DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY AUGUST 22:
WORD OF WISDOM
It's not that life is so short, it's that we wait so long to begin living.
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DAILY DEVOTION
Trusting With All Your Heart
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy
paths.
Proverbs 3:5-6
There must be complete confidence in the Lord to take care of us because
this complete confidence will lead to constant compliance. Proverbs 3:5-6
tells us we are to trust with all our heart (not just part of it), and we're
to acknowledge Him in all our ways (not just some of our ways).
God won't take part of it. You can't say, "Lord, I want Your will in my
social life, but I don't want Your will in my business life." Or, "I want
Your will in my church life, but I don't want Your will in my
relationships." You just can't do that. If He's worth part of it He's worth
all of it.
What are you holding onto today? Give it all to Jesus. Instant obedience
will bring incredible blessing.
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DAILY BIBLE READING
Jeremiah 34-36 The Message (MSG)
Freedom to the Slaves
34 God's Message to Jeremiah at the time King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
mounted an all-out attack on Jerusalem and all the towns around it with his
armies and allies and everyone he could muster:
2-3 "I, God, the God of Israel, direct you to go and tell Zedekiah king of
Judah: 'This is God's Message. Listen to me. I am going to hand this city
over to the king of Babylon, and he is going to burn it to the ground. And
don't think you'll get away. You'll be captured and be his prisoner. You
will have a personal confrontation with the king of Babylon and be taken off
with him, captive, to Babylon.
4-5 "'But listen, O Zedekiah king of Judah, to the rest of the Message of
God. You won't be killed. You'll die a peaceful death. They will honor you
with funeral rites as they honored your ancestors, the kings who preceded
you. They will properly mourn your death, weeping, "Master, master!" This is
a solemn promise. God's Decree.'"
6-7 The prophet Jeremiah gave this Message to Zedekiah king of Judah in
Jerusalem, gave it to him word for word. It was at the very time that the
king of Babylon was mounting his all-out attack on Jerusalem and whatever
cities in Judah that were still standing-only Lachish and Azekah, as it
turned out (they were the only fortified cities left in Judah).
8-10 God delivered a Message to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah made a covenant
with the people of Jerusalem to decree freedom to the slaves who were
Hebrews, both men and women. The covenant stipulated that no one in Judah
would own a fellow Jew as a slave. All the leaders and people who had signed
the covenant set free the slaves, men and women alike.
11 But a little while later, they reneged on the covenant, broke their
promise and forced their former slaves to become slaves again.
12-14 Then Jeremiah received this Message from God: "God, the God of Israel,
says, 'I made a covenant with your ancestors when I delivered them out of
their slavery in Egypt. At the time I made it clear: "At the end of seven
years, each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has had to sell himself
to you. After he has served six years, set him free." But your ancestors
totally ignored me.
15-16 "'And now, you-what have you done? First you turned back to the right
way and did the right thing, decreeing freedom for your brothers and
sisters-and you made it official in a solemn covenant in my Temple. And then
you turned right around and broke your word, making a mockery of both me and
the covenant, and made them all slaves again, these men and women you'd just
set free. You forced them back into slavery.
17-20 "'So here is what I, God, have to say: You have not obeyed me and set
your brothers and sisters free. Here is what I'm going to do: I'm going to
set you free-God's Decree-free to get killed in war or by disease or by
starvation. I'll make you a spectacle of horror. People all over the world
will take one look at you and shudder. Everyone who violated my covenant,
who didn't do what was solemnly promised in the covenant ceremony when they
split the young bull into two halves and walked between them, all those
people that day who walked between the two halves of the bull-leaders of
Judah and Jerusalem, palace officials, priests, and all the rest of the
people-I'm handing the lot of them over to their enemies who are out to kill
them. Their dead bodies will be carrion food for vultures and stray dogs.
21-22 "'As for Zedekiah king of Judah and his palace staff, I'll also hand
them over to their enemies, who are out to kill them. The army of the king
of Babylon has pulled back for a time, but not for long, for I'm going to
issue orders that will bring them back to this city. They'll attack and take
it and burn it to the ground. The surrounding cities of Judah will fare no
better. I'll turn them into ghost towns, unlivable and unlived in.'" God's
Decree.
Meeting in God's Temple
35 The Message that Jeremiah received from God ten years earlier, during the
time of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Israel:
2 "Go visit the Recabite community. Invite them to meet with you in one of
the rooms in God's Temple. And serve them wine."
3-4 So I went and got Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, along
with all his brothers and sons-the whole community of the Recabites as it
turned out-and brought them to God's Temple and to the meeting room of Hanan
son of Igdaliah, a man of God. It was next to the meeting room of the Temple
officials and just over the apartment of Maaseiah son of Shallum, who was in
charge of Temple affairs.
5 Then I set out chalices and pitchers of wine for the Recabites and said,
"A toast! Drink up!"
6-7 But they wouldn't do it. "We don't drink wine," they said. "Our ancestor
Jonadab son of Recab commanded us, 'You are not to drink wine, you or your
children, ever. Neither shall you build houses or settle down, planting
fields and gardens and vineyards. Don't own property. Live in tents as
nomads so that you will live well and prosper in a wandering life.'
8-10 "And we've done it, done everything Jonadab son of Recab commanded. We
and our wives, our sons and daughters, drink no wine at all. We don't build
houses. We don't have vineyards or fields or gardens. We live in tents as
nomads. We've listened to our ancestor Jonadab and we've done everything he
commanded us.
11 "But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded our land, we said,
'Let's go to Jerusalem and get out of the path of the Chaldean and Aramean
armies, find ourselves a safe place.' That's why we're living in Jerusalem
right now."
Why Won't You Learn Your Lesson?
12-15 Then Jeremiah received this Message from God:
"God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, wants you to go tell the people
of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem that I say, 'Why won't you learn your
lesson and do what I tell you?' God's Decree. 'The commands of Jonadab son
of Recab to his sons have been carried out to the letter. He told them not
to drink wine, and they haven't touched a drop to this very day. They
honored and obeyed their ancestor's command. But look at you! I have gone to
a lot of trouble to get your attention, and you've ignored me. I sent
prophet after prophet to you, all of them my servants, to tell you from
early morning to late at night to change your life, make a clean break with
your evil past and do what is right, to not take up with every Tom, Dick,
and Harry of a god that comes down the pike, but settle down and be faithful
in this country I gave your ancestors.
15-16 "'And what do I get from you? Deaf ears. The descendants of Jonadab
son of Recab carried out to the letter what their ancestor commanded them,
but this people ignores me.'
17 "So here's what is going to happen. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of
Israel, says, 'I will bring calamity down on the heads of the people of
Judah and Jerusalem-the very calamity I warned you was coming-because you
turned a deaf ear when I spoke, turned your backs when I called.'"
18-19 Then, turning to the Recabite community, Jeremiah said, "And this is
what God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says to you: Because you
have done what Jonadab your ancestor told you, obeyed his commands and
followed through on his instructions, receive this Message from
God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: There will always be a
descendant of Jonadab son of Recab at my service! Always!'"
Reading God's Message
36 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, Jeremiah
received this Message from God:
2 "Get a scroll and write down everything I've told you regarding Israel and
Judah and all the other nations from the time I first started speaking to
you in Josiah's reign right up to the present day.
3 "Maybe the community of Judah will finally get it, finally understand the
catastrophe that I'm planning for them, turn back from their bad lives, and
let me forgive their perversity and sin."
4 So Jeremiah called in Baruch son of Neriah. Jeremiah dictated and Baruch
wrote down on a scroll everything that God had said to him.
5-6 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, "I'm blacklisted. I can't go into God's
Temple, so you'll have to go in my place. Go into the Temple and read
everything you've written at my dictation. Wait for a day of fasting when
everyone is there to hear you. And make sure that all the people who come
from the Judean villages hear you.
7 "Maybe, just maybe, they'll start praying and God will hear their prayers.
Maybe they'll turn back from their bad lives. This is no light matter. God
has certainly let them know how angry he is!"
8 Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do.
In the Temple of God he read the Message of God from the scroll.
9 It came about in December of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah
king of Judah that all the people of Jerusalem, along with all the people
from the Judean villages, were there in Jerusalem to observe a fast to God.
10 Baruch took the scroll to the Temple and read out publicly the words of
Jeremiah. He read from the meeting room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the
secretary of state, which was in the upper court right next to the New Gate
of God's Temple. Everyone could hear him.
11-12 The moment Micaiah the son of Gemariah heard what was being read from
the scroll-God's Message!-he went straight to the palace and to the chambers
of the secretary of state where all the government officials were holding a
meeting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of
Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other
government officials.
13 Micaiah reported everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll as
the officials listened.
14 Immediately they dispatched Jehudi son of Nethaniah, son of Semaiah, son
of Cushi, to Baruch, ordering him, "Take the scroll that you have read to
the people and bring it here." So Baruch went and retrieved the scroll.
15 The officials told him, "Sit down. Read it to us, please." Baruch read
it.
16 When they had heard it all, they were upset. They talked it over. "We've
got to tell the king all this."
17 They asked Baruch, "Tell us, how did you come to write all this? Was it
at Jeremiah's dictation?"
18 Baruch said, "That's right. Every word right from his own mouth. And I
wrote it down, word for word, with pen and ink."
19 The government officials told Baruch, "You need to get out of here. Go
into hiding, you and Jeremiah. Don't let anyone know where you are!"
20-21 The officials went to the court of the palace to report to the king,
having put the scroll for safekeeping in the office of Elishama the
secretary of state. The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. He brought it
from the office of Elishama the secretary. Jehudi then read it to the king
and the officials who were in the king's service.
22-23 It was December. The king was sitting in his winter quarters in front
of a charcoal fire. After Jehudi would read three or four columns, the king
would cut them off the scroll with his pocketknife and throw them in the
fire. He continued in this way until the entire scroll had been burned up in
the fire.
24-26 Neither the king nor any of his officials showed the slightest twinge
of conscience as they listened to the messages read. Elnathan, Delaiah, and
Gemariah tried to convince the king not to burn the scroll, but he brushed
them off. He just plowed ahead and ordered Prince Jerahameel, Seraiah son of
Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Jeremiah the prophet and his
secretary Baruch. But God had hidden them away.
27-28 After the king had burned the scroll that Baruch had written at
Jeremiah's dictation, Jeremiah received this Message from God: "Get another
blank scroll and do it all over again. Write out everything that was in that
first scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up.
29 "And send this personal message to Jehoiakim king of Judah: 'God says,
You had the gall to burn this scroll and then the nerve to say, "What kind
of nonsense is this written here-that the king of Babylon will come and
destroy this land and kill everything in it?"
30-31 "'Well, do you want to know what God says about Jehoiakim king of
Judah? This: No descendant of his will ever rule from David's throne. His
corpse will be thrown in the street and left unburied, exposed to the hot
sun and the freezing night. I will punish him and his children and the
officials in his government for their blatant sin. I'll let loose on them
and everyone in Jerusalem the doomsday disaster of which I warned them but
they spit at.'"
32 So Jeremiah went and got another scroll and gave it to Baruch son of
Neriah, his secretary. At Jeremiah's dictation he again wrote down
everything that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. There were
also generous additions, but of the same kind of thing.
The Message (MSG)
Copyright C 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
