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I'm reading through Jeremiah right now. Well, 'reading through' is a bit of a misnomer. I intended to read through, but I can't seem to get past Jeremiah 1 & 2 and I got stuck at one section in Jeremiah 23 for a bit. I keep getting stuck at the freshness of the verses and the application they make to my heart. I guess for a while I'll be chewing on Jeremiah 1-2 as meat and not reading through in one swoop. I love meditating on Jeremiah as I ponder the truths there. The verses seem to applicable to today! There are three in particular that stopped me cold, and made me really think.
I don't know if this happens to you, but I would be reading along and then I hit a brick wall at 60 mph. Even in trying to share how hard they hit me, words fail. The depth of spiritual application, the welling-up of personal emotion, and the hard mental stress I felt when the verses lit up my Spirit cannot be described. This is one verse that hit me:
#1-- Thus says the Lord:
"for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water."
This next verse which gets me at the core of my Spirit is this one: the hammer--
"Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" (Jeremiah 23:29).
The Word has the power to shatter a hard heart. This truth both pierces me and sustains me. I hope that you have moments when you are reading the Word you come across a verse that really brings fresh illumination to its truths.
What has stopped you in your tracks lately?
I don't know if this happens to you, but I would be reading along and then I hit a brick wall at 60 mph. Even in trying to share how hard they hit me, words fail. The depth of spiritual application, the welling-up of personal emotion, and the hard mental stress I felt when the verses lit up my Spirit cannot be described. This is one verse that hit me:
#1-- Thus says the Lord:
“What wrong did your fathers find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? (Jeremiah 2:5)
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless? (Jeremiah 2:5)
This verse is devastating when you think about it. God uses a rhetorical question to ask 'what is the matter with me that you go after idols?' It is rhetorical because, of course, there is nothing the matter with God. He is perfect. Therefore the answer should be clear. It is ridiculous to go away from God because there is no substitute. We know this in our heads, but the verse hit me in the heart. I prayed that I would not go away from Him in any way.
"for my people have committed two evils:they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water."
(Jer 2:13) (source).
Trying to carry water in a sieve...how sad to think of all the effort and work a non-believer would go through to attain a semblance of religious favor is pointless. The water will always run out. It does nothing except fall on the ground, void. The point is stark: Jesus is the Living Water and His water refreshes and never runs out.
This next verse which gets me at the core of my Spirit is this one: the hammer--
"Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" (Jeremiah 23:29).
The Word has the power to shatter a hard heart. This truth both pierces me and sustains me. I hope that you have moments when you are reading the Word you come across a verse that really brings fresh illumination to its truths.
What has stopped you in your tracks lately?
I, too, am reading Jeremiah (currently Chapter 26), and it is a slow read. The tenor of the book surely shows why he was called the weeping prophet! It has such sad overtones to it. Chapter 5:18-31 is especially convicting and sounds like where our country stands today.
ReplyDeleteKim
Hi Kim,
DeleteI picked up on the concepts too that Jeremiah was preaching to what could be the world today. The conditions are the same. What grieved him then certainly is present in spades today, isn't it. Thanks for reading, and thanks for the Jeremiah video. He did such a beautiful job. I posted the video.