| Week 3 |
| Day 1 |  | (Originally posted Sunday, January 12, 2014)
Overview Jeremiah 3:1-25 - "An Offer We Shouldn't Refuse". As you go forth all prayed up and diligently reading our God Yahweh's Word, open to receive a Word to help you go through your life this week, stay true to your commitment to read it through, and He will reveal to you a bit of His heart to do you good. Stay with it and He'll stay with you. |
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Day 2
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(Originally posted Monday, January 13, 2014)
(1/3) Jeremiah 3:1-5 - "...but wait, what do I see? Is she walking back to me?". Today's reading can be hard on 21st century eyes. By way of an example, here's why: We love movies. For many, many people, movies inform their reality, even their morality. In 1990, a film was released that told a fairy tale that featured a beautiful princess and a dashing prince charming. Adjusted for inflation, it made an estimated $826.3 MILLION. Dollars. People loved it. It warmed the heart. We love movies.
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(2/3) The film was "Pretty Woman". The story made the audience comfortable with prostitution; it was "tastefully" done, so it was okay. And we loved it. LISTEN! When we keep accepting in ourselves and in society messages that make sinful, evil activity okay, one day we wake up and read Yahweh's Word and we think His words are sinful and evil. GOD FORBID! No, the True Love is NOT to blame.
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(3/3) God's Word is the same yesterday, today and forever. We know this from John 1:1, 14 and Hebrews 13:8. And from Genesis 2:15 we know the oldest profession was actually gardening. We should pull and discard our weeds.
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| Day 3 |  | (Originally posted Tuesday, January 14, 2014)
Jeremiah 3:6-10 - "Please Don't Take My Sunshine Away". At the time of Jeremiah, Israel is a kingdom divided, as seen in the map. The northern kingdom by now has already been captured, and Judah stands alone, but STILL will not return to Yahweh. As you read it today, try to hear the pain in the voice of God as His people call out not for Him, but for others. Hear Him saying, "It should've been Me." |
| Day 4 |  | (Originally posted Wednesday, January 15, 2014)
Jeremiah 3:11-14. "A Check That Won't Bounce". Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his "I Have A Dream" speech said, "When the architects of our Republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir." Similarly, our God Yahweh in today's reading is signing a promissory note to His people Israel. Similarly in our lives, God offers a promissory note to anyone who is willing to cash it. See Romans 10:9. And His checks don't bounce. Priceless. P.S. When Yahweh mentions "husband" in the reading, He is again playing off of a word, this time for the most common false god at the time, Baal. The wordplay amounts to a reassertion that Yahweh is THE God. |
| Day 5 |  | (Originally posted Thursday, January 16, 2014)
Jeremiah 3:15-18, 19-20 - "God's Practical Pattern". In today's readings, we get a taste of a counterintuitive pattern God uses in speaking to His people. We pick up in verses 15-18 a continuation of His promise to them we read yesterday. This is a long-term projection to them of what is going to happen. He does this today with Christians in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. And then in verses 19-20 he pulls the lens back to today, and brings back up their wrongdoing. It's our nature to not want to hear about our flaws. But it is necessary, because He explains that He would have blessed them already if not for their dirty-dealing. We keep wanting to justify our wrong behaviors, so this is why He must reiterate the negative impact our bad behaviors in the past are having on us in the present. He did this to the rich young ruler who thought he was perfect already, see Matthew 19:16-26. If you'll submit yourself to this practical pattern Yahweh uses when He confronts you with it, you will find yourself tapping into a spiritual superpower previously only read about in Scripture. |
| Day 6 |  | (Originally posted Friday, January 17, 2014)
Jeremiah 3:21-23, 24-25 - "Fingers Crossed". Today's reading in context (that is, taken along with yesterday's reading and with what follows in chapter 4) sounds much like the remorseful pleas of an addict who is trying to get something. As fallen human beings, we ALL must be on guard against the temptation to do the very same thing that disgraced Israel is doing here, because we are all sin addicts. Remorse (that is, feeling bad) over our wrongdoing is NOT repentance (that is, to turn around) from it. Jesus' first sermon was not "Be remorseful, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"; it was "REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," (Matthew 4:17). Mean it; that's not mean. |
| Day 7 |  | (Originally posted Saturday, January 18, 2014)
Review Jeremiah 3:1-25 and REST in the knowledge that Yahweh's people are "livin' in the Lion's mouth, but the lion is an angel". |