Tuesday 25, November 2014
TEXT: Jeremiah 32:1-15
Key Verse: “For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it” (Jeremiah 32:3).
“Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England as (I trust) shall never be put out.” With these words, Hugh Latimar, the Protestant reformer cheered his fellow martyr, Nicholas Ridley as the two men were about to be burned at the stake for refusing to embrace Catholicism during the infamous reign of Queen Mary. The queen got rid of both men in order to stop the preaching of the truth. But God’s word is irrepressible. True to Latimar’s prediction, in no time, the gospel outshined both Queen Mary and Catholicism in England.
Prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned by King Zedekiah for his prophesy concerning the impending doom of the king and the city of Jerusalem. But vain is such an effort because God’s messenger may be imprisoned but not God’s word. The words spoken by the prophet came to pass as surely as daylight comes after night. The siege of Jerusalem had actually begun a year before. King Zedekiah should have heeded the admonitions of Jeremiah by penitently turning to the Lord and seeking His intervention. No, “Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him” (Proverbs 27:22). Sin was the cause of the whole trouble, yet the king added wickedness and callousness to it by shutting the prophet in. Sin hardens and kills.
Jeremiah’s confinement did not shut him off from hearing from God. Right there, the Lord instructed him to buy a plot of land off Hanameel, his nephew. This land purchased in the threatened city was symbolic of the fact that after the predicted captivity in Babylon, God would cause the people to return to their own land. As for the despotic king, he was bound to stand as a captive before Nebuchadnezzar to face the music. All these eventually came to pass.
What is your attitude to God’s warnings? Seek not to suppress nor neglect them. You may stave off impending danger only by making your ways right with God.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Hardness of heart is the worst response to divine warning.
Higher Everyday for Youths - Link: http://highereveryday.dclmhq.org/
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