Jeremiah Never Again Shall You Say
Day 288
Never Tire of Doing What Is Right
Wisdom Proverbs 25:i-ten
New Testament 2 Thessalonians 3:ane-18
Old Testament Jeremiah 31:15-32:25
Introduction
Martin Luther Rex said, 'On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is information technology popular?" Merely Conscience asks the question, "Is it right?"
'The ultimate measure of a person is non where they stand up in moments of convenience, but where they stand up in moments of challenge, moments of great crisis and controversy.'
Doing what is right in difficult situations in the workplace is a huge challenge. In his book*, God at Work,* Ken Costa writes, 'There are right and wrong choices… all the invented terms such every bit "inappropriate" and "counterproductive" are efforts to avoid the unproblematic ethical fact that there is a correct and incorrect course of action.'
When facing a hard pastoral situation those of u.s. in the leadership of the church need to remind ourselves that the first question we accept to ask is, 'What is the right matter to practise?' And only then motility to the second question, 'What is the most pastoral style to exercise it?'
Of course, none of us gets it right all the time. We all brand mistakes. As Ken Costa writes, 'We merely abound in wisdom if we learn from our mistakes. Siegmund Warburg (Ken'southward first boss) said on this subject: "Some name it disappointment and become poorer, others name information technology experience and become richer."'
In today's New Attestation passage, Paul writes to the Thessalonians, 'Never tire of doing what is right' (2 Thessalonians 3:xiii). Jesus did not go for the easy or popular solution, simply he always did the right thing. This is an of import principle that runs throughout the entire Bible.
Proverbs 25:i-ten
More Proverbs of Solomon
25These are more than proverbs of Solomon, compiled by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah:
ii Information technology is the glory of God to muffle a matter;
|to search out a matter is the celebrity of kings.
3 As the heavens are high and the world is deep,
|so the hearts of kings are unsearchable.
4 Remove the dross from the silver,
|and a silversmith can produce a vessel;
five remove wicked officials from the king's presence,
|and his throne volition exist established through righteousness.
6 Do not exalt yourself in the king's presence,
|and do not merits a place among his great men;
7 information technology is better for him to say to y'all, "Come up hither,"
|than for him to humiliate you before his nobles.
What you have seen with your eyes
|8 practice not bring hastily to courtroom,
for what will you do in the stop
|if your neighbour puts you to shame?
nine If y'all take your neighbor to court,
|practise not betray another's confidence,
10 or the i who hears it may shame you
|and the charge against you will stand.
Commentary
Doing what is correct is very applied
Doing what is right means getting rid of everything that is non right in our lives: 'Remove the dross from the silver, and out comes material for the silversmith; remove the wicked from the king's presence, and his throne volition be established through righteousness' (vv.4–5). Here are some applied examples of what living righteously looks similar:
ane. Act with humility
You practise not demand to push yourself forwards. The correct thing to practise is to act with humility: 'Don't work yourself into the spotlight; don't push your way into the place of prominence. It's meliorate to be promoted to a identify of honour than face humiliation past beingness demoted' (vv.6–7, MSG).
This is exactly the betoken that Jesus expounded in ane of his parables (Luke 14:8–11).
two. Ever assume the best
'Don't jump to conclusions – there may be a perfectly skilful explanation for what you but saw' (Proverbs 25:viii, MSG).
three. Never beguile a confidence
Practise the right thing in relation to your neighbour. Do not become hastily to court (v.8). If y'all do end up in court, always do and say the right affair. 'In the estrus of an argument, don't betray confidences' (five.9, MSG).
Prayer
Lord, help us in our church community to become rid of the dross in our hearts, to act with humility towards one another and to seek always to do the right affair.
2 Thessalonians 3:ane-18
Request for Prayer
threeEqually for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for u.s. that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, merely as it was with you. 2 And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has organized religion. 3 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you lot and protect you from the evil one. iv Nosotros have confidence in the Lord that you lot are doing and will go on to do the things we command. five May the Lord direct your hearts into God'southward love and Christ's perseverance.
