1:1-19 - To understand Jeremiah’s story, we must look ‘behind the scenes’: ‘The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”’ (4-5). To understand our own story, we must go even further back - ‘The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... chose us in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight’. We must never forget the words of Jesus: ‘You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last’ (Ephesians 1:3-4; John 15:16). We’re not to be ‘on the surface’ people. We’re to be people who have seen ‘behind the scenes’, people who have caught a glimpse of the eternal God and His eternal purpose for our lives.
2:1-19
- Jeremiah’s message was not popular. He spoke to the people about
their ‘sins’. They had turned away from the Lord. They had chosen to go
their own way (13). He invited them to think about what their wrong
choices were doing to them: ‘Have you not brought this on yourselves by
forsaking the Lord your God when He led you in the way?’ (17). Jeremiah
left the people in no doubt about where their wrong choices were leading
them - ‘“Your own evil will punish you, and your turning from Me will
condemn you. You will learn how bitter and wrong it is to abandon Me,
the Lord your God, and no longer to remain faithful to Me”, I, the
Sovereign Lord Almighty, have spoken’ (19). This was not what the people
wanted to hear. It was what they needed to hear. It’s still what we
need to hear today!
2:20-37
- ‘Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if
they can save you when you are in trouble!’ (28). The man-made ‘gods’
cannot ‘save’. They cannot even begin to compare with ‘the Lord’ - ‘the
everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth’ (Isaiah 40:28).
There is no comparison between God and the gods - ‘I am God, and there
is no other’. The outcome of the conflict between God and the gods is
never in doubt. For ‘all the makers of idols’, the future holds nothing
but ‘shame’ and ‘disgrace’. God calls us to a much better and brighter
future. ‘Saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation’ - This is the
great and glorious future which awaits all who obey God’s call to
salvation: ‘Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth’ (Isaiah
45:15-17,22).
3:1-25
- God calls us to ‘return’ to Him (14,22). He calls us to make our
response to Him. He invites us to say, ‘Yes, we will come to You, for
You are the Lord our God’ (22). How are we to come to the Lord? We are
to come to Him, confessing our sins - ‘We have sinned against the Lord
our God’ (25). We are to come to Him, trusting Him to save us - ‘Surely
in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel’ (23). ‘Return’ to the
Lord - There is nothing more than important than this. Think of the
blessings the Lord gives to those who return to Him - (a) He is
‘merciful’ to us - ‘He does not treat us as our sins deserve’ (12, Psalm
103:10); (b) We become His children, calling Him ‘Father’ (19;
Galatians 4:6); (c) He ‘cures us of our backsliding’ - ‘In Christ’, we
become ‘a new creation’ (22; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
4:1-18 - ‘If you will return, O Israel,... then the nations
will be blessed...’ (1-2). We are not only to seek blessing for
ourselves. We are to pray that others will be blessed also. The blessing
of God is not to be kept to ourselves. It is to be shared. We are not
to be small-minded people - ‘What will I get out of it?’. Jesus
said to His first disciples, ‘Go and make disciples of all nations’.
This is still His Word to us today. We cannot rest content with being an
inward-looking Church. Christ has given us a worldwide mission: ‘You
will be My witnesses... to the ends of the earth’. We are not left to
face this great task on our own. Christ says, ‘I am with you always’. We
do not take up this great challenge in our own strength. Christ says to
us, ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you’ (Matthew
28:19-20; Acts 1:8).
4:19-5:9
- ‘One disaster follows another. The whole land is ruined... My people
are fools. They don’t know Me... They are experts in doing wrong, and
they don’t know how to do good’ (20,22). We read the daily news. We
wonder, ‘What’s going to happen next?’. We ask, ‘Where will it all
end?’. Are we to give up hope? No! We must learn to look beyond the
things that are happening in our world today. We must learn to look to
the Lord - ‘the God of hope’. He says to us, ‘There is hope for your
future’. Do you feel like things are just going from bad to worse?
Remember God’s Word: ‘I know the plans I have for you... to give you a
future and a hope’. ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of
the Holy Spirit’ (29:11; 31:17; Romans 15:13).
5:10-6:8
- ‘A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land: The
prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and My people love it this way’
(31)! The people were happy to listen to the ‘prophets’ - so long as
their preaching wasn’t too challenging. They were happy to attend the
services conducted by the ‘priests’ - so long as nobody expected them to
change their way of life. The last thing they wanted was ‘prophets’ and
‘priests’ who took God’s Word seriously. Jeremiah was exactly what they
didn’t want! He was serious about preaching the Word of God. He was
serious about living in obedience to God’s Word. He wasn’t popular. He
didn’t give the people what they wanted. Jeremiah was exactly what the
people needed - a prophet who would keep on challenging them to ‘get
real’ with God.
6:9-30
- ‘Their ears are closed... The Word of the Lord is offensive to them;
they find no pleasure in it’ (10). Jeremiah must have felt like he was
‘hitting his head off a brick wall’. So few people showed any real
interest in hearing and obeying the Word of the Lord. It seemed like
God’s Word was ‘going in one ear and out the other’. It would have been
so easy for Jeremiah just to ‘settle down’, to start ‘taking it easy’.
