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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Saturday, 22 July 2023:
Jeremiah 13:10 — This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.
God’s word will often go against what is in your heart, because you are not perfected in love, and God’s thoughts are far from your thoughts. You must choose to follow God’s word instead of what you would prefer. If you will not submit your will to God’s will, you are essentially “good for nothing.” What good is a disobedient servant, and untruthful witness, or a disloyal ambassador?
Jeremiah 13:11 – For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.
God wants people to depend on Him and on nothing else. God wants you to “cling” to Him, and clinging to Him means listening to Him, obeying Him, and trusting Him.
- Deuteronomy 10:20 — You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name.
- Deuteronomy 13:4 — You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.
- Joshua 22:5, 23:8 — Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul…. But you are to cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day.
- 2 Kings 18:6 — For he clung to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses.
- Psalm 119:31 — I cling to your testimonies, O LORD; let me not be put to shame!
Jeremiah 13:17 — But if you will not listen, my soul will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.
God’s true servants are heartbroken when God’s people refuse to repent. God wants that no one should perish in their pride but that all would turn to Jesus.
Jeremiah 13:18 – Say to the king and the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your beautiful crown has come down from your head.”
No one is exempt from God’s judgement.
Jeremiah 13:22 — And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things come upon me?” it is for the greatness of your iniquity that your skirts are lifted up and you suffer violence.
The one who receives the consequences of his decision to ignore God should not be surprised or blame God for his decision.
Jeremiah 13:23 — Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
Sin can become a habit which eventually shapes your character and the truth of who you are. You must develop habits of goodness rather than habits of badness. You become more and more what you repeatedly choose to do. Your character for formed from your habits over time. It is very hard to change character quickly, perhaps impossible.
Jeremiah 13:26 — I myself will lift up your skirts over your face, and your shame will be seen.
There are ‘natural’ consequences for your choices and actions, but God is not just a bystander. God Himself is the author of your circumstances and determines your fate.
Jeremiah 14:7 — Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.
We must approach the Lord in true humility as a repentant sinner amazed by grace, and our desire must be Him rather than merely something from Him for ourselves. Often God uses our desperation to draw us to Him, but He wants you to recognize your relationship problem with Him rather than just your physical problem. The reality is, no matter how much we are blessed on this earth, our physical life will end in death, but our relationship with Him (whether positive or negative) will endure for eternity.
Jeremiah 14:8-10 – “Why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?… Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us.” … Thus says the Lord concerning this people: “They have loved to wander thus; they have not restrained their feet; therefore the Lord does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.”
The sinful people suffering from the consequences of their sin maintained the perspective that God had abandoned them and had left them to be victimized unfairly by cruel, blind fate; however, God tells them that He did not abandon them, rather they abandoned Him. They were not suffering from mere random circumstances but by His hand of discipline. Have you ever heard someone say they didn’t believe in God or worship God because they did not believe a god of love would allow ‘innocent’ people to suffer needlessly? That is not a new complaint, and it is just as shallow, self-centered, and misinformed today as it always has been.
Jeremiah 14:12 – Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them.
God knows the difference between those who are truly repentant and truly seeking Him and those who, on the contrary, merely want God to give them what they are looking for in self-centeredness. Phony religion is contractual – “God if you do this for me, I will do something for you.” True religion is covenantal – “I will love and obey you, regardless of what happens to me.” True religion places God above self through all circumstances.
Jeremiah 14:13, 14 – Then I said: “Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’” And the Lord said to me: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.”
A sinful nation promotes and lifts up preachers who will say what they want to hear and who will not warn against judgment for sin. How many preachers today talk about the looming judgment of God?
Psalm 82:1-4 – Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
God calls us to be rescuers and defenders of justice, to protect the defenseless.
Psalm 82:5 – They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken.
When a nation’s leaders turn from God and no longer have true knowledge or understanding, everything falls apart as if subject to a massive earthquake which comes suddenly and destroys at the foundations of the institutions.
Psalm 82 reminds us that God holds leaders accountable for justice and mercy, something that can only be administered by leaders that go the Him and the source of all justice and mercy. In final judgment, God will punish the ungodly and establish justice and mercy personally, once and for all. Jesus will reign on the new earth with His faithful servants.
Proverbs 22:4 – The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.
God will honor humility.
Proverbs 22:6 – Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Habit patterns instilled in childhood are VERY hard to break. The strength of the family unit is vital to national strength.
Proverbs 22:7 – The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.
Christians should not be in debt to ungodly institutions.
Proverbs 22:9 – Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.
Giving and generosity is all about perspective. What you really believe about God will be revealed in how you give. Fear makes people stingy.
Proverbs 22:11 – He who loves purity of heart, and whose speech is gracious, will have the king as his friend.
Gracious speech is the product of a pure heart. A guilty heart produces bitter speech.
Proverbs 22:15 – Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
God expects parents to teach children discipline.
Proverbs 22:16 – Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty.
Again, God expects you to give to the needy.
Proverbs 22:8, 22 – Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail…. Do not rob the poor, because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate.
God expects you to end strife you have with anyone else. You will have to deny self, take up your cross, and follow Jesus.
Proverbs 22:17-19 – Incline your ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply your heart to my knowledge, for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, if all of them are ready on your lips. That your trust may be in the Lord, I have made them known to you today, even to you.
Obeying the Bible helps you learn how to trust in the Lord, to grow in your relationship with Him.
Proverbs 22:24, 25 – Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.
Anger is a snare that will needlessly entangle you.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 22 July 2023: Cling to the Lord today by following Jesus wholeheartedly, holding fast to His word, trusting Him in all things, proclaiming His glory to the world.
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 