Warning Against Idleness
6 In the proper noun of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep abroad from every believer who is idle and confusing and does not alive according to the teaching you lot received from us. 7 For yous yourselves know how you ought to follow our instance. We were non idle when we were with you lot, 8 nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the reverse, we worked dark and day, laboring and toiling so that nosotros would not exist a burden to any of you. 9 We did this, not because we do not have the correct to such help, but in order to offer ourselves equally a model for you to imitate. 10 For fifty-fifty when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat."
11 We hear that some amid you are idle and disruptive. They are not decorated; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the nutrient they swallow. 13 And every bit for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is right.
14 Have special note of anyone who does not obey our instruction in this letter. Do not associate with them, in society that they may experience ashamed. fifteen Yet do non regard them equally an enemy, but warn them equally you would a fellow believer.
Final Greetings
16 Now may the Lord of peace himself requite you peace at all times and in every fashion. The Lord be with all of you lot.
17 I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand, which is the distinguishing mark in all my letters. This is how I write.
18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Commentary
Doing right spreads the message
Paul's overriding concern was that the gospel should become out to as many people every bit quickly as possible – that it would 'simply take off and race through the country to a footing-swell of response' (five.1, MSG).
For this to happen, he prays that they will continue to do the right things: 'We have confidence in the Lord that yous are doing and will continue to do the things we command' (v.4). He tells them, 'you ought to follow our example' (v.seven). Paul lived in such a fashion that provided 'a model for you to follow' (5.9). He urges, 'never tire of doing what is right' (v.13).
ane. Pray for your leaders
Leaders demand your prayers: 'And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people, for not anybody has faith. But the Lord is true-blue, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil ane' (vv.2–3).
2. Follow the style of dearest
Paul prays, 'May the Lord directly your hearts into God'due south love' (v.5a).
three. Never give up
He prays that the Lord will direct their hearts into God's love and 'Christ's perseverance' (v.5).
It's not enough to do the right thing occasionally or when you feel like it. Persist, endure and keep all the way to the end.
4. Pull your weight
Do not practice anything to bring the gospel into disrepute. Do not sit idly and watch life laissez passer by. Paul sets an instance of hard piece of work: 'Nosotros showed you how to pull your weight when we were with you, so get on with it. We didn't sit around on our easily expecting others to accept intendance of united states of america. In fact, nosotros worked our fingers to the bone... we simply wanted to provide an example of diligence, hoping it would prove contagious' (vv.7–9, MSG).
Nosotros are to practise field of study. If people are not doing the right affair they should not be regarded equally enemies but warned equally brothers and sisters (v.15).
Prayer
Lord, give me wisdom and perseverance so that I may always do the right matter. May the peace and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with united states of america all (vv.16,18).
Jeremiah 31:15-32:25
fifteen This is what the Lord says:
"A voice is heard in Ramah,
|mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
|and refusing to be comforted,
|considering they are no more."
16 This is what the Lord says:
"Restrain your voice from weeping
|and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded, "
||declares the Lord.
|"They volition return from the land of the enemy.
17 So there is hope for your descendants,"
||declares the Lord.
|"Your children will render to their ain land.
18 "I accept surely heard Ephraim'south moaning:
|'You disciplined me like an unruly dogie,
|and I have been disciplined.
Restore me, and I will return,
|because you are the Lord my God.
xix After I strayed,
|I repented;
after I came to understand,
|I beat my breast.
I was ashamed and humiliated
|because I bore the disgrace of my youth.'
20 Is non Ephraim my dear son,
|the kid in whom I delight?
Though I oft speak against him,
|I still call back him.
Therefore my eye yearns for him;
|I have great compassion for him,"
||declares the Lord.
21 "Set upwards road signs;
|put up guideposts.
Take note of the highway,
|the road that y'all take.
Return, Virgin Israel,
|return to your towns.
22 How long volition you wander,
|unfaithful Daughter Israel?
The Lord will create a new thing on world—
|the woman volition return to the human."
