Apples of Gold
Radio Script for April 11, 2008
“Bible Flyover - Jeremiah”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
Have you ever read through the entire book of Jeremiah in one sitting?
If so, you read through, nonstop, the biggest book of the Bible. Good job!
I like the various ways Jeremiah describes God. He is:
--The Sovereign Lord
--The Lord God Almighty
--The King of Nations
--The True God
--The Living God
--The God of all mankind
--The Eternal King, and
--The Maker of all things.
Jeremiah calls Him “the spring of living water,” “my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress.” He said, “The Lord is good, His love endures forever.”
That’s quite a thing for Jeremiah to say, considering all the horror he witnessed. In his lifetime he saw all the cruelties of war one can imagine.
He spent much of his life prophesying against his own country, which did not make him a popular figure around Jerusalem.
So why did he prophecy against his own people? Because instead of worshipping God, they turned to idols.
In Jeremiah 44:3 God said, “They provoked me to anger by burning incense and by worshiping other gods…”
Verse 4 says, “Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!’”
Jeremiah prophesied that unless the people repented and returned to the Lord, the king of Babylon was coming to deliver God’s judgment. And God said, “You know all those homes where people have been burning incense to Baal? They are going to be burned down.”
Over and over Jeremiah says the Lord tried to discipline and correct His people, but they just wouldn’t listen. And where discipline won’t work, judgment will.
Jeremiah 2:5 says, “They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves.”
So how wicked was Jerusalem at this time? So wicked that God said in Jeremiah 5, “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem, look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city.”
He didn’t.
Jeremiah 6:6 says, “This city must be punished. It is filled with oppression.”
Verse 13 says, “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.”
Chapter 34 reveals another facet of the city’s evil – slavery – and of their own people, no less. At one point they do repent of that and set free their Hebrew slaves, only to turn right around and recapture them.
After that little incident Jeremiah delivered this scathing word from the Lord, “You have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen, so I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you – freedom to fall by the sword, plague and famine.”
Jeremiah prophesied such things for many years. The people had hundreds of chances to return to the Lord, but instead they just persecuted the prophet. He was beaten and jailed a lot, faced death threats, and at one point was put deep into a cistern where he sank in the mud, but was eventually rescued.
Finally the Babylonians did come and build siege ramps to the wall around the city.
But God was still merciful and gave them a way out. Jeremiah 21 … “This is what the Lord says: ‘See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you, will live…’”
So why didn’t they take advantage of that opportunity? One thing I haven’t mentioned yet – the false prophets. These were guys who kept saying that Babylon would never attack. Then when they did, they said Jerusalem would survive – just don’t surrender – the exact opposite of the word of the Lord through Jeremiah.
I love what God says about those false prophets. Jeremiah 23 says, “I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message… If they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways…”
That’s what a true man of God does – stands in the Lord’s council, then proclaims His words and turns His people from their evil ways.
So the people never did repent, and they suffered horribly inside the walls of Jerusalem. They ran out of food and people began starving because they were surrounded. Finally the Babylonians did break in, killed people, set the place on fire, and put many in shackles for the trip to Babylon – including Jeremiah, who was a senior citizen by now.
Then in an interesting twist, a commander found Jeremiah in chains, and had specific orders to set him free – to go wherever he wanted. But where do you go in a war-ravaged land?
Jeremiah was a true man of God with a true calling of God on his life – and he suffered for it. And he suffered through the very judgments he himself prophesied on the city.
But he also prophesied about the days when the Jews would return from captivity, and Jerusalem would be restored.
And more than that, he prophesied about the coming of the Messiah.
Those are just some of the highlights I gleaned from the book of Jeremiah. I recommend you read it yourself, and try it all in one sitting. It will really help you wrap your brain around the whole book at once. But I will warn you, it’s not in chronological order, so don’t let that throw you.
And what did I get out of it? The reminder that the Lord is the Almighty, the maker of all things; that He wants us to worship and obey Him and no other; that sin will be punished, but that He always offers us the choice to repent and be restored.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2008 The Arrow’s Tip
To subscribe to your own daily “Apples of Gold” e-mail, write dougapple@wave94.com.
If you want to be removed from this e-mail list, simply click reply and type UNSUBSCRIBE on the subject line.
If you want to catch “Apples of Gold” in its original audio format, go to www.wave94.com
To search through the large archive of past articles, go here: http://www.wave94.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive
If you have trouble reaching me at my main e-mail address, try this one: douglas_apple@msn.com
(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
-vi-
No comments:
Post a Comment