October 14, Reading 2 – Jeremiah 50

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

In this series of messages to the nations, God uses Jeremiah to prepare the way for the exiles to return. Think about the effect of verse 8 over the next seventy years in the hearts and minds of believers back then. Jesus said similar words about Jerusalem.

SJA Notes

* Gracious Lord God, thank You for Your steadfast faithfulness that we see write large in Your word.

“Behold, I am against you, O proud one, declares the Lord GOD of hosts.”

We read hear of the Lord speaking against the great kingdom of Babylon.

We know that within a generation and a night or three of Nebuchadnezzar the forces of the Medes and Persians conquered Babylon with much swiftness (in the night).

God opposes the proud and arrogant.

In the new testament book of James chapter 4 (and 1 Peter 5 as well) we read,

“There it says, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'”

We should realise then reading today’s passage that God opposes pride in individuals and also in groupings upwards, towns and cities and states and territories and nations themselves.

From the 1 Peter 5 passage we read on that the true mark of humility is submissions under the mighty hand of God (which is His will at work guiding us).

So this passage can be an exhortation for us to pray for those around us.

To pray for the lost! Those who reject God in their lives, by their behaviour, in little ways  or big ways, by trying to ignore their Creator or by working actively against Him.

We are to be a people who pray for God to save (because it is Him alone in whom salvation rests).

So let us do that today.

* Mighty God,

Please save the lost around us Lord God. Our loved ones and our friends, the people we see around, and those we barely know.

Please teach us Your people true humility Lord God – Your mighty hand upon us, us submitting underneath it.

Yours is the kingdom Lord God, the power and the glory.

Amen.

October 13, Reading 2 – Jeremiah 49

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

The worship of Molech was very evil, involving the sacrifice of your first-born. The country Ammon, though, receives a promise of God’s undeserved grace (verse 6). Edom (the people of Esau) however, receives no such promise. Meditate on this great mystery – of God’s undeserved grace. The last scions of Edomite blood were the Herods of the New Testament.

SJA Notes

* God Above, please teach us truth from Your word today.

“I will restore the fortunes of Elam, declares the Lord.”

“Edom shall become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.”

We read in today’s passage judgement upon the nations of Moab, Ammon and Elam.

And yet there are different outcomes.

There is a great mystery in different tensions that God presents us in His word.

One of these is expressed so clearly in Malachi chapter one,

“Yet I have loved Jacob but Esau I have hated.”

In Romans chapter 9 we read a layering over of what is said in Malachi,

“… in order that God’s purpose of election might continue,”

We see in this passage that Elam will be restored, but Edom shall be destroyed.

Edom were the descendants of Esau, son of Isaac, brother to Jacob.

Election.

God has purpose in election.

Can we sway His election, or do anything to help affect it?

Paul has an important point in Ephesians chapter 2,

“… and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

God’s purpose in our election is not for our boasting, not for us to feel better than others.

There is nothing of us. Nothing of what we do.

Am I temped to yield to pride and arrogance today?

Let me remember God’s election, that He determines, and praise God for my King Jesus who saved me!

* Father Above,

It is You who saved, You who calls, You that elects us.

It is by Your will alone, Your grace, and nothing of us.

Thank You Lord that we can trust in this truth.

Amen.

October 12, Reading 2 – Jeremiah 48

Reading

Audio, Visual

SAA Notes

This chapter reveals the path that pride and arrogance lead us on, and the woe that they bring. The final verse brings just a ray of hope and light. God’s grace is the ray of light. Moab’s redemption is beyond Moab’s power to achieve – they are destroyed. It is not beyond God’s! Hallelujah!

SJA Notes

* Dear Lord God, thank You for today! Please show us what You want for us to know from Your word today.

“Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people, because he magnified himself against the LORD.”

This is a long and winding passage, it can be hard to read and wrap our heads around.

It is a passage telling of the terrible judgement upon the people of Moab.

The Moabites had their origins through Lot (Abraham’s nephew).

They were mostly enemies of God and His people.

We read in Deuteronomy chapter 23,

“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD.”

The Moabites were a thorn in the side of Israel generation after generation. They were who hired Balaam the prophet to curse Israel as they travelled toward the promised land (out of Egypt).

And yet.

God’s word, as it does so often, gives us truths that often we have to hold in tension with one another, waiting for more wisdom to grow our understanding.

Ruth (the person that has the book in the Old Testament of the same name) was from Moab. Ruth, who forsook all else to bind to her mother-in-law Naomi, which included a growing faith in the God of Israel, the LORD.

And who was Ruth?

Importantly, Ruth the Moabitess, was the great-grandmother of King David!

David, who had a heart after God’s own heart, who saw angels and wrestled bears and killed a giant.

And even more foundationally important, Ruth is part of the lineage that brings forth Great King David’s GREATER SON – Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus the Christ!

This passage is judgement on Moab.

But this passage is not without hope.

The same hope we all have, throughout all of time, across all of the world – We need Jesus.

We should never forget or make light of the JUDGEMENT that our King Jesus suffered in our place, so that we could have a real and present hope in what is to come.

* Father God,

Thank You for Your mercies that come to us, even in the midst of judgement.

Thank You for Jesus, the Promised One, great David’s greater Son.

Thank You for Your JUST and HOLY character Lord, without variation or change, that we can trust in You.

Amen.