SEARCH!!!

Today’s Reading: Jeremiah 29-30

Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).

Here is the tel Herodian. It is located just southeast of Bethlehem. Excavations have revealed Herod’s Fortress Palace. Perhaps he was in this stronghold when he ordered the slaughter of the children in Bethlehem.

GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.

Key Verses: Jeremiah 29:11-13

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says the Lord, “thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Our key verse is true for all people at all times, a good verse to memorize! It’s a guarantee of strength when one feels under pressure and vulnerable!

David Reynold’s photograph above speaks to the practice of empire builders of appointing puppet kings in the conquered regions. Everything was O.K. as long as the king ensured that taxes were paid to overlords (in Herod’s time, the Romans, and in Zedekiah’s time, the Babylonians).

Most of us do this blog for inspiration, but here’s some information. King Josiah, a king who did right before God, had sons who were corrupt and did evil in God’s eyes. The ones that ascended to the throne were Johannan, Shallum, Jehoiakim (his son Jeconiah), and Zedekiah (1 Chronicles 3:15). All reigned for very short periods of time. Jeconiah was taken to Babylon in the first captivity with others, including Ezekiel and Daniel. These displaced persons were treated rather well. The Babylonian Nebuchadnezzar obviously believed that Zedekiah would be content to be a puppet ruler and submit to every order from Babylon. That was not the case and when Zedekiah asserted Judah’s sovereignty, Nebuchadnezzar invaded again (11 years later) and destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon. He took Zedekiah and the people as slaves to Babylon (modern-day Iraq).

Words worth noting are “diminished” and “increased” (Jeremiah 29:6b). It’s our choice.

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, I pray fervently that I will, 24/7, do as Jeremiah’s letter exhorts me… search for You with all my heart. You are not hiding! I see You clearly in the Life and Words of my Saviour and Lord, Jesus, Messiah, in Whose Name I pray. Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

Several times I have walked to the top of Herodian (pictured above) and meditated on the life of a king who, like Zedekiah, owed his throne to a foreign emperor. King Herod was totally spooked by the possibility of rebellion of his own family members and the people of Jerusalem. He murdered family members and anyone suspected of disloyalty, but he never rebelled against Rome. He constantly pandered to Caesar and with brutality collected the tribute from the Jews, sending great amounts of money to Rome.

I must not pass up the opportunity here on today’s blog to testify to the fact that the promise of our key verse is so very true (Jeremiah 29:11-13). The week I turned 17, at the altar in the tabernacle at Lakeshore Pentecostal Youth Camp in Cobourg, Ontario, I believe that I did seek God with all my heart. He found me, and I found Him in such a life-changing new direction that I’ve never been the same! He gave me a “FUTURE” such as I could have never imagined, and a “HOPE” which has been a constant throughout 62 years since that pivotal moment!

Yours for our “search” for God with the help of daily Scripture readings, daily prayer and this daily blog!!!

David

On top of Herodian recording a Christmas Special, November 2013. Bethlehem is in the distance behind me.

This is a model of Herod’s fortress palace. Herod’s fears were not of the Roman overlords, but of his own people.