Tag Archives: God

Day 147: Accepting God’s Plan for Us

Jeremiah 34:1-7

The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, with all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying: “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Yahweh says, “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire. You won’t escape out of his hand, but will surely be taken and delivered into his hand. Your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth. You will go to Babylon.” ’

“Yet hear Yahweh’s word, O Zedekiah king of Judah. Yahweh says concerning you, ‘You won’t die by the sword. You will die in peace; and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will make a burning for you. They will lament you, saying, “Ah Lord!” for I have spoken the word,’ says Yahweh.”

Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, when the king of Babylon’s army was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.

Sometimes, something God makes clear to us about our future seems very negative. We may ask and He may refuse to change His mind about it. It can happen that eventually, we realize that God is saving us and actually our future is much better than we thought. I think we get a glimpse of this kind of thing when we consider what happened to King Zedekiah of Judah.

When he heard Jeremiah’s “negative” message, the king put him in jail, but it appears that God told him to repeat the prophesy about his capture by the king of Babylon. At this point, it was pretty obvious that Judah was losing the war. There were only two fortified cities left. My thought is that King Zedekiah could see “the writing on the wall” so to speak. Instead of worrying about the negativity of Jeremiah’s prophesies, he may have started to be worried about being killed.

The funny thing is that all Jeremiah had to do was repeat his original words, only this time, they sounded much more positive. God’s word to Zedekiah really was positive. God promised that Zedekiah wasn’t going to be killed. On top of that, he was going to be given an honorable burial after dying in peace. Even so, some horrible things were to happen to him as we read later.

As I considered this passage, I began to wonder what might have happened had the Assyrians or the Egyptians captured King Zedekiah. Would they have killed him? King Zedekiah wasn’t a good guy even though God was trying to be good to Him. Still, God was going to keep His word as we will see.

I believe that had King Zedekiah simply given in to God and His word sooner, things could have gone much better for him. This is a lesson to us. Even if God’s plan for us seems negative, it would be wise for us to accept it and reconsider how it may be saving us. May God give us peace as we simply trust in His plan for us.

Day 134: The Reversal of the Captivity of Judah

Jeremiah 31:23-30

Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘Yahweh bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’ Judah and all its cities will dwell therein together, the farmers, and those who go about with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.

“Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of animal. It will happen that, like as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” says Yahweh. “In those days they will say no more,
“ ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.

You can imagine that Jeremiah had trouble sleeping. God had given him a horrible glimpse into the future; one that involved the annihilation of his people. God had also allowed him to be hated by his own people including being disowned by his own family members. He even had people who wanted to kill him, but it appears that the thing that really kept him up at night was the fact that God’s wonderful plan for Jerusalem and His people Israel was stopping. So, what we have in this chapter is God making it extremely clear that God’s plan for Jerusalem and for Israel was not coming to a complete end. In fact, God intended to make things much better. Here we read that this revelation made it into the heart of Jermiah because he wrote here: “On this I awakened, and saw; and my sleep was sweet to me.” God told Jeremiah that He intended to “reverse” the captivity of Judah. God even refers to himself as: “the God of Israel.” It wouldn’t make sense for God to refer to Himself as the God of those He rejects. Jeremiah was obviously very concerned about God’s people and God’s land and perhaps even panicked when he heard of God’s intention to destroy them. God made sure to help His prophet through these thoughts so that his mind would be at ease. This same God helps us in our times of distress too.

The next section of this passage tells us that the future kingdom of Israel will be governed differently. The current kingdom allowed the children of those who sinned to suffer for their father’s errors. This is clearly not God’s intention and I believe that this is caused by poor government leaders. The reason I make this assertion is because I believe that God is referring to the future messianic kingdom of Israel here. One of the amazing things about the reign of Jesus on earth will be the difference in the speed and precision of justice. The Bible tells us that Jesus will rule with a rod of iron. He won’t be a passive leader at all. The Bible indicates that sinners will get caught immediately under Jesus’ rule. This won’t allow children to be affected by their parent’s sin anymore. There won’t be time for them to learn how to sin from their parents before the parents are publicly exposed and shamed. This may not be what people are expecting of Jesus in His leadership role, but I don’t see how it could mean anything else at this point. I don’t believe that there will be “death row.” People will probably die the day after they murder someone else and children will be given good fathers in their place. It’s hard to imagine Jesus ruling in our time isn’t it? But we should spend some time considering it because Jesus will eventually rule over this sinful world. I may not be right about what this is referring to, but I do know that Jesus will return and rule over this earth for 1000 years and we will see justice like we have never seen before.

Day 123: A Letter from God

Jeremiah 29:8-14

For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you. Don’t listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them,” says Yahweh. For Yahweh says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future. You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” says Yahweh, “and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says Yahweh. I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.”

Can you imagine what it would have been like to have been violently ripped from your home and made a slave in a country that doesn’t speak your language and does everything differently? Then can you imagine what it would have been like to receive a letter directly from God like this? What a wonderful thing that would be don’t you think? God tells His people that He has “thoughts of peace, and not evil” toward them. That’s quite amazing considering the fact that they were being punished for their rebellion. God tells them in His letter that he wants to give them “hope and a future.” Then He lays out the plan. He intends to wait until they seek Him with all of their heart and then take them back out of their captivity and bring them back to their own land. He even tells them how long it will be. That’s quite a letter.

We have similar times in our lives. There are times when things are so confusing that we don’t really know what to expect tomorrow. Then God gives us hope. He helps us to see His hand in our lives and may even give us a clear vision for several years into the future. God loves us, even though we are sinners and His intention for mankind has been good since the very beginning as we have been reading for several years now.

There’s another important thing that we need to really pay attention to as believers. God can and does speak through dreams. Even in the New Testament, we see examples of this, but that does not mean that God speaks through all dreams. In this letter, God makes that clear. He warns His people that the dreams that the prophets are having there in Babylon are not to be trusted. They were having dreams but those dreams were simply their own. They weren’t from God. I believe that the Bible makes it clear that all truth that is not directly written in the Bible is to be carefully tested. Even good people can have dreams that are more related to stress or a meal that they ate before going to bed. There are even drug related dreams that unbelievers have that could be influenced by evil. We need to remember what God wrote in His letter to us:

1 John 4:1

Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Day 106: God Is Everywhere

Jeremiah 23:23-24

“Am I a God at hand,” says Yahweh,
“and not a God afar off?
Can anyone hide himself in secret places
so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh.
“Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.

One of the most amazing and important things that shaped my life is the fact that God is everywhere. At a very young age I was taught about God and I remember when I took to heart the fact that God is always there. It is true that we read about God going to different places in the Bible, but that is clearly just one representation of God and I believe that God does it this way for our sake. We really don’t understand how God can be everywhere, but when you accept the truth of it, it can begin to change your life.

When I was young, the thing that really impressed me was that every minute of my life, God was watching. There was no moment to myself when I can do something secretly. Everything is in the open and I think that this is exactly what God is telling the false prophets here. Nothing that they are doing is hidden or secret to Him. I also realized that the fact that God is always watching and that He has expectations of us, shows us that He loves us with a greater love than anyone else. Who else has such high expectations of us? I did discover that I was unable to do good for God, though. I also had to learn that I needed God’s help everywhere I went too. When I finally understood that, I was able to actually start pleasing God everywhere. It doesn’t matter where we go, we always have God with us to help us and to guide us.

Science: Do you realize that our God provides the only true basis for science? The fact that God is everywhere in the universe at once makes Him the logical Creator of natural laws. We expect the laws of nature to be true everywhere. If the laws of nature changed in one part of the universe, then science would no longer work there. In order for science to be useful it demands universal law and universal law has no reason to exist unless the God of the Bible does.

Day 105
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Day 107

Masking God

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It was brought to my attention that some satanic rituals involve wearing a mask and standing six feet apart (source at 43:55). It was also brought to my attention that there isn’t any scientific evidence that standing six feet apart reduces the spread of small viruses like SarsCov2. These are a just a few of the poorly linked “facts” that formed the basis for the policies that began to control our lives in 2020.

I have already written about the fact that universal masking is wrong. Since then, it was brought to my attention that mask mandates also do another thing. They cover the face of a creature that was made in the image of God Himself. Doing a thing like this may have ramifications that we can’t fully know. Even though there are times that God allows the sick to be masked, as I mentioned in the other article, only the outwardly sick with specific kinds of disease are to be masked and only below the nose.

You might argue that it isn’t the physical face that God finds most important, but that’s not the point. Even if the physical is only a symbol of the spiritual, it must remain symbolic. In other words, if it is a symbol of what is good spiritually, it is wrong to harm the symbol just as it is wrong to harm the real thing. Jesus’ face is mentioned as being connected to the glory of God and He is our example. (See: 2 Corinthians 4:6)

When you study the Bible, you quickly come to the conclusion that doing things that God doesn’t like have consequences. Some of those consequences are immediate and some of them don’t happen until after you die, but under no condition will any man get away with anything that goes against God. (see Numbers 32:23)

The Bible also tells us that God has an enemy. Satan has been trying to mess God up since God exposed Satan for his attempt to take over. As Christians, we know that this is the real battle on earth today. It may look political, but it’s much more than that. It makes sense that Satan would cause those under his control, like Biden, the CDC and Dr. Fauci, to create an environment that condemns mankind. Satan has used this method before to destroy men. Man may have another purpose, but is he often used by Satan to do what God hates.

