Week 33 Day 5 – A Message of Hope

Let’s face it; Jeremiah’s story is mostly a dark tale of destruction on a wicked city. During Jehoiachin’s reign a massive amount of Jerusalemites surrendered to the Babylonians and were taken to exile. The people left behind were destined for annihilation. Jeremiah was left begind to continue speaking the words of God to these hard-hearted people. Things got ugly for Jeremiah as he was imprisoned and, at one point, thrown into a pit and left to die.
During this dark time Jeremiah took a moment and turned his attention to those who had been exiled. Read Jeremiah 29:1-23 to see what he said to these people.

Underline vv. 11-13 in your Bible. Do you see what is happening here? Even in the midst of the darkest hour, God gives a messsage of hope and faithfulness to His people. Yes, He punishes them for their sin, no doubt. Yet, God will never forget the promise He made to Abraham. God has a plan and that plan is bigger than anyone can imagine.

2500 years later we can see the plan clearly. In the middle of Babylonian captivity God was preparing the way for Jesus, the Messiah to come. I’m sure the Jews were having a hard time understanding how being in a detention camp was a good thing, but that is what Jeremiah said.

You may be in a difficult time right now. Don’t despair. God is with you, He understands your suffering and has a big picture in mind. Just stay focused and keep your heart right with Him.

Week 33 Day 4 – I Didn’t Sign Up For This!

Jeremiah 20:7-18 is a beautiful picture of a real man having a heart to heart talk with God.
Sometimes even the people with the strongest faith, who are in the most difficult circumstances, have difficulty seeing the good in the situation.  Jeremiah was honest with God.  Yes, he knew the truth – we see that in vv. 11-13 – but it didn’t make his situation feel any better.

God never promised you that life would be easy.  Nor does God want you to pretend that it is.  What God wants from you is an authentic heart that is not afraid to speak the truth in all circumstances, even if it means telling God that you are getting tired of being the only one who is willing to do what is right.  God’s big enough to handle your honesty.  He invites it, and wants to carry your burden for you.

Week 33 Day 3 – The Trust Factor

Jeremiah 17:5-10

This passage sets up a nice contrast for us.

Draw a table that has two columns.  In the left column write “cursed trust vv. 5-6” and in the right column write “blessed trust vv. 7-8.”  List all the contrasts you see in these two passages.

According to v. 10, what is God looking for?

The obvious question from this lesson is, “where is your trust?”  It is easy to pay lip service to the notion that we trust in the Lord, but what do our actions say?  How much time do we spend protecting ourselves from danger – financial, relational, political – by putting up various types of walls around us, when all the while our heart is drying up for lack of love from and toward God.  God invites us to open ourselves up and place our trust in Him, not our own strength or ingenuity.  When we throw ourselves into God’s hands and stop worrying about things, then we can experience true freedom.

Week 33 Day 2 – True Boasting

Jeremiah 9:23-26
As you read through the first nine chapters of Jeremiah you realize that one of the biggest problems the people had was that they talked the talk, but they didn’t walk the walk.  They knew the right words to say that sounded “religious” or like they new the truth about Jehovah, but they practiced idolatry right along with it.  The really wild thing about it was that they boasted in how “tight” they were with God.  They boasted in how holy Jerusalem was and how God had chosen them to be a special nation, and that the rich among them were especially close to God because He had so obviously blessed them.

Read Jeremiah 9:23-26.  If a person is going to boast, what should they boast about?

List the qualities that describe God and that bring delight to His heart?

According to vv. 25-26, what kind of circumcision was God looking for?

Just because the men of Israel were physically circumcized, that did not make them right with God.  That was the people’s problem.  They thought God was all about the externals; what you did on the outside and how you appeared to everyone.  That was a dangerous path.

Now do a heart check on yourself.   What standard do you use to feel good about yourself?  Are you comparing yourself to beautiful people, or rich people, or “super-spiritual” people and deriving your sense of worth, or lack of worth, based upon the comparison?  Remember that God does not care about these external things.  God cares about the integrity of your heart.  How are you doing in the kindness, justice, and righteousness department in your life?

Week 32 Day 4 – Our True Shepherd

Jeremiah 23:1-8

In this visual teaching image of the Shepherd we get to encounter our first ray of real hope all week.  Jeremiah is indicting the shepherds (the spiritual leaders) of Israel for abandoning their post and allowing the sheep (God’s people) to be led into dangerous places of idolatry.  He promises that He will punish the false teachers and salvage his flock.

There are two key lessons from this passage:

1. Being a shepherd is a big responsibility that God does not take lightly.  God will hold teachers and shepherds, the leaders of the church, to a high standard since they have direct influence over how people think about the nature of God.  May we who hold this responsibility fall on our faces and ask God to work through us to bring glory to His name.
2. We have hope in the fact that Jesus is our ultimate shepherd.  There is only one true shepherd and the rest of us in leadership roles are “sheepherds” who are sheep that need to be led while we in turn are leading other sheep.  Before you cast stones at a struggling church leader, realize that they have a sheep side as well.  Make sure that you are focusing on the one true shepherd, Jesus, and find ways to lovingly support those whom God has called to serve as shepherds of the flock.

Week 32 Day 3 – Smashing Results

Jeremiah 19:1-15

The Hinnom Valley ran along the south and west of the city and served as Jerusalem’s “community dump.” The gate at the south of the city which opened into the valley was called the “Potsherd Gate” because people carried their potsherds (broken pieces of pottery) and other refuse through this gate to throw it in the Hinnom Valley. The Targum identifies the Potsherd Gate with the Dung Gate (cf. Neh. 2:13; 3:13-14). The modern Dung Gate in Jerusalem is also located on the south of the city, but the present walls are several hundred yards north of the walls in Jeremiah’s day.

With the Hinnom Valley as a backdrop, Jeremiah delivered his message. God vowed to bring a disaster on Jerusalem because of her idolatry. The valley itself was a witness against the People because it contained the high places of Baal where people slaughtered their sons to offer them as sacrifices in the fire. Because of these wicked deeds God again (cf. Jer. 7:32-33) vowed to rename the place the Valley of Slaughter as He destroyed the people there.

Walvoord, J. F. (1983-c1985). The Bible knowledge commentary : An exposition of the scriptures (Je 19:1). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

A running motif in our teaching has been that of the clay vessel.  In 2 Corinthians 4:7 Paul reminds us that we hold this treasure (our relationship with God) in jars of clay.  We understand that our purpose in life is to be filled with God’s presence so that our clay jars can overflow with hope and the gospel.

This study in Jeremiah reminds us what happens when clay jars become infected with the wrong thing.  Sometimes a clay jar can be so far off track that the only thing to do is to smash it out on the dung heap.  These are harsh words and Jeremiah’s message in ch. 19 is not a feel good, “God is great,” session.  Jeremiah brought a sobering word of judgment on the nation that had abandoned God’s presence.

The challenge for us is to remember our purpose and to remember our focus.  Our vessel exists for God, nothing else.  At the end of the day, at the end of our life, we will be faced with the reality of how we filled our life.  May we all be filled with God’s presence and stay far away from the Potsherd Gate.

Week 32 Day 2 – I Guess the Yokes on You

A yoke is a wooden frame, usually consisting of a bar with an oxbow or similar collar-like piece at either end, for attaching to the necks of a pair of draught animals, esp. oxen, so that they can be worked as a team.

Collins English Dictionary.

Read Jeremiah 27:1-28:17.

There are two important lessons in these chapters.

1. The world is full of false prophets who speak well and claim to be representing God’s Word for today.  Be careful who you listen to.  Hananiah was probably very convincing when he smashed Jeremiah’s yoke and claimed that God would protect His people.  Of course people wanted to listen to him; after all, doesn’t God want the best for His people?  It is important, as Christians, that we know the message of the Bible really well and have the tools to discern whether a teacher’s message is truly biblical or if it is infected with the world’s systems and philosophies.  How do we do that?  Study!  Ask questions!  Research!  Don’t take someone’s word for it just because they’ve been to seminary.  Be a student of God’s word on your own.
2. Everyone wears a yoke.  Another way to say this is that everyone is a slave to something.  The idea of autonomous freedom is an American myth.  We each need to ask ourselves an important question.  It’s like the scene from the movie Remember the Titans when the new head coach asks the hotshot players, “who’s yo daddy?”  We need to ask ourselves, “who’s our daddy?  Who do we serve?”  Jesus said that He has a yoke as well.  If we choose the world’s yoke, it will become like Hananiah’s and become a yoke of iron that will crush us under its weight.  Jesus’ yoke, the yoke of truth, is not easy, but it’s light, and will make us strong and healthy as we plow the fields of righteousness in His Kingdom.

Week 32 Day 1 – Worthless Waistband

Jeremiah 13:1-12

Here are some observations about the sash that we can think about in relation to our own lives.

1. The linen belt was a fine piece of clothing.  God viewed Israel, and He views us, as something precious and valuable to Him.  Jeremiah wore the belt around his waist for a while.  A belt was a symbol of trust and commitment because it bound the rest of the wardrobe together.  God desires to have a vital relationship with His people and wear us around in pride like we were a fine linen belt.
2. Perath was a symbol of the pagan religion that the people of Jerusalem had immersed themselves in.  The belt was buried in the mud just like the people were buried in paganism.  Fine linen goes bad when it is not washed and cared for.  Insects begin to eat it, the cloth begins to decompose, and it starts to stink.
3. A good cloth will get dirty with regular use, even if it is being worn by its rightful owner.  The normal procedure for a good belt is to be taken to the river to be washed with soap and properly dried.  When this happens, the belt can be worn with pride for a long time.
4. The question we must ask ourselves is what are we soaking in?  Are we buried in a sinful attitude that, if left unchecked, will rot out our heart?  Or, are we allowing God to soak us in the detergent of His Word and be rinsed by His Spirit on a regular basis so that we can stay fresh and clean?