This was what so many of the ‘prophets’ and ‘priests’ had done: ‘They
dress the wound of My people as though it were not serious. “Peace,
peace”, they say, when there is no peace’ (13-14). This was what
Jeremiah refused to do. Jeremiah made his choice. We must make our
choice. Will we choose to be faithful to God or will we settle for being
popular with those whom ‘the Lord has rejected’ (30)?
7:1-8:3
- ‘Stop believing these deceitful words, “We are safe! This is the
temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”’
(4). For many, the place of worship has become more important than the
Person we worship. They talk a lot about ‘the Church’ - but they never
speak of Christ! They love to see ‘the Church’ looking good - but
they’re not so concerned about what ‘the Lord sees’ when He ‘looks at
the heart’ (1 Samuel 16:7)! Their talk is so self-centred - ‘I love my Church. I never miss my Church. I always support my Church’. There is a great deal of ‘I’ in this kind of talk - but Christ is conspicuous by His absence! ‘Look at what I have done for my Church’ - ‘Stop believing these deceitful words’. Let Christ take the place of ‘I’: ‘It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20).
8:4-22
- ‘Wise people are put to shame, confused, trapped. They have rejected
the Word of the Lord. They don’t really have any wisdom’ (9). Some
people think they’re smart. They’re wise in their own eyes. They ‘know it all’ - so they think!
They’ve an answer for everything - except the most important question,
the question of salvation: ‘What must I do to be saved?’. They know so
much - yet they know so little that really matters! ‘The harvest is
past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved’ (20) - Some
people think they’re smart. They’re getting on in the world. They’ve no
time for God. They’re too busy enjoying all the pleasures of this world.
When this world is ‘past’ and its pleasures have ‘ended’, where will we
be? - ‘What good will it do you if you gain the whole world - and lose
eternal life?’ (Matthew 16:22).
9:1-26
- Jeremiah speaks of those who are ‘circumcised only in the flesh’.
They remain ‘uncircumcised in the heart’ (25-26). Paul tells us that
‘not all who are descended from Israel are Israel’. Salvation is not a
matter of outward conformity to religious rituals. What we need is
‘circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit’ (Romans 9:6; 2:28-29). Jesus
put it this way: ‘You must be born again’ (John 3:7). Many people have
been ‘brought up in the Church’, but they’ve never opened their hearts
to Christ. They’ve heard the Word of God preached many times, but they
haven’t been born again through the power of ‘the Spirit of the living
God’ (2 Corinthians 3:3). Our religious rituals mean nothing if, in our
hearts, we remain unconverted: ‘Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
means anything; what counts is a new creation’ (Galatians 6:15).
10:1-25
- ‘The Lord is the true God; He is the living God, the eternal King’
(10). Can there ever be anything more important than worshipping the
Lord? We know the answer as soon as we ask the question! Very often, our
lives gives a very different answer. We have taken our eyes off the
Lord. We have forgotten that He is the true and living God. We sing the
words, ‘O Lord, Thou art my God and King... Each day I rise, I will Thee
bless...’ - but they have a hollow ring about them! Here’s a prayer to
help you to make a real commitment of your life to the Lord: ‘Teach me
to live, day by day, in Your presence, Lord... Teach me to praise, day
by day, in Your Spirit, Lord... Teach me to love, day by day, in Your
power, Lord... Teach me to give, day by day, from my wealth, O Lord...’ (Church Hymnary, 346; Mission Praise, 627).
11:1-23
- God speaks His Word to us. He calls us to obedience. He says to us,
‘Obey My voice’. Sadly, however, the story of our life is often summed
up in the words: ‘They did not listen or pay attention. They did not
obey’ (7-8). God’s Word is not just ‘something to think about. When God
calls us to obedience, we’re not to say, ‘I’ll think about that later’.
‘Now’ is the time for obedience to God’s Word: ‘Obey now the voice of the Lord’ (38:20). We must not put this off until tomorrow. God is looking for our obedience today:
‘Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts’ (Hebrews
4:7). To those who were deeply involved in religious ritual - ‘burnt
offerings and sacrifices’ - , God said this, ‘To obey is better than
sacrifice’ (1 Samuel 15:22). Obedience involves our whole life - not
just ‘never missing a service’!
12:1-17
- ‘“If any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and
destroy it”, declares the Lord’ (17). We must not look out to the world
and say, ‘That’s what’s happening “out there”’. We must look into our
own hearts. We must ask, ‘What’s happening “in here”?’. We are to pray,
‘Search me, O God, and know my heart’ (Psalm 139:23). When the
searchlight of God’s Word begins to shine on our lives, it becomes clear
that ‘all is not as it seems’: ‘They speak well of You with their lips,
but their hearts are far from You’ (2). Our situation seems hopeless.
We cannot change ourselves: ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the
leopard his spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing
evil’ (13:23). There is a Word of hope. We can be changed by the Lord: ‘I will give you a new heart’ (Ezekiel 36:26).
13:1-27
- ‘These wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who follow
the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and
worship them will be... completely useless’ (10). Are you on the
way to becoming ‘completely useless’? Each of us must think about what’s
been happening in our lives? - ‘Where is the blessedness I knew when
first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing view of Jesus and His
Word? What peaceful hours I once enjoyed! How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void the world can never fill’. We need to
pray for real change. We need to pray for ‘a closer walk with God’:
‘Return, O Holy Dove!... The dearest idol I have known... Help me to
tear it from Thy throne, and worship only Thee. So shall my walk be
close with God...’ (Church Hymnary, 663).
14:1-22 - In ourselves, there is sin - ‘O Lord... we have sinned against You’. In the Lord, there is salvation
- ‘O Lord our God... our hope is in You’ (20,22). In the Lord, there is
no sin - ‘You are too pure to look on evil’ (Habakkuk 1:13). In
ourselves , there is no salvation. We are ‘spiritually dead because of
our disobedience and sins’. We need to be ‘made alive’. How can this
happen? It is not something we can do for ourselves. The new birth can
only be received as a gift from God. We must stop trying to save
ourselves. It cannot be done. Salvation cannot be earned. It must be
received as a gift from God. It must be received by ‘faith’. We must
look away from ourselves to Christ. In Christ, we see ‘God’s great love
for us’. Through receiving Christ as Saviour, we are ‘born of God’
(Ephesians 2:1,4-5,8; John 1:12-13).
15:1-21
- Some of our problems come from outside of ourselves. Other people
cause problems for us - ‘This people will fight against you’ (20). Some
of our problems come from within our own hearts. Our own sins cause
problems for us - ‘Put to death what is earthly in you...’ (Colossians
3:5). There are ‘fightings and fears within’. There are ‘fightings and fears without’. We are ‘tossed about with many a conflict, many a doubt’. Tell the Lord all about it. Tell Him how it really
is. ‘Just as I am’ - This is how we must come to the Lord. Our
‘fightings and fears’ do not simply disappear the moment we pray, ‘O
Lamb of God, I come’ (Church Hymnary, 79). We do, however, have God’s promise: ‘They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you’ (20). He will lead us in the way of victory (Colossians 2:8-10).
16:1-21
- ‘O Lord, my Strength and my Stronghold, my Refuge in the day of
trouble, to You the nations will come from the ends of the earth... They
will know that My Name is the Lord’ (19,21). Faith is to be personal - The Lord is my Strength, my Stronghold, my Refuge. Faith must not be private.
It is not to be kept to ourselves. There is to be no ‘us and them’
attitude. We are not to have a ‘we are the people’ attitude. The Gospel
is for the nations. We’re not to say, ‘I’m okay. That’s all that matters’. The Gospel is to be taken to the ends of the earth.
We are to reach out to others. We must share the Gospel with the people
we meet. Tell the people what the Lord has done for you. Tell them what
He can do for them. Let them know how much the Lord loves them. Let
them know that our God can be their God too.
17:1-27
- ‘The Lord’ is ‘the Fountain of living water’ (13). He says to us,
‘With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation’ (Isaiah
12:3). We can be ‘like a tree planted by water’, a tree that ‘does not
cease to bear fruit’ (8; Psalm 1:3). God speaks His Word to us: ‘“Where is the Word of the Lord?” Let it come!’ (15; Psalm 1:2) He brings His salvation to us: ‘Save me, and I will saved’(14; Psalm 1:6). He gives His blessing
to us: ‘Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord’ (7: Psalm 1:1). We
rejoice in God’s ‘eternal love’, drinking from ‘the streams of living
waters’ and discovering that ‘grace,... like the Lord the Giver, never
fails from age to age’ (Church Hymnary, 421). Let us press on to
our heavenly and eternal glory: ‘In Your presence is fullness of joy. At
Your right hand are pleasures for evermore’ (Psalm 16:11).
18:1-23
- ‘The pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands, so
the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him’
(4). This is what the Lord is doing in our lives. He is ‘the Potter’.
We are no more than ‘jars of clay’ (6; Isaiah 64:8; 2 Corinthians 4:7).
Our lives are ‘marred’ by sin. It would be very easy to give up on
ourselves. God hasn’t given up on us. He looks beyond what we are now.
He sees what we will become. He is preparing us for ‘eternal glory’. ‘We
are being renewed day by day’. ‘We are being transformed into His
likeness with ever-increasing glory’ (2 Corinthians 4:16-17:3:18).
‘Jesus, You are changing me. By Your Spirit, You’re making me like
You... You are the Potter and I am the clay. Help me to be willing to
let You have Your way...’ (Mission Praise, 389).
19:1-20:6
- ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and the villages around it
every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stubborn
and would not listen to My Word’ (15). God is warning the people. He is
calling them back from the way of sin and disobedience. He is calling
them to return to Him. He is looking for people who will take Him
seriously. He calls us to live in obedience to His Word. He calls us to
worship Him with the dedication of our lives and not only the words of
our lips. Sometimes, we wonder, ‘Will God’s blessing be lost forever? Is
there a way of rediscovering His blessing in our lives?’. ‘There’s a
way back to God from the dark paths of sin. There’s a door that is open
and you may go in. At Calvary’s Cross is where you begin, when you come
as a sinner to Jesus’ (Mission Praise. 682).
20:7-18
- Jeremiah is deeply depressed - ‘Cursed be the day I was born!... Why
did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my
days in shame?’ (14-18). He has been preaching God’s Word. He’s getting
nothing but abuse in return: ‘The Word of the Lord has brought me
insult and reproach all day long’ (8). Does he stop preaching ? No! He
keeps on going. He feels like giving up: ‘If I say, “I will not mention
Him or speak any more in His Name”’. There is, however, a greater Power
which drives him on - ‘His Word is in my heart like a fire’. No matter
how much Jeremiah tries to keep silent, he ‘cannot’ do it (9). He moves
forward in triumphant faith: ‘The Lord is with me like a mighty warrior’
(11). He calls on the people to worship the Lord: ‘Sing to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!’ (13).
21:1-14 - ‘Perhaps the Lord will perform wonders for us as in times past...’ (2). That was then. What about now?
We must not assume that God will always bless us. Yesterday’s blessing
belongs to the past. We must not live in the past. We must not say, ‘He
has blessed us in the past. He will keep on blessing us’. Do you want to
keep on enjoying God’s blessing? Keep on seeking His blessing. If we do
not seek the Lord, there will be no promise of blessing. We will hear a
very different Word from the Lord: ‘I have determined to do this city
harm and not good... I will punish as your deeds deserve’ (10,14). Don’t
take God’s blessing for granted. You could be ‘in for a rude awakening’
- if you do not start seeking the Lord. Start seeking Him today: ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart’ (29:13).
22:1-30
- Jeremiah was speaking to people who had given up on worshipping the
Lord (9). His message was clear: ‘O land, land, land, hear the Word of
the Lord?’ (29). God is speaking His Word. Are we listening? God is
looking for people who will listen to Him. He wants us to pay attention
to His Word. God’s Word is like ‘the sound of a trumpet’. It demands our
attention. Many people say, ‘We will not listen’. God’s Word shows us
‘the good way’ and calls us to ‘walk in it’. Many people say, ‘We will
not walk in it’. What about you? What do you say? What is your
response to the Word of the Lord? God is warning us: ‘I am bringing
disaster on this people... because they have not listened to My Word’.
Don’t bring this judgment on yourself. Listen to God’s Word. Walk in His
way (6:16-19).
23:1-20
- ‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of
my pasture!’ (1). We are not to be like the false ‘prophets’: ‘They
speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord’.
What were the false ‘prophets’ saying? - ‘They keep saying to those who
despise Me, “The Lord says: You will have peace”. To all those who
follow the stubbornness of their hearts, they say, “No harm will come to
you”’ (16-17). God is calling us to be faithful. It will not be easy.
Often, we will be tempted to ‘take the easy way out’. We will feel the
pull of the world: ‘Just be the same as everybody else’. This may seem
to be the ‘easy’ option. There is something else we must remember: It is
also ‘the broad road that leads to destruction’. Let us follow Christ
on ‘the narrow road which leads to life’ (Matthew 7:13-14).
23:21-40
- ‘I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their
message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied’ (21). Before
we can speak for God, we must take time to listen to Him.
We dare not attempt to speak for God if we are not prepared to spend
time listening to Him. Everything could have been so different - if
‘these prophets’ had taken time to listen to God: ‘If they had stood in
My council, they would have proclaimed My words to My people and would
have turned them from their evil ways’ (22). ‘If’ - God doesn’t
force us to listen to His Word. He invites us to listen. The choice is
ours. You can allow other things to become more important than spending
time with God. Don’t be ‘too busy’ for the ‘one thing’ that is more
important than anything else - listening to God’s Word (Luke 10:41-42).
24:1-25:14
- Can our lives be changed? Yes! They can be changed by God: ‘I will
give them a heart to know that I am the Lord’. This is no superficial
change. This is real change, change which makes a difference. This is a
change of heart: ‘they shall return to Me with their whole heart’ (7).
How are we changed? We are changed by God: ‘I will put My Spirit within
you, and you shall live’ (Ezekiel 37:14). We become new people - ‘alive
to God in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 6:11). This is the great change,
the change that makes all the difference. It’s not just a little change
here and there. It’s everywhere. No part of our life remains the same.
Every part of life is changed. When there’s a real change of heart,
everything changes - ‘all things have become new’ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
‘Change my heart, O God...’ (Mission Praise, 69).
25:15-38
- ‘I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name’
(29). With the privilege of being the Lord’s people comes the
responsibilty of living as the Lord’s people. We are not to be
His people in name only. We are to live the life of the people of God.
We must not imagine that we can enjoy the privilege of being God’s
people if we are not prepared to bear the responsibility of living as
His people. Privilege and resonsibility belong together: ‘You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore
I will punish you for all your sins’ (Amos 3:2). We cannot say, ‘I
belong to the Lord’ and then live whatever way we like. To those who
have been ‘raised with Christ’, receiving new life through faith in Him,
God says, ‘Set your hearts and minds on things above, not on earthly
things’ (Colossians 3:1-2).
26:1-24
- ‘He has spoken to us in the Name of the Lord our God’ (16). Jeremiah
was a true servant of the Lord. We need people like him today. He was
faithful. He was unashamed of his Lord. He was unafraid to speak up for
his Lord. We see this same faithfulness in Christ’s apostles: ‘Day after
day, in the temple and from house to house, they never stopped teaching
and preaching the Good News that Jesus is the Christ’ (Acts 5:42). We
could do with people like that today, people who are enthusiastic about
sharing the Gospel, people who are eager to win others for Christ. We
can be people like that. God can make us like that - if we let Him! As
you hear the Word of the Lord in Church, as you read His Word in your
own home, pray that God will give you the strength to share with others
the Word He has given to you.
