Watchman’s Daily Word – Jeremiah 9:17 “The People Mourn in Judgement”
“That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.” -Jeremiah 17: 24
Lovingkindness. Judgment. Righteousness. Is the “novel” Coronavirus a result of man’s hand of evil manipulation and reckless indifference towards our survival – or is it pointing to something more? Something greater than man’s power?
I believe humanity (believers and unbelievers alike) struggle with the concept of “Judgment” coming from an “all-loving God.” For the mature believer, the judgments of God are always viewed, understood, and experienced from the position of God’s divine love for Creation. The prophet Jeremiah (also known as the “weeping prophet”) understood this concept well and had a very “unpopular ministry” that remained faithful to God . . .
Being called from his youth, Jeremiah spent his entire life and ministry “exhorting and warning God’s people” that the Judgment of God was not only inevitable – but unstoppable for a people who would refuse to “turn back to their God” with their whole hearts. Instead of “resisting the judgments” of God and trying to stop them, the prophet Jeremiah exhorted the people to humble themselves and endure it … There was no promise of “a total survival rate,” but only of God’s faithfulness to His holy Remnant people that would ultimately remain and survive as His heritage in the earth.
As with all prophecy, God’s revelation to His prophets always has a manifold implication and speaks to (3) basic time frames. First, they are warning and speaking to the people living in their own time period (so as modern readers we see His prophecies fulfilled “in part” in past events…) Second, there is almost always “a pointing” to the first coming of Christ “as a Messianic fulfillment” in prophecy — and finally, there is a precursor or “a first mention” of those final “culminating events” which end in God’s final judgment upon the earth and all of mankind.
God’s Prophecy is “Pattern,” not a prediction…
What is the pattern of fulfillment? His Lovingkindness, Judgement, and Righteousness. A loving God cannot ignore evil and must judge “unrighteousness” in order to be righteous. We thank God for the gift of His Son promising us an individual Way of escape from the eternal consequences. “Put to death, therefore, the components of your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. -Colossians 3: 5-6
Here is today’s Watchword scripture portion with an undeniable application for us in “real-time” prophecy and events:
The People Mourn in Judgment
17 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
“Consider and call for the mourning women,
That they may come;
And send for skillful wailing women,
That they may come.
18 Let them make haste
And take up a wailing for us,
That our eyes may run with tears,
And our eyelids gush with water.
19 For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:
‘How we are plundered!
We are greatly ashamed,
Because we have forsaken the land,
Because we have been cast out of our dwellings.’ ”
20 Yet hear the word of the Lord, O women,
And let your ear receive the word of His mouth;
Teach your daughters wailing,
And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.
21 For death has come through our windows,
Has entered our palaces,
To kill off the children—[a]no longer to be outside!
And the young men—[b]no longer on the streets!
22 Speak, “Thus says the Lord:
‘Even the carcasses of men shall fall as refuse on the open field,
Like cuttings after the harvester,
And no one shall gather them.’ ”
23 Thus says the Lord:
“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
24 But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, [c]judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the Lord.
25 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”
May we continue to draw upon God’s wisdom, knowledge, and Truth as “the only” guide through our times of increasing trial, tribulation, AND UNCERTAINTY!
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