Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 42-46
Things to remember in today’s reading:
- The survivors of the attack on Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar request a word from God (42:1-6)
- Jeremiah delivers in response to their request (42:7-22)
- They reject the word (43:1-7)
- God rejects them (43:8-13)
- God demonstrates his hatred for idolatry by consuming with sword and famine those who went to Egypt against His will (44:1-14)
- The people, nevertheless, pursue idolatry (44:15-19).
- God pronounces a final word of judgment on the faithless people (44:20-30).
- God offers hope to Jeremiah and Baruch (45:1-5)
- God judges Egypt (46:1-28)
Things God is teaching me in today’s reading:
- Spiritual leaders bear a double burden. They deliver the message of judgment from God to people in sin. They then must bear the sorrow of seeing a wrong decision on the part of some of those to whom they have delivered the message. This causes them to say similar words to Jeremiah’s, “You have gone astray at the cost of your lives … you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your? God in anything that He sent me to tell you.” (42:20-21)
- Sometimes “insolent men” persecute the messenger of God rather than correcting their lives (43:2)
- The message is sometimes hard to deliver, but God rewards those faithful servants who “write these words in a book” (45:1)
Things to act on in today’s reading:
- Take a stand against the false God of humanism in my culture
- Positively impact my community by inviting just one other family to a Bible study in my home
- Follow through in discussing ideas for studies targeted to youth and men’s issues
Things to pray about in today’s reading:
- Lord, help me to always accept the rebuke of Your Word and to conform my life to its precepts!
- Lord, help me to have the strength and courage of a Jeremiah and a Baruch to say and write what needs to be communicated to call people to serve you!
- Lord, please be with your servant Jesse and his faithful wife Lura; comfort them, give them peace and strengthen them!
Thanks for reading with me dear friend. Have a blessed day!!
— Randy Sexton