Day 174: A Scientific Fact

Jeremiah 44:1-10

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying, “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah. Behold, today they are a desolation, and no man dwells in them, because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, to serve other gods that they didn’t know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, “Oh, don’t do this abominable thing that I hate.” But they didn’t listen and didn’t incline their ear. They didn’t turn from their wickedness, to stop burning incense to other gods. Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured out, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is today.’

“Therefore now Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Why do you commit great evil against your own souls, to cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and nursing child out of the middle of Judah, to leave yourselves no one remaining, in that you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to live, that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? They are not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.’

This sure was a depressing time in the history of Israel. When we were reading through the history books, the story goes by pretty fast, but when we hear the emotions of God as recorded by Jeremiah, and feel the events as they unfold, from God’s perspective, it really shows us how bad things had become.

We are in the 43rd chapter of Jeremiah and we also read through all 66 chapters of Isaiah and God spent page after page warning Israel and Judah that they would be destroyed. First, God took down Israel. Judah saw it but they still sinned by disobeying God and purposefully choosing to follow strange gods. Then, God finally took down Judah and Jerusalem, but left a remnant of Judah behind. Now, even they, after moving to Egypt, started to worship other gods! I hope it is obvious that this doesn’t make any sense.

In our world there are many people who refuse Jesus and the Bible because it isn’t logical and reasonable and contains miracles and things that can’t be real. These claims are false as I am constantly exposing, but the thing that is really absurd is that these same people believe in evolutionism which isn’t logical or reasonable and contains things that have never been seen to happen before. When a belief contains things that have never happened before, we call those things miracles. They are being hypocritical and are refusing God, just like this remnant of Judah was doing. When you won’t listen to reason and, instead, accept a false set of gods in place of the real God, it is a scientific fact that you are going to be destroyed as demonstrated by several experiments recorded here in the Bible. God clearly holds us accountable for our behavior under these conditions. Just because our world’s miracles are different and our gods are even stranger, doesn’t mean that we are any better than the remnant of Judah or that we will escape God’s punishment.

Day 173: An Unusual Illustration of Greed

Jeremiah 43:8-13

Then Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, “Take great stones in your hand and hide them in mortar in the brick work which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah. Tell them, Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne on these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his royal pavilion over them. He will come, and will strike the land of Egypt; such as are for death will be put to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword. I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt. He will burn them, and carry them away captive. He will array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he will go out from there in peace. He will also break the pillars of Beth Shemesh that is in the land of Egypt; and he will burn the houses of the gods of Egypt with fire.’ ”

Instead of running to God, the remnant of Judah ran to Egypt. Here we read that Jeremiah was told by God to predict the attack and captivity of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Once again, God calls Nebuchadnezzar: “my servant.” Let’s consider what has happened here and see if it might apply to us today.

Egypt had been a very strong and large kingdom for a long time. They were definitely larger and stronger than Judah at that time. They had survived many attempts by others to take them over. Wasn’t it logical for a small group of weak people from Judah to seek refuge from a well-situated and strong nation? From an economic perspective, Egypt had more resources too. Wouldn’t it make sense to build yourself up in a place where there were more resources? It would actually go against logic and science to not move to Egypt for a while. I say this because I want to illustrate the limits of science. Just because things have always been a certain way, doesn’t mean that they will continue to be that way in the future. The only basis on which science is allowed to continue to be a guide, is when God indicates that things will continue in the future as they have in the past. In this case, God clearly indicated that the future would be very unlike the past. The times were changing. Babylon was going to take everything over, including Egypt, and the remnant of Judah would have been better off living in the place that they had been assigned by Babylon.

I believe that the Bible indicates that, in this world, our desire to go against God’s guidance is fueled by our desire for money. We begin to trust in our ability to get and keep money instead of believing in the clear words of God. Here’s what we are told in the New Testament:

1 Timothy 6:10

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Was the remnant of Judah being greedy? They were destitute and in great need. Their cities had been wiped out. They were refugees weren’t they? Perhaps from a worldly perspective they were merely in need, but God had clearly told them what they were supposed to do. I believe that in their own greed for gain, even as poor refugees, they disobeyed God and put themselves into horrible danger. They would now have to see the same destruction that destroyed their own country happen again in Egypt. They “pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” The road to greed doesn’t depend on how rich you are. It only depends on whether you choose money instead of God and that appears to be what the people did.

Day 146: God is Serious about Israel

Jeremiah 33:19-26

Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah, saying, “Yahweh says: ‘If you can break my covenant of the day and my covenant of the night, so that there will not be day and night in their time, then my covenant could also be broken with David my servant, that he won’t have a son to reign on his throne; and with the Levitical priests, my ministers. As the army of the sky can’t be counted, and the sand of the sea can’t be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant and the Levites who minister to me.’ ”

Yahweh’s word came to Jeremiah, saying, “Don’t consider what this people has spoken, saying, ‘Has Yahweh cast off the two families which he chose?’ Thus they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.” Yahweh says: “If my covenant of day and night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will also cast away the offspring of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his offspring to be rulers over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; for I will cause their captivity to be reversed and will have mercy on them.”

As God continues to repeat His intention to restore Israel and reverse the captivity, He mentions a couple of other things. One thing is that there were people who had concluded that God had “cast off” His chosen people. God was making it very, very, very clear that this was not correct. Isn’t it amazing that there are Christians concluding this same thing today when God has said that He intends His people to be there in the end? They conveniently apply the promises to themselves and say that God has cast off Israel. The horrible thing is that God usually has a punishment in store for those who cast off Israel.

We also read here that God illustrates the strength of His commitment to Israel’s future by comparing it to His promise to keep the systems of the earth running. We all know that if the sun didn’t come up that it would be a big deal for us, but there’s actually a bigger underlying issue here. Did you know that this promise to maintain the seasons is the basis for all science? Let’s read that promise.

Genesis 8:22

While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

God made this covenant with Noah who is the father of all of us and it basically gives us a reason to believe that tomorrow will be like today and that this year will be much like last year and that there will be food available. What God is telling us is that the future has been made to be like the past. This allows us to do science because science requires repeatability. So not only does this promise make it possible for us to eat, it also is the basis for all technological progress that has ever been made since the day that Noah stepped off of the ark. God’s promise to Israel is so strong that He would easily revoke all technological advancement if He decided to not follow through Israel. The fact is that if God were to lie about anything, everything He has ever said would then be in question. Reality itself would stop existing. God will restore Israel and God will have His Messiah reign in Jerusalem. If He doesn’t, we will all cease to exist.

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.