Jeremiah 50 God Punishes Babylon

Jeremiah has been declaring judgment on all the surrounding nations, but now he turns to Babylon, the great empire that conquered all these other nations. He tells the Chaldeans that they too will be destroyed. A country will come from the North and take them off the map. Their land would become a barren wilderness. No one will live there forever. The reason? They had touched God's people. Even though their capture of Judea was a just reward for their sins, God still cared about His people and punished Babylon for taking them captive.

God still cares about us that much. As we live for Him, we are His people and he protects us too. He may choose to allow circumstances that we do not enjoy, but He always has our good in mind. He may chasten us when we do wrong, but it is for our good. So, remember that whatever you may be facing right now. God is still looking out for you.

Jeremiah 49 - Put Your Trust in God

I apologize for failing to post yesterday. I took my computer to work and forgot to bring it home again.


In chapter 49, God continues his pronouncement of judgment on sinful nations. He mentions two nations that were powerful and felt very secure: Edom and Assyria. God said that no matter how they felt they were safe, they would be destroyed. Edom was built in the mountains and was thought to be invincible, but when God says something will happen, mountains cannot stop him. He made the mountains! Damascus, the capital of Assyria was also a very strong city, but God said that it would be destroyed also.

We may feel secure today for a variety of reasons: insurance, retirement plan, good job, healthy income, family, or church. But, God wants us to get our security from Him. If we are getting our security else ware, we can be sure that we will be disappointed. Insurance rates go up, retirement investments go bad, jobs get downsized, accidents happen, income stops, families die, churches fail, but God is always constant. If we serve Him, He will always be there for us. His Word never fails. There is nothing that gets out of control for Him. He has absolute power and unlimited knowledge. What a great God to serve!

Jeremiah 47 - 48 Destruction of Evil Nations

In chapter 47, Jeremiah moves on to the Philistines. God is no respecter of persons. As he had punished the Jews for their wickedness, so he would do to the Egyptians and the Philistines. God is merciful, but He is also just. And, there comes a point where he no longer waits for people to repent. We never know when that time will come. So, we do well to be prepared to meet Him anytime. We must be living for every moment of our lives.
Chapter 48: Now Jeremiah addressed Moab. They are a very strong nation. They had much wealth. Their cities were well fortified. Yet, if God said they would be destroyed, then there were no two ways about it: they would be destroyed. Because God is so merciful today, many people do not think that God means what He says. God's plans will always be carried out. Many times we cannot understand what God is doing, but He always has a plan and it cannot be defeated. God's plans are just so much higher than ours that we can't see them. We often could not understand them even if we could see them. What a great God we serve!

Jeremiah 45 - 46

Chapter 45: It seems that here Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe was becoming discouraged. He was looking for a reward for his faithfulness to God, but none came. Things continually got worse. He had served God and Jeremiah through thick and thin and he was getting tired of it. It seemed that he deserved a reward. Yet God, through Jeremiah, told him that he was not to look for a reward. Things would get even worse. The whole land would be destroyed. However, God did promise Baruch that he would not die in the destruction of Judea.
Sometimes we may feel like Baruch. We have served God for most of our life. We feel discouraged and wonder if it's really worth serving God. "What do I get out of it," we wonder, and then God comes to us and tells us not to be discouraged. He may even tell us that things will get worse. But, we must always remember that the reward is not at the beginning of life or the middle but at the end. So, let's remain faithful and not give us until we reach our goal.

Chapter 46: Jeremiah now turns from speaking to the Jews: he warns the Egyptians that they cannot escape Babylon either. The Babylonians will come and destroy the land and take everyone captive. He also warned them not to be confident in themselves because it would not work. He warned that their mighty men would be killed in battle and the women would be taken captive. It seems that God was using this as a punishment to them for worshipping false gods.
God is all-powerful. His ways are far above ours, and when He decided how things will be, we cannot fight against it. It is useless for us to even try. However, if we trust God and obey Him, we can be assured that God will watch over us here in life and reward us with heaven after death.

Prepare the Way of the Lord

http://www.charityministries.org/audio/3871.mp3

Jeremiah 44 The Stubborn Jews

The Jews that God had preserved and allowed to live in Judah had now fled into Egypt directly going against God's instructions to them. Now Jeremiah was warning them that they must serve the true God and stop worshipping the queen of heaven or they would be destroyed. Yet, these stubborn people did not even make a pretense of obeying God's Word. They boldly announced that the would not obey God, but the would persist in serving other false gods. Jeremiah told them that if they persisted, God would destroy all of them except a small remnant that would return to Judea.

Are we sometimes as stubborn as these Jews? How does it look to God when we continually disregard His clear instructions in the Bible. Let's always serve Him faithfully and never be guilty of acting like the Jews in Jeremiah's day.

Jeremiah 42 - 43 Obeying God's Will

Finally the people of Judah had rest from their captors. The few that were left in Judah could live normal lives, or so they thought. However, after their governor was killed, they feared that Nebuchadnezzar would come back and retaliate. So, they made plans to go to Egypt, but first they did the right thing! They asked Jeremiah to inquire of God whether or not they should flee to Egypt. They even promised that they would obey whatever Jeremiah said. After 10 days, Jeremiah came back with the Lord's verdict: they were not to go to Egypt. If they stayed in Judea, they would be safe from Nebuchadnezzar. If they went to Egypt, the would be killed by famine, sword and pestilence.
Despite all the promises they had made about obeying God, the disobeyed. They claimed that Jeremiah was just deceiving them and Baruch had put the idea in his head just so that Nebuchadnezzar could capture the rest of them.
Are we like that today? Do we pray for God's Will and then balk and complain when He answers our prayers and we don't like the answer? Human nature has not changed in the last 4,000 years. We tend to be much like they were. Let's remember that when we pray to God, we need to be ready for the answer he will give. Let's be willing to accept God's will for our lives without questioning