23 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the state of Judah and in its towns will once again utilize these words: 'The Lord anoint you, yous prosperous city, you sacred mount.' 24 People volition live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint."
26 At this I awoke and looked effectually. My sleep had been pleasant to me.
27 "The days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will institute the kingdoms of State of israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. 28 Simply as I watched over them to uproot and tear downwards, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to found," declares the Lord. 29 "In those days people will no longer say,
'The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are prepare on edge.'
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will exist attack border.
31 "The days are coming," declares the Lord,
|"when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
|and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be similar the covenant
|I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
|to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
|though I was a husband to them,"
||declares the Lord.
33 "This is the covenant I will brand with the people of Israel
|after that time," declares the Lord.
"I will put my law in their minds
|and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
|and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
|or say to one another, 'Know the Lord,'
because they will all know me,
|from the least of them to the greatest,"
||declares the Lord.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
|and will call up their sins no more."
35 This is what the Lord says,
he who appoints the lord's day
|to smooth by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
|to smoothen by night,
who stirs upwards the sea
|then that its waves roar —
|the Lord Almighty is his name:
36 "Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,"
||declares the Lord,
"will Israel ever cease
|beingness a nation before me."
37 This is what the Lord says:
"Just if the heavens higher up can be measured
|and the foundations of the earth below exist searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
|considering of all they accept done,"
||declares the Lord.
38 "The days are coming," declares the Lord, "when this metropolis will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and so turn to Goah. twoscore The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the eastward as far every bit the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The urban center will never once more be uprooted or demolished."
Jeremiah Buys a Field
32This is the discussion that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth yr of Zedekiah male monarch of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ii The army of the male monarch of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the baby-sit in the royal palace of Judah.
3 Now Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him at that place, saying, "Why do you prophesy as you exercise? You say, 'This is what the Lord says: I am well-nigh to give this urban center into the easily of the king of Babylon, and he will capture information technology. 4 Zedekiah rex of Judah will non escape the Babylonians simply will certainly be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face up to face and see him with his ain eyes. 5 He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will remain until I deal with him, declares the Lord. If you fight against the Babylonians, you will non succeed.'"
6 Jeremiah said, "The give-and-take of the Lord came to me: 7 Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle is going to come to you and say, 'Buy my field at Anathoth, because equally nearest relative it is your correct and duty to buy information technology.'
eight "Then, just as the Lord had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, 'Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since information technology is your correct to redeem it and possess information technology, purchase information technology for yourself.'
"I knew that this was the give-and-take of the Lord; 9 so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of argent. 10 I signed and sealed the act, had information technology witnessed, and weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 I took the deed of buy—the sealed copy containing the terms and weather condition, as well as the unsealed copy— 12 and I gave this human action to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the human action and of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the baby-sit.
13 "In their presence I gave Baruch these instructions: xiv 'This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Have these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of buy, and put them in a dirt jar then they will terminal a long time. 15 For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will once again be bought in this land.'
xvi "Later on I had given the human activity of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord:
17 "Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have fabricated the heavens and the earth by your smashing power and outstretched arm. Nix is besides difficult for you. 18 You show beloved to thousands but bring the penalty for the parents' sins into the laps of their children later them. Smashing and mighty God, whose name is the Lord Almighty, nineteen great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds. Your eyes are open to the ways of all mankind; you advantage each person co-ordinate to their conduct and as their deeds deserve. 20 You performed signs and wonders in Arab republic of egypt and accept continued them to this day, in State of israel and among all mankind, and have gained the renown that is yet yours. 21 You brought your people Israel out of Arab republic of egypt with signs and wonders, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with bang-up terror. 22 You gave them this land you had sworn to give their ancestors, a state flowing with milk and dearest. 23 They came in and took possession of it, but they did non obey y'all or follow your constabulary; they did non practise what you commanded them to do. So y'all brought all this disaster on them.
24 "See how the siege ramps are built upwards to take the city. Because of the sword, famine and plague, the city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians who are attacking it. What you said has happened, as y'all now meet. