HORSE SENSE AND GROUNDHOGS

Today’s Reading: Jeremiah 22

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

A view looking east over the Old City of Jerusalem towards the Mount of Olives.

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

Key Verses: Jeremiah 22:25

…and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear — the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of the Chaldeans.

Notice the number of sentences in the Bible that start with the conjunction “and.” Would an English teacher let us away with that today? Not! (as I’ve heard some teens say). People who’ve decided to believe in the verbal (word by word) inspiration of the Bible, might ask, “Why the ‘and’?” It may be that God is never really finished His work until He puts the final period on the last sentence of human history here on this earth as it is in the present.

Our key verse indicates that the time comes when God has been rejected so totally that He can do no other than shift from mercy to judgment. He did not force the Babylonians to conquer Jerusalem, but He knew that He was not wanted by the religious, political, and social elites who were in power, and with great regret He withdrew His presence and, thus, His protection. Three times in this chapter God speaks through Jeremiah of those who “sit on the throne of David.” The last of King David’s descendants, through Solomon, is about to be deposed and taken to Babylon where he will die. BUT a descendent of King David through David’s son, Nathan, is yet to come. Although King Jeconiah and King Zerubbabel are listed in the genealogy of Joseph, Jesus’ foster father, Jesus did not come from Joseph (Matthew 1:6-12); He came as a human Person through the Virgin Mary (Luke 3:31). Legally, Jesus was linked to Joseph, but His DNA was all God and Mary!!! What about that?

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord God, Your servant, Jeremiah, urges people to “weep bitterly for him who goes away.” I pray for as much of Your great heart of compassion as You know I can handle. You are infinite in Your capacity to grieve, and I’m so very small and finite. Thank You, Lord, for being willing to share a little bit of the heavy burdens You bear with me. In the Name of the One who went into prayer early every morning, bearing our sorrows and griefs (Isaiah 53:3-5). Amen!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:

There’s the word “woe” in Jeremiah 22:13! One farmer from my childhood, when they still used horses for just about everything (before most of them had tractors), said that the word “woe (whoa)” to a horse meant “STOP!” That’s horse sense! Horses know enough to stop what they are doing when they hear “woe.” I’ve just checked the dictionary for “Whoa!” It still means stop or slow down. When God says something that sounds like “whoa,” let’s pay attention!

The Lord, through Jeremiah, reminded King Jehoiakim about his dad, King Josiah, whom God said did what was right. Josiah was just and righteous. “He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well!!!” (Jeremiah 22:15-16).

Yours for a “Horse Sense” commitment, something which is all too uncommon…just doing something because it is the right thing to do,

David

P.S. Jeremiah’s detailed prophecies have come true. They are now history. Peter describes the Bible Prophets as giving “the prophetic word made more sure” (2 Peter 1:19a). Today is “Groundhog Day” across North America. It is said that when a groundhog comes out of his underground burrow February 2nd and does not see his shadow, it is a “prophetic” word indicating an early Spring. If this is true it will be chance. Only God knows the future, and He told Jeremiah the “Word made more sure!” Of course, the groundhog folklore is just for fun. God’s prophets were dead serious!

An artistic rendering of the core of Jerusalem created in 1660 AD (from the Library of Christ Church in Jerusalem).