Daily Bible Study

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Day 9 Jeremiah 9 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. 3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, says the LORD. 4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. 5 And they will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. 6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says the LORD. 7 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people? 8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lays his wait. 9 Shall I not visit them for these things? says the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone. 11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. 12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perishes and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through? 13 And the LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; 14 But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: 15 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. 16 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them. 17 Thus says the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come: 18 And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. 19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out. 20 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation. 21 For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets. 22 Speak, Thus says the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them. 23 Thus says the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24 But let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD. 25 Behold, the days come, says the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; 26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. Many of you grew up with the saying: This is going to hurt me more than it does you, whenever your parents disciplined you. You like me probably thought, yeah right, you’re not the one getting spanked. As a parent you knew how true that statement was because it touches the heart when you need to discipline your children. God laments over the discipline he gave to his children. He sent his children into exile because of their disobedience. Jerusalem was ruined, her temple destroyed. Jerusalem lay in heaps, the place where God said his name would dwell forever. God didn’t want to discipline his children any more than you do your children, but it needed to be done. He couldn’t continue to see their disobedience and not do anything about it. Even then, before he sent them into exile pleaded with them to return to him. He told them what they were to glory in, and that was that they understood and knew him, his loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness. As parents you know you show your children love when you discipline them. God shows us his love when he does the same. As Christians, you know God’s love is found in chastening. Hebrews 12:5 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaks unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: 6 For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. 7 If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chastens not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye illegitimate, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. God chastens us for our good, just as our parents punished us for our good, so we would know good from evil. God gave us his Word, so we would know good from evil and walk every day in that which is good. Let’s pray: Father, help me see your chastening as good and not see you as an uncaring God, but a loving Father, who wants only my good and to see me walk in obedience to you. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen. Copyright © 28 October 2017 by Valerie Routhieaux Image courtesy of Pixabay