It is a Christian’s responsibility to promote God and His image. We are to teach our children the same. Besides the fact that the masks are a symbol of servitude to other men, which is wrong for a Christian (see 1 Corinthians 7:23), it also represents something that covers the face of God. This is evil and must be stopped before our culture faces the inevitable consequences.

Day 74: It’s Getting Personal

Jeremiah 15:10-14

Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife,
and a man of contention to the whole earth!
I have not lent, neither have men lent to me;
yet every one of them curses me.
Yahweh said,
“Most certainly I will strengthen you for good.
Most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil
and in the time of affliction.
Can one break iron,
even iron from the north, and bronze?
I will give your substance and your treasures for a plunder without price,
and that for all your sins,
even in all your borders.
I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you don’t know;
for a fire is kindled in my anger,
which will burn on you.”

We are entering one of the passages of the Bible that speaks to me in a very personal way. As a Christian, it’s easy for me to start looking at how I’m being treated by people for my obedience and to start to complain against God. It’s hard when you are being troubled by friends and enemies, because of your unwillingness to avoid your conscience. It’s hard when you are doing what is right and getting paid pain for it. These things are hard but it doesn’t mean that God is making a mistake or that He won’t make things better someday.

In this passage Jeremiah tells God what he feels about having to share a message that makes him unpopular with everyone. They treat him like a scoundrel even though he didn’t do anything that scoundrels do. He said that even his mother is cursed because she bore a son like this. These comments make it pretty obvious that Jeremiah was frustrated and I have been feeling things like this too.

After Jeremiah complains to God, God says some things that are pretty difficult for me to interpret. It’s as if God is telling Jeremiah that when he is taken captive, he will be treated with respect but his property and people are still going to be taken because of God’s anger against Jeremiah and Jeremiah’s people. Now why would God be angry with Jeremiah? That’s what seems confusing to me, but there does seem to be a thread of guilt that God is putting on Jeremiah here that appears to continue on in this chapter.

God was planning to protect Jeremiah as He had already told Him. Jeremiah’s duty was to believe and not doubt. It was good for Jeremiah to come to God with his complaint, but his complaint was still wrong. God was right to allow Jeremiah to be born and God had the right to use Jeremiah to do something difficult. God wasn’t doing anything worthy of his complaint. I need to remember that too. When things aren’t going right, I have the responsibility to trust in God’s choice and not be angered or frustrated by God’s way of doing things.

Day 73
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Day 75

Day 63: Justice and Mercy to the Nations Around Israel

Jeremiah 12:14-17

Yahweh says, “Concerning all my evil neighbors, who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land, and will pluck up the house of Judah from among them. It will happen that after I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them. I will bring them again, every man to his heritage, and every man to his land. It will happen, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, ‘As Yahweh lives;’ even as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the middle of my people. But if they will not hear, then I will pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it,” says Yahweh.

Do you remember how many times we read that God would bless Israel, then they would go away from God and then He would punish them, then they would cry out to God and He would have mercy on them and save them? In this passage, God appears to be saying that this is how He works in the nations around Israel. If they “swear by” His name instead of by some other, then He would build them up. If not, He would tear them down too. That is very exciting to me because it shows us that God cares about Gentiles. It also tells us that He gave nations other than Israel their own place. We know that this is true because we read about that in the books of Moses. God even told Israel to not try to take the land of certain other nations because He had given it to them.

I believe that this passage may apply to nations other than those that are right around Israel. In a way, the United States is a neighbor to Israel today. I believe that God has already blessed our nation for acknowledging Israel’s God. Our money even declares our motto. Our nation intended to trust in the God of Israel and nothing else. We have been greatly blessed as a result. Notice, however, that if a nation “will not hear,” God will “pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it.” So we see that God does not want nations that boarder Israel to not believe in Him.

We know that, someday, the whole world will acknowledge that Jesus is the King of the earth. Even if these things don’t directly apply to nations that aren’t bordering Israel, we know that God works with Gentile nations too. God has a place for all of us and He is the God of the whole world, not just Israel.

Day 62
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Day 64