Posts filed under ‘Judaism’
Misplaced Zeal: Understanding Today’s Moral Confusion
God had decreed that King Nebuchadnezzar would reign and any nation that did not willingly come under his rule would be punished “with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.” This message also summarized the content of chapters 7-10.
If the Judahites continued to reject the LORD, and disobey the Mosaic Covenant, He would destroy the temple and Jerusalem completely. The temple would suffer complete destruction, and Jerusalem would become a curse, namely, an object of ridicule and an example of horrible suffering.
Jeremiah also warned the people about the false prophets and told them not to listen to them. Theses prophets were lying by saying the people of Judah would not serve Babylon. It’s what many wanted to hear (including the king), but it was not the truth.
Jeremiah 20-22: Failure to Thrive
Gee, talk about being “thick” in the head! How many times has God already indicated that He would bring serious judgment against Judah if they do not turn back to Him in full repentance? Many times since the opening pages of the book of Jeremiah and yet here we are again in these chapters, where Jeremiah has to proclaim similar things he’s already proclaimed (and the leadership and people rejected it), and King Zedekiah acts as though God has never said anything about any sort of judgment.
God Limits Jeremiah
In this section, God warns that those who trust other men are cursed. Those who trust God are blessed. God says we cannot know our hearts (v9) because it is so deceitful, yet we are too often led by it. God knows each heart – He sees the truth. The Judahites continued to ask “Where is the fulfillment of God’s Word? (v15). Jeremiah asks God to bring shame to those who persecute him (v18).
Continue Reading November 18, 2025 at 4:40 PM Leave a comment
God Has No Choice
Ultimately, God looks upon individual believers through the eyes of pity or compassion. He certainly understands our frame and remembers we are simply dust. At the same time, He will do what is needed in our life to bring us back to the narrow road that leads to life eternal when we fail to stay on that road. This is the difference between Israel and the Church. With Israel, God often dealt with those people as one nation. If the leaders were corrupt, He would bring judgment eventually onto the entire nation. Though some within that nation might be spared from the true harshness of His judgment because of their individual loyalty to God, ultimately, He was judging that nation. Where the Church is concerned, God deals with individual Christians within the Church who go astray or require judgment for sins undealt with that keep them from fellowship with God.
Continue Reading October 20, 2025 at 10:57 AM Leave a comment
Hosea: Punishment and Promise
In spite of how bad things looked for Israel during Hosea’s time as a prophet to that nation, God continued to hold out hope. He always pointed them to the day when Israel, as a nation, would return to Him, embrace Him wholly and live for Him as well as they had lived apart from Him prior.
Continue Reading October 10, 2025 at 2:04 PM Leave a comment
Disobedience Brings God’s Judgment
In Jeremiah 9-10, we learn that God is not at all pleased with how low the Judahites had sunk. They had learned a great deal from Gentile nations and none of it was good. If they weren’t trying to depend upon help from these nations in fighting their enemies, they adopted many of the standards and protocols of those neighboring nations and empires.
The biggest problem Judah had was it’s tendency to worship idols. The prophet Jeremiah loved his people so much, he wished he had more tears to shed (v1) for them. His tears is what earned him the nickname “the weeping prophet.”
Continue Reading October 7, 2025 at 11:44 AM Leave a comment
I Purposefully Waited…
While it is very good to long for and expect the coming of the Lord, we cannot stop living and simply wait for Him to return on some appointed day at some appointed time as “revealed” by some believer somewhere. To me, this is very reminiscent of people on YouTube who claim to have been taken to heaven and talked with our Lord. These people go on and express much detail about what they saw and what they heard. In some cases, they claim that the end times is very different from what is in Scripture. In other cases, they tell us that salvation is also different from what the Bible reveals.
Continue Reading September 25, 2025 at 1:14 PM Leave a comment
Judah’s Wrong Religion
God reminds the people to go find Shiloh where the Tabernacle stood because Shiloh had been destroyed due to Israel’s evil. The LORD was ready to cast the Judahites out of the land to the north as He had done with Israel. God would send them into captivity by Babylon because of their continued disobedience and flagrant idolatry. God appears to have made up His mind with finality (v16) and tells Jeremiah to not pray for them. In essence, Jeremiah’s prayers would not help at all.
Continue Reading September 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM Leave a comment
Jeremiah: God’s Call to Repentance
So once leaders turn their backs on truth, advocating lies, this results in that society exhibiting and experiencing far more wickedness, bitterness and hatred ending in a growing callousness toward one another. Eventually, sin ceases to be called sin. It is embraced as good and that society begins living a Romans 1 life. Even while doing that, it still often sees itself as “innocent” of being evil in spite of the many examples from that society that exist on a daily basis. These become actually willfully indulged in by many to most within that populace. Once the rejection of God’s morality is complete, there is little left except for God to judge that nation.
Continue Reading September 16, 2025 at 12:29 PM Leave a comment
Home Sweet Babylon
Babylon changed the names of the young men, with their new names pointing deliberately and directly to false gods of the Babylonian system. They also very possibly made them eunuchs to deny them their manhood. Then they gave them the best food and wine and took the time to educate them. Only a few men – Daniel and his three friends – managed to continue holding onto the God of Israel in spite of their forced name changes and other things. They never forgot who they were and kept themselves from being identified with Babylon’s system of degradation.
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