Bible In One Year-Day 146 (Sunday, May 26, 2013)

Commentary: Jer25-27. The main discontentment between God and His people was the issue of idolatry. Judah went after another god. Despite God’s love, mercy and grace for them, they never repented. For 23 years, Jeremiah declared God’s mind to Judah, but they never repented. The decision of God was to send them into 70 years captivity, where His splendor was withdrawn from them for a while. In that land, according to God, it would be difficult for them to even laugh, talk less of partying. To accomplish this, God has put some things on ground; sword and wine cup of fury. The cup of fury was to make them unreasonable. Whoever is drunk acts foolishly and takes stupid decisions;

Jeremiah 25:15-16 “For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.”

Perhaps as a last opportunity, Jeremiah was asked to go and speak repentance to Judah at the gate of the house of the Lord before God takes action according to His word; what a lenient God we serve. On hearing the prophecies at the gate, they gathered to kill Jeremiah. He proved his innocence that what He said was what God asked him to say. In chapter26, we could see the court of law set up to visit the case. History was visited and past prophets who at some times in the past prophesied were cited (versed17-24). Jeremiah’s advocate was Ahikam who had at one time served under King Josiah (2Kings22:12-14). Though Nebuchadnezzar was a king in Babylon, he was an instrument in the hand of God to effect His plan. Nebuchadnezzar received God’s backing to head the nations far and near. It would have been a useless prayer to stand to pray against him. This is why we need to know, as Christians, how to pray an enquiry prayer. Through that we could receive God’s mind. The interpretation of the parable in Jer24 is what we read in Jer27. God allow some unpleasant things to happen to us for our own good a times;

Jeremiah 24:5 “Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good.”

Each time we find ourselves in unpleasant situations, it is good for us to sit and ask God what He wants us to know. God is not evil and everything He has put in place is to lead us into the expected end or plan. Nebuchadnezzar was an instrument in the hand of God to changed Judah and all nations;

Jeremiah 27:5-8 “I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.”

The main thing God wanted to achieve was to prepare them to receive a new heart which hungers and thirst for God;

Jeremiah 24:7 “And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.”

Let us ask for the old path where we could find rest. Let us listen to the trumpet’s sound, wherewith we could escape the calamity to come. Our reading for today is Jer28-30. Keep the fire burning and alive

Pastor Supo Abayode

Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries

Delaware, USA