October 21st One Year Bible Readings

~ Click on this link for today's readings ~
Jeremiah 37:1-38:28 ~ 1 Timothy 6:1-21
Psalm 89:38-52 ~ Proverbs 25:28

Old Testament - Interesting dynamics in Jeremiah chapters 37 & 38 today... Jeremiah goes from dungeon to prison to cistern to prison to king's confidant. Being a prophet is quite a life!!

I continue to admire Jeremiah's boldness in speaking the truth in these chapters. 37:17 jumps out - "Later King Zedekiah secretly requested that Jeremiah come to the palace, where the king asked him, "Do you have any messages from the Lord?" "Yes, I do!" said Jeremiah. "You will be defeated by the king of Babylon." Jeremiah goes right to the truth... no beating around the bush! And then 3 verses later he asks Zedekiah - "Listen, my lord the king, I beg you. Don't send me back to the dungeon in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for I will die there." He speaks a harsh truth to Zedekiah and then asks for a favor. I like that.... Do we speak the truth in our lives? Even if we know we'll need to ask for a favor of someone later, will we still speak the truth?  Or will we default to the un-truthful position of "hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil...."

New Testament - Today we wrap up First Timothy!  Second Timothy begins tomorrow!  First Timothy 6 today is full of great wisdom. Verse 7: "Yet true religion with contentment is great wealth." Are we seeking true religion? What is true religion? I think Paul gives some great hints to us in verses 11-14: "Run from all these evil things, and follow what is right and good. Pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight for what we believe. Hold tightly to the eternal life that God has given you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses. And I command you before God, who gives life to all, and before Christ Jesus, who gave a good testimony before Pontius Pilate, that you obey his commands with all purity."  Are you holding tightly to the eternal life that God has given you?  Hold tight!

Verse 10 is powerful for me today - "For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows." It's interesting - the "love of money" is the root of all kinds of evil. Not money in and of itself - that's not the root of evil. But the love of money.... great distinction and a great truth. Do we love money? If so, should we be worried about this? If we love money, might we wander from the faith and pierce ourselves with many sorrows?

Psalms - Psalm 89 verse 48 is something important to keep in mind as I think it does help us think about how we are really living our short earthly lives - "No one can live forever; all will die.  No one can escape the power of the grave."  Knowing this, how are you living your life?  Are you living your life with love?  Are you loving God and loving other people with all that you are?  Are you living your life intentionally?  Are you living your life as God would want you to live your life?  I heard someone once state: "Just keep in mind that we're not going to live forever.  100 years from now on this planet?  It will be all new people."  That is an interesting thing to keep in mind...  100 years from now...  all new people.  Hopefully this is a fact that encourages each of us not to waste our precious time here on things that are not of God!  No one escapes the grave.  Our condition is terminal.  (But of course our condition can be eternal through faith in Jesus!)

Proverbs - Today in Proverbs 25:28 we read: “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.” Does this Proverb remind you of our recent readings in Jeremiah? Are there parallels to the captivity of the Israelites and this Proverb? How does this Proverb speak to you personally? Are your walls in need of some repair? Will you allow Jesus to repair them? Will you allow Jesus to restore self-control in those areas of your life that are lacking in self-control?  Will you allow Jesus to rebuild your walls?

Comments from you - What verses or insights stand out to you in today's readings?  Please post up by clicking on the "Comments" link below!

God bless,
Mike

Comments

[Caryn J]

On Jeremiah in general:
A number of times I have found myself thinking "Okay, okay, I get the message! Israel and Judah must turn from their wicked ways! Can we move on now?". Then there was a verse in yesterday's reading: (Jer 36 v 3 from The Message)"Maybe the community of Judah will finally get it, finally understand the catastrophe that I'm planning for them, turn back from their bad lives, and let me forgive their perversity and sin."

That's really the point. They didn't "get it" so God kept on at them. The number of times Jeremiah repeats the same message from God is testimony to God pursuing his people.

I remember when we were reading through the history of the kings of Israel and Judah after David, and how they all went pear-shaped. I remember thinking at the time - where was God in all this? After Him being so closely involved in everything that David did how did it happen that hundreds of years passed where he seemed to be just watching from a distance? The thought occurred to me - Didn't God care anymore what happened to his people?

Now, reading Isaiah and Jeremiah and knowing they existed in the abovementioned time, I realise that God WAS actively pursuing his people, and getting under the kings' skins, but they kept pushing Him away. Of course He cared!

The monotony of the warnings in Jeremiah are because God cared and wanted to give His people a way out of the punishment He had to bring to get rid of evil. If God did not respond radically to the radical evils that His people were involved in, He simply would not be a good God. A Holy God must react to evil.

A last related thought:
In Phillip Yancey's book "When Life Hurts" he explores the painful times we go through. One reason we can say that our painful experiences are not always punishment from God, is because before God punishes He always gives us a warning, and a chance to change our ways. That is what we are seeing in Jeremiah.

[Ramona]

Jeremiah 37:1-38:28

For me what is so compelling about Jeremiah is not that this happened to Judah in the midst of constant warnings sent by God, but that the people that Jeremiah prophesized too, are the same people right here right now. We are the stubborn ones, we are the ones who don’t get it, we are the ones that think because we are “Christians” that we are safe and the messages is not for us.

The Apostle Paul stated:

Let us not tempt Christ as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. Nor should we complain as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as examples, and they were written as a warning to us, on whom the ends of the ages have come. (1 Corinthians 10:9-11 HCSB)

It is important for us to read the prophets and observe the behabvors that they spoke against. As the “preacher’ declared in the Book of Ecclesiastes,

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9 HCSB)

I know that all God does will last forever; there is no adding to it or taking from it. God works so that people will be in awe of Him. Whatever is, has already been, and whatever will be, already is. God repeats what has passed.
(Ecclesiastes 3:14-15 HCSB)

Let us not assume that the stubbornness we are reading about was only peculiar to Israel and Judah. Let us not assume that because we are in church, in a prayer group that the prophet’s warnings are no to us. Let us not live our lives with an arrogance of faith.

Grace and peace,
Ramona