27:1-22
- ‘They will be taken to Babylon and there they will remain until the
day I come for them. Then I will bring them and restore them to this
place’ (22). God had a great purpose for His people - but they had to
wait for His time. God has a great purpose for us. Christ is
preparing a great ‘place’ for us: ‘In My Father’s House are many
mansions... I am going there to prepare a place for you’. Christ has
promised that He will return to take us to that great ‘place’: ‘I will
come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also’
(John 14:2-3). Christ is coming. We must wait for Him. We must be
patient. We must wait for His time, the time of His Coming, the Day when
He comes for us. The Lord has not forgotten His promise. He will come
‘to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him’ (Hebrews 9:28).
28:1-17
- ‘Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this
people trust in a lie’ (15). What a difference there is between those
who wait on the Lord for His strength and those who rush ahead in their
own strength! The Word of God warns us against trying to serve God in
our own strength: ‘Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men
shall fall exhausted’. If we are to be true servants of the Lord, we
must learn to wait upon the Lord and receive His strength: ‘Those who
wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength’. What a difference the
strength of the Lord makes - ‘They shall mount up with wings like
eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint’
(Isaiah 40:30-31)! Let us exchange our weakness for God’s strength -
then we will truly be ‘sent’ by the Lord and will speak His truth.
29:1-32 - ‘I know the plans I have for you... to give you a future and a hope’. This was God’s long-term
purpose for His people. It was important that they did not lose sight
of this. There would be ‘seventy years’ of captivity in Babylon (10-11).
At times, they must have wondered, ‘Will this ever end? Is there really
something better still to come?’. Our life on earth may sometimes seem
like the ‘seventy years’ in Babylon: ‘The length of our days is seventy
years... yet all they bring us is trouble and sorrow’! We wonder, ‘Is
there a glorious future still to come?’. In our times of ‘suffering’ and
‘sorrow’, we draw our ‘strength’ from God’s Word. We look forward to
‘the Day’ when Christ ‘comes to be glorified in His holy people and to
be admired in all who believe’ (Psalms 90:10; 119:28; 2 Thessalonians
1:4-5,10).
30:1-24
- ‘I am with you to save you’. This was God’s Word to His people.
Their ‘captivity’ in Babylon would not last forever. God had given His
promise: ‘I will restore the fortunes of My people... I will bring them
back to the land which I gave to their fathers’ (10-11,3). ‘I am with
you to save you’. This is still God’s Word to us. Our ‘captivity’ will
not last forever. Christ has died to ‘free those who all their lives
were held in slavery by their fear of death’. We look beyond our earthly
life. We see our glorious future. ‘Death’ will be ‘swallowed up in
victory’. ‘Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ’. Let us ‘be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord, our labour is not in vain’
(Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:54,57-58).
31:1-20
- ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with
loving-kindness’ (3). So often, we have been like ‘the prodigal son’
(Luke 15:11-24). We have walked away from our Father’s House. We have
wandered off into ‘the far country’. We feel that we are far from God,
yet still He draws near to us. The Lord is at work in our hearts. He is
bringing us ‘to our senses’. He is reminding us of His love. He is
drawing us back to Himself. In love, He is calling us home again. He is
speaking to our hearts. He is saying to us, ‘I have loved you with an
everlasting love’. As His love reaches our hearts, ‘the prodigal son’
becomes ‘the returning son’: ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and
against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son’. ‘Bring me
back, let me come back, for you are the Lord my God!’ (18).
31:21-40
- ‘Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take note of the highway, the
road that you take’ (21). It’s so easy to take a wrong turning. You
lose your sense of direction. You get confused. You’re not sure which
way to go. You are lost. You are getting more and more lost all the
time. You can’t find your way back home again. You need someone who
knows the way to come and be your guide. Is there someone who can get us
on the right road again? Is there someone who can guide us safely home?
Yes! Jesus is ‘the Way, the True Way, the Living Way’. ‘I am the Way,
the Truth and the Life. That’s what Jesus said. Without the Way, there
is no going, Without the Truth, there is no knowing. Without the Life,
there is no living’ (John 14:6; Junior Praise, 89). Let Jesus be your Guide. Let Him be your Saviour.
32:1-25
- ‘Nothing is too hard for You’ (17). We face many difficult
situations. What are you to do when you feel you can take no more?
Remember the Lord. Nothing is too hard for Him. Remember His promise:
‘The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the
evil one’ (2 Thessalonians 3:3). Jesus calls us to follow Him. He calls
us to follow Him. He warns us - ‘the way is hard’. It is Jesus
- our loving Saviour - who calls us to follow Him. He does not leave us
to go it alone. He gives us His strength - ‘My yoke is easy and my
burden is light’ (Matthew 4:19; 7:14; 11:30). ‘When the road is rough
and steep, fix your eyes upon Jesus. He alone has power to keep. Fix
your eyes upon Him’. You can ‘depend on’ Jesus. He is your ‘gracious
Friend’. ‘He is faithful to the end’ (Junior Praise, 279).
32:26-44
- ‘I will bring them back to this place’ (37). God is bringing us
into His ‘place’. He is bringing us close to Himself: ‘They will be My
people, and I will be their God’ (38). He is bringing us into the
‘place’ of obedience: ‘I will inspire them to fear Me, so that they will
never turn away from Me’ (40). He is leading us to the ‘place’ of
blessing: ‘I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they
will always fear Me for their own good and the good of their children after them’
(39). Sometimes, our life seems like ‘a desolate waste’. We must not
lose sight of the purpose of God: ‘I will rejoice in doing them good and
will assuredly plant them in this land with all My heart and soul’
(43,41). God will not leave us in our ‘desolate waste’. He will lead us
to a better ‘place’ - the ‘place’ of obedience and blessing.
