August 15, 2012 … God’s Promises - Irrevocable … Eternal

Chronological Bible Reading Plan - Day 228 

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Jeremiah 32-34 [NIV] To study these chapters, go to this link - 
 ============

Highlight Passage: Jeremiah 32: 1-2; 17; 26-28; 36-38 :[NIV] … 1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace of Judah. … 17. [Jeremiah’s Prayer] … "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. … 26 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 27 "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? 28 Therefore this is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it.” . … 36 [God’s promise of restoration] … “You are saying about this city, 'By the sword, famine and plague it will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon'; but this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 37 I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 
============
 Highlight Passage: Jeremiah 33: 1-3; 14-18 :[NIV] … 1 While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him a second time: 2 "This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: 3 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.' … 14 "'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. 15 "'In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David's line; he will do what is just and right in the land. 16 In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteous Savior.' 17 For this is what the Lord says: 'David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of Israel,18 nor will the Levitical priests ever fail to have a man to stand before me continually to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings and to present sacrifices.'" 
============
Highlight Passage: Jeremiah 34: 8-11; 15-16; 18-20 :[NIV] … 8 The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. 9 Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. 10 So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. 11 But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again. … 15 Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. 16 But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again. … 18 Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.19 The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf,20 I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals. 

My Journal for Today: Well, the beat goes on with Jeremiah and his seemingly never-ending and prophetic dealings with “his people,” the recalcitrant and spiritually fickle Israelites, who, in hearing the prophesies and the words of God through Jeremiah and other of the prophets, just couldn’t seem to get what God wanted from them; and that of course was total surrender to the Lord’s will and His ways, spelled out in His word and from the Prophets.

But hopefully you’ve read through these three chapters of Jeremiah’s journal; and you can come to appreciate that God only wants His best for His people; BUT … (another very big “but”) … though God’s part of His covenant is irrevocable and eternal, we cannot be participants in that covenant – whether the Old or New version – unless we believe His word and are willing to follow it obediently. Our obedience is the behavioral signature of our belief. If we believe what God says, we will do what God says; and then we, with repentance of our sin nature and obedience to God’s plan, can participate in all of what God has for His people in our future.

And there’s really not much more that I can say … or should say … to enhance that truth; so, being uplifted with encouragement from today’s reading, I leave anyone reading here with me the hope of God’s eternal promise that we, who seek to know Him and follow Him will be returned to our Lord, … forever in glory.

My Prayer Today: … Another resounding “HALLELUJAH!” Amen