Jeremiah is instructed to by a field....now Jeremiah is being held captive at the time, at the palace...Judah had been under seige for about a year....Jeremiah was supposed to buy land that the soldiers occupied.....not a particularly good investment. Jeremiah was demonstrating faith because God had been promising all this time to bring the people back to the land......editorial comment: do you think that Jeremiah would be good for Children's Moments at church with all his object lessons?
In verses 17-25, Jeremiah begins to wonder if buying the field was wise. Have you ever questioned your decisions and whether God was in them? Jeremiah did just what he should; he prayed.....God sees us and will calm our fears as He guides us and we listen.
Did you notice that God asks a different generation, "Is anything too hard for me?" Do you remember God asking Abraham and Sarah about this when he told them they'd have Issac? (See Genesis 18:14). Note in 32:14, God refers to an everlasting covenant....anytime you see this, this is the covenant with Jesus Christ.....if we believe that he died and rose again for our sins, we have everlasting life. This is a non-negotiable tenant of our faith.
Chapter 33 is the promise of restoration...I just love, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know".......Don't you WANT that? And you get more "The days are coming" and "In those days and at that time".....just read what is said about Jesus!!!! Prophesy is occuring about our ultimate Savior way before it happened.....Scholars think this has near and far fulfillment....It is the first and second coming of Christ....
Verse 17: David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel, nor will the priests who are Levites, ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices......Things are gonna change!! Jesus is going to fill these roles (King and priest) and things won't be done in the same way ever again.
And in Chapter 34, God's promised judgment arrives. King Zedekiah starts acting right and freeing slaves (old law in which Jewish indentured slaves are freed in their sixth year) and then snatches them back. He flat out disobeys God again.
Verse 18: "I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between the pieces" was a customary way to ratify a contract (Look at Genesis 15: 9, 10)...God is saying, "You have broken the contract you made with me, so you know the judgment awaiting you. King Zedekiah is finally going down....God had given him enough chances to repent.....do you ever make promises to God that you don't keep?
Look what comes up from the depths of the sea.
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Well....I think we all make promises at some point that we cannot keep or do not keep.....not intentionally .....but because we are human and sin......we need to learn to be careful about what we promise and focus more on praying for His help in trying to fulfill promise.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if I said that right......focus more on prayer and less on making unbelievable promises.
Yep...there is a huge difference in our human-ness and our doing what we say we are going to do.....God ALWAYS does what He says He is going to do.....that's why when we see His promises, we know He is going to do them.
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