33:1-26
- ‘I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild
them as they were before. I will cleanse them from all the sin they have
committed against Me... Then this city will bring Me renown, joy,
praise, and honour before all nations on earth...’ (7-9). What great
blessing lay ahead of God’s people! God was pointing His people to the
place of blessing: Jesus Christ - ‘the righteous Branch from David’s
line’ (15-16). ‘In Christ’, we have ‘every spiritual blessing’: ‘No eye
has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared
for those who love Him’ (Ephesians 1:3; 1 Corinthians 2:9). God has so
much blessing to give to us. Come to Him and receive His blessing: ‘Call
to Me, and I will answer you; I will show you wonderful and marvellous
things that you know nothing about’ (3).
34:1-22
- ‘Freedom for the slaves’ - What a good idea! ‘Everyone agreed’. The
slaves were ‘set free’. So far, so good! Then things went wrong -
‘Afterwards they changed their minds and took back the slaves... and
enslaved them again’ (8-11). What did God have to say about this? - ‘You
have turned round and dishonoured Me... You took back the slaves... You
forced them into slavery again... You have not obeyed Me’ (16-17).
Jesus Christ isn’t like these slavemasters! He doesn’t only promise us
freedom. He gives us our freedom: ‘If the Son sets you free, you will be
free indeed’. He doesn’t come to us with ‘a pack of lies’ -
promising this, that and the other, and then breaking every promise. He
sets us free with His Word of truth - ‘You shall know the truth, and the
truth will set you free’ (John 8:36,32; Psalm 119:45).
35:1-19 - ‘Will you not learn a lesson and obey My words?’ (13) - ‘Jonadab, son of Rechab, ordered his sons not to drink wine and this command has been kept... I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not
obeyed Me’ (14). We are not to say, ‘I will follow You’ and then change
our mind (Luke 9:57). We are not to sing, ‘Take my life, and let it be
consecrated, Lord, to Thee’, and then live a life which contradicts our
prayer of commitment to the Lord (Church Hymnary, 462). We are to
mean what we say. We are to follow through our words of commitment with
a life of obedience, a life that is pleasing to the Lord. The
Rechabites were obedient to Jonadaab’s command - and they were blessed
by God (18-19). Obedient and blessed - That’s what God wants us to be.
Let’s obey the Lord - and look to Him for the blessing.
36:1-32
- ‘The king cut it with the penknife, and threw it into the fire’
(23). The king didn’t like God’s Word. He thought he could get rid of
God’s Word. What a fool he was! God saw what was going on. The king’s
attempt to silence God was utterly futile. God would not be silenced. He
continued to speak His Word. Soon, the king was hearing another Word
from the Lord: ‘You burned that scroll...’ (29)! God is still speaking
to us today. He calls us to listen to Him. He calls us back from the way
of ‘wickedness’, back from the brink of ‘disaster’ (31). He calls us
back from the way of unbelief, the way that leads to ‘the eternal fire,
prepared for the devil and his angels’. He calls us to be ‘blessed’.
Have faith in the Saviour. Receive ‘the Kingdom prepared for you since
the creation of the world’ (Matthew 25:41,34).
37:1-21
- ‘Is there any Word from the Lord?’ - ‘Yes! There is a Word from the
Lord’. The Word from the Lord wasn’t exactly what the king wanted to
hear - ‘You will be handed over to the king of Babylon’ (17). God was
going to bless His people - but they would have to be patient: Things
were going to get an awful lot worse before they would get much better!
Before their restoration - “I will bring them back and restore them to
this place’ - , God’s people faced captivity - ‘They will be taken to
Babylon’. There was bad news - a captivity of ‘seventy years’. There
was good news - the captivity wouldn’t last forever (27:22; 29:10-11)!
God speaks of His blessing - ‘It will certainly come’ - , but He also
says, ‘Wait for it’ (Habakkuk 2:3). Let’s listen to all that He says to us - and not ‘only hear what we want to hear’!
38:1-28
- ‘No Surrender’ - Was this the way forward for God’s people? ‘No
Surrender’ - What would happen if God’s people adopted this attitude?
Jeremiah speaks God’s Word to the people. He calls them to make their
choice. They can ‘surrender’ and ‘live’. They can say, ‘No Surrender’ -
and face certain death (17-18). Captivity in Babylon would not be easy.
They would be heartbroken as they recalled happier times - ‘By the
rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion’. It would be
so difficult to keep on praising the Lord - ‘How shall we sing the
Lord’s song in a foreign land?’ (Psalm 137:1,4). Life in Babylon would
be difficult - but ‘it would not be the end of the world’! They could
still look forward to the fulfilment of God’s ‘gracious promise’: ‘I
will come to you and bring you back to this place’ (29:10).
39:1-18
- You can take the man out of Babylon, but you can’t take Babylon out
of the man! We may have never set foot in the ancient city of Babylon,
but we know all about the spirit of Babylon! ‘The heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately corrupt’ (17:9) - This is the spirit
of Babylon, ‘the spirit of disobedience’, the spirit which is ‘at work’
in every one of us: ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’
(Ephesians 2:2; Romans 3:23). Is there any hope for us? We cannot
change ourselves: ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard its
spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil’
(13:23). We can be changed by God. To those who ‘trust’ in Him, the Lord
says, ‘I will save you’ (18). God wants to bless you. Put your trust in
Him. Let His blessing flow into your heart (17:7).
40:1-16
- ‘The Lord your God pronounced this evil against this place; the Lord
has brought it about, and has done as He said. Because you sinned
against the Lord, and did not obey His voice, this thing has come upon
you’ (3). We hear a great deal today about ‘the feel good factor’.
People need to get a good feeling: ‘Give them a pat on the back. Make
them feel good about themselves’. There’s not much of a ‘feel good
factor’ in Jeremiah’s preaching! The people must have been wondering,
‘Where did they dig him up from? He has nothing good to say about anyone
or anything’. We must rise above the sarcasm of those who have no time
for the Word of the Lord. We must ask, ‘Where did Jeremiah’s message
really come from?’. This is what the Word of the Lord says: ‘The Word
came to Jeremiah from the Lord’ (1).
41:1-42:6
- Terrible things were happening! Things were going from bad to worse.
‘What next?’ - The people were wondering where it would all end. What
are we to do when everything seems to be getting totally out of control?
There is one thing we must never forget. It is the most important thing
of all. We must ‘pray to the Lord our God’. We must ask Him to ‘show us
the way we should go’. He will ‘show us the thing that we should do’
(42:2-3). It’s time to stop complaining and start praying. ‘What a
Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a
privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!... Have we trials and
temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged.
Take it to the Lord in prayer!... Jesus knows our every weakness. Take
it to the Lord in prayer!’ (Mission Praise, 746).
42:7-43:7
- ‘Do not go to Egypt’ (19). We may never set foot in the country
known as ‘Egypt’ - but the spirit of ‘Egypt’ may be in our hearts: ‘Who
is the Lord, that I should obey Him...?’ (Exodus 5:2). ‘Egypt’ is an
attitude of the heart. It is an attitude of rebellion against God. We
must say ‘No’ to ‘Egypt’. We must say ‘No’ to the spirit of rebellion
against God. For God’s people, ‘Egypt’ was a place of slavery, a place
from which they needed to be set free by God (Exodus 2:23-25; 3:7-10).
Each of us must choose how we will live. We can remain in the place of
slavery - ‘slaves of sin’ - , or we can be ‘obedient from the heart’,
stepping out from that place into the place of freedom, ‘the new life of
the Spirit’ - ‘`the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set
me free from the law of sin and death’ (Romans 6:17-18; 7:6; 8:2).
43:8-44:14
- ‘The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah’ (43:8). The Lord speaks His
Word to those who are prepared to make time for listening to Him. Come
to God’s Word, praying that it will be ‘a lamp to your feet and a light
to your path’. Come with the prayer, ‘Open my eyes that I may see
wonderful things in Your Word’. See that you ‘live according to His
Word’: ‘I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against
You’ (Psalm 119:105,18,9,11). Pray that God will ‘speak’ to you.
‘Listen’ to what He says to you (1 Samuel 3:10). ‘Say to them, “This is
what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says...”’ (43:10). Don’t keep
God’s Word to yourself. Share His Word. We are not to listen to God
without also speaking for Him. We must remember that we cannot really
speak for Him unless we are also listening to Him.
44:15-45:5
- ‘Egypt’ was to be a place of punishment. To those who remain in the
the place of rebellion, God says, ‘I will punish you in this place’.
This is His Word of warning. We don’t need to remain in the place of
rebellion and punishment. We can ‘return’ to ‘Judah’, the place of
obedience and blessing (28-29). This is not about places we will find on
a map of the world. It’s a call to look into the secret places of our
hearts. We must ask God to search our hearts. What will He find when He
looks into our hearts? Will He find rebellion? Will He find obedience?
God wants us to leave the place of rebellion and punishment. He wants us
to return to the place of obedience and blessing. ‘Search me, O God,
and know my heart!... See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me
in the way everlasting!’ (Psalm 139:23-24).
46:1-28
- ‘Egypt rises like the Nile, like rivers whose waters surge. He said,
“I will rise, I will cover the earth, I will destroy cities and their
inhabitants”’ (8). The spirit of rebellion against God is very powerful.
Many lives have been destroyed by the attitude of proud unbelief: ‘Who
is the Lord, that I should obey Him...?’ (Exodus 5:2). We must take our
stand against this attitude. We must stand up for the Lord. We see the
world going from bad to worse. We must continue to believe the Word of
God. When we are filled with fear, He comes to us with His Word, ‘Do not
fear... Do not be dismayed...’. When we feel the spirit of rebellion
sweeping over us, God comes to us with His promise: ‘I will surely save
you out of a distant place’. He gives us ‘peace and security’ - ‘Do not
fear... I am with you’ (27-28).
47:1-48:17
- ‘The day has come to destroy all the Philistines... The Lord is
about to destroy the Philistines... Woe to you, O Moab! The people of
Chemosh are destroyed’ (47:4). That seems like ancient history -
nothing to do with us! What about this? - ‘A curse on him who is lax in
doing the Lord’s work!’ (48:17). The Bible may have been written many
centuries ago - but it still has a great deal to do with us! We miss the
point if we read the Bible as no more than a book of ancient history.
God is still speaking to us through His Word. He is still calling us to
sit up and take notice. He is still demanding our attention. We must not
be lazy in the work of the Lord. We are to be faithful servants of the
Lord. ‘Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord... your
labour in the Lord is not in vain’ (1 Corinthians 15:58).
49:1-22
- ‘Afterwards I will restore the fortunes...’ (6). Sometimes, when
you’re going through a particularly difficult time, you may wonder,
‘Will this ever end?’. God speaks to us His Word of encouragement. There
will be an ‘afterwards’. There will be a ‘restoration of our fortunes’.
‘The Lord will not cast us off for ever. Though He brings grief, He
will show compassion according to His steadfast love. He does not
willingly bring suffering or grief to anyone’ (Lamentations 3:31-33).
There will come a time when we will be able to look back at our most
distressing circumstances and say from the heart, ‘God meant it for
good’ (Genesis 50:20). In our most testing and trying times, God is
teaching us to say, with confidence in Him, ‘We know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love Him’ (Romans 8:28).
49:23-39
- ‘I will restore the fortunes... in days to come’ (39). God is
calling us on to His future, a glorious future, a future full of
heavenly and eternal glory. We look ahead to ‘days to come’. We look
ahead to the greatest Day of all - the Day of Christ’s Return. It will
be a glorious Day - ‘the Day He comes to be glorified... in all who have
believed’. What a glorious Day it will be - the Day of ‘the Coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ’, the Day of ‘our being gathered to Him’: ‘The
Lord Himself will come down from heaven... We will be with the Lord for
ever’. Get ready for Christ’s Return. Don’t be like those who ‘perish’.
They ‘do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus’. They ‘refuse to love
the truth and be saved’. Have ‘faith’ in Christ and be ‘saved’ (2
Thessalonians 1:7-10; 2:1,10,13-14; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
50:1-28
- ‘The people... will go in tears to seek the Lord their God... They
will come and bind themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant
that will not be forgotten’ (4-5). God is calling us to come to Him. He
is calling us to commit ourselves to Him. We are to come to the Lord
with ‘tears’: ‘Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation’
(2 Corinthians 7:10). Our commitment to the Lord is not to be a
half-hearted thing. It is to be a whole-hearted dedication of our lives
to Him. God loves us. He has blessed us so much. He has drawn us to
Himself. He has heard and answered our prayer for salvation. How are we
to respond to such love? We must give ourselves to Him as ‘a living
sacrifice’. This is our ‘spiritual worship’. It is ‘holy and pleasing to
God’ (Romans 12:1).
50:29-46
- ‘The arrogant one will stumble and fall’ (32). God’s Word warns us -
‘Pride goes before... a fall’; ‘Arrogance will bring your downfall’
(Proverbs 16:18; 29:23). We must not trust in ourselves. We must put our
trust in the Lord - Our ‘Redeemer is strong. The Lord Almighty is His
Name’ (34). We must not boast of ourselves. Salvation is ‘not our own
doing’. We must ‘boast of the Lord’. Salvation is ‘the gift of God’ (1
Corinthians 1:31; Ephesians 2:8-9). When we are tempted to take pride in
ourselves - ‘Lord, I thank You that I am not like other men...’ (Luke
18:11-12), we must come to the Cross of Christ, praying the sinner’s
prayer - ‘Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner’ (Luke 18:13) - and boasting
only of the Lord - ‘God forbid that I should glory except in the Cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Galatians 6:14).
51:1-33
- ‘Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations!’
(27). God calls us to be His witnesses. If we are growing in our
fellowship with the Lord, we will want others to know what they’re
missing. We will want them to know how much blessing they could know -
if they put their faith in Christ and began to walk with Him
day-by-day. Let us give our testimony: ‘The Lord is my Banner’, ‘His
banner over me is love’ (Exodus 17:15; Song of Solomon 2:4). Let us make
sure that our ‘trumpet’ gives out ‘a clear call’, calling people to
come to Christ. We must point them to Christ, calling them to trust Him
as Saviour and obey Him as Lord. We must show them the way to true
happiness: ‘Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in
Jesus, but to trust and obey’ (Mission Praise, 760).
51:34-64
- ‘When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud’
(61). God’s Word is not to be kept within the place of worship. We are
to take His Word to ‘Babylon’. We must speak His Word in the places
where He is not worshipped. We are to call people to turn from their
sinful ways. We are to call them to return to the Lord. This will not be
an easy message to speak. Many people won’t want to hear it. We must
warn people that by neglecting God’s salvation, they are placing
themselves in danger of His judgment. We must speak of the Day when
everyone of us must ‘answer’ to God concerning the way we have lived our
lives (Hebrews 2:3; 4:13). We must call on people to ‘believe in the
Lord Jesus’ and ‘be saved’ (Acts 16:31).
52:1-34
- We need ‘a portion for each day... all the days of our life’ (34).
When we pray, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’, we must look beyond our
physical need for food. We must remember our spiritual need for ‘the
Bread of life’: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word of
God’ (Matthew 6:11; John 6:35; Luke 4:4). Day-by day, we should pray
for spiritual feeding: ‘Break Thou the Bread of life, dear Lord to me,
as Thou didst break the bread beside the sea. Beyond the sacred page I
seek Thee, Lord. My spirit longs for Thee, Thou living Word! Thou art
the Bread of life, O Lord, to me, Thy holy Word the truth that saveth
me. Give me to eat and live with Thee above. Teach me to love Thy truth,
for Thou art love’ (Mission Praise, 64).
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