted up in Ephesians 4:11.  The prophet is primarily concerned with whether or not the people are hearing the voice of God.  The prophet is also concerned about whether or not the people are responding to God’s voice.

Before we get to prophets, I want to talk about leadership in general.  Yesterday we spoke a good deal about leaders.  Today we continue this theme.  Leaders are not supposed to lead people astray.  Leaders are not supposed to lead people into rebellion.  But that is exactly what the leaders of Judah are doing.  They are leading the people into their own desires.  They are absolutely leading the people into rebellion.

This sets up the Lord’s words against the prophets.  God has two primary complaints against the prophets.  First, God’s complaint is that they are liars.  They prophecy not what God says but what the people want to hear.  They prophecy what will keep them in power.  They prophecy what is popular.  Yet they say that it is from God.  This makes them liars.

Second, we can hear God’s complaint about the burden.  The prophets are listening the Jeremiah, who is giving a legitimate message from God, and they are claiming that Jeremiah’s message is a burden to them.  Jeremiah’s message is hard to hear.  Jeremiah’s message is about change and repentance and giving up one’s own agenda to submit to God.  But the people are saying that it is a burden!

We can learn a hard lesson from this.  When people only want to hear that which pleases them, they will not listen to truth.  In fact, they will reject truth because it is too had to hear.  People are either looking to follow God, knowing that it will be difficult to reform our humanity, or they are looking to justify their own humanity and satisfy it.

The question to ask is: what are the prophets who are supposed to be bringing a message from God saying about this struggle within?

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Year 6, Day 75: Jeremiah 22

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Identity

• Identity: Our true identity comes from the Father.  Only when our identity comes from God can we be obedient in ways that satisfy our person to our core.

This chapter of Jeremiah has much to say about leadership.  Specifically, this chapter has to do with the king of Judah.  This chapter talks about the identity of leadership.

What is it that Jeremiah focuses upon?  Leaders are called upon to make sure that the oppressed find justice.  Leaders are called upon to make sure that those who don’t have a voice are heard.  Leaders are called upon to make sure that the right thing happens regardless of social pressure.  That’s what the identity of good leadership looks like.

But is that what we often see?  Occasionally we do see it.  But in truth we see far more leaders using their power and influence to make life better for themselves.  We see many leaders looking to use their leadership to increase their own influence, luxurious living, and power.

That’s God’s biggest issue with the leadership of Judah.  The leaders aren’t interested in the widows and orphans.  They aren’t interested in justice and righteousness.  They aren’t interested in doing the right thing with the power that God has entrusted to them.  Their identity is found in themselves, not within God.

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Year 6, Day 74: Jeremiah 21

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Ambition

• Ambition: We all need a goal to which we can strive.  When our ambition comes from God, we find fulfillment in our obedience into that for which we have been equipped because our Out is in proper focus.  But when our ambition comes from ourselves, we find ourselves chasing after our own dreams and trying to find fulfillment in accomplishments of our own making.

Here is yet another confrontation between Jeremiah and Passhur.  God tells Jeremiah to go and warn Passhur and the Hebrew people about the coming destruction of the Lord.  God is sending the sword.  He is sending pestilence.  He is sending famine.  It’s not going to go well for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

But then we hear God give the Hebrew people a choice.  Those who stay in Jerusalem will have to deal with the sword and pestilence and famine.  Those who dig their heels in and stubbornly refuse to change their thinking will find God’s wrath.  Those who feel the ambition to stick it out in Jerusalem will find a hard life.  We can always chase after our own goals and dreams and priorities.  But when our goals and dreams and priorities fly in the face of God, the pursuit of our ambition will lead us into despair.

On the other hand, God promises that those who willingly surrender to the Babylonians will not suffer as much.  Yes, they will be the servants of Babylon for a while.  But they will remain alive.  They will save themselves!  And now we get another awesome hint at the universal plan of God.  Where is salvation to be found in this passage?  Salvation is to be found in surrender of our own ambition.  Salvation is to be found in the acceptance of God’s ways.

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Year 6, Day 73: Jeremiah 20

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

We get to see three unique dynamics of character here in this passage.  The first dynamic is Jeremiah.  Jeremiah knows that proclaiming a contrary message is likely to get him into trouble.  It does.  Today we hear that Jeremiah is beaten and thrown into the stocks.  This isn’t really all that big of a surprise.  He has just contradicted the religious leaders.  He gets himself into trouble and it comes in a very big way.  But in this we see Jeremiah’s character.  God says to do this.  Jeremiah did it.  Jeremiah cares more about obeying God than keeping himself safe.  Well done, Jeremiah, even if it meant a beating and being thrown in the publically humiliating stocks.

We also get to see the character of Passhur. Here is a man who hears from god and doesn’t like what he hears.  What is the conclusion that he reaches?  Passhur decides that he certainly couldn’t be hearing from God if he doesn’t like the message.  Rather than check out the message, Passhur makes up his mind on his own.  His character is to assume that he is right rather than consider that he might just be wrong.

We also get to see a glimpse of Jeremiah’s character as it pertains to his relationship with God.  What we see happen is Jeremiah begins to grumble.  It hurts to be persecuted.  He begins to curse being born.  He begins to wish he wouldn’t be in this situation.  He even asks God to curse the day that he was born!  But in all of this, he never turns his back on God.  He continues to praise God and lift up God’s name.  He isn’t angry with God; he is angry that following God is so hard in a fallen and sinful world.  I have to admit.  I’ve been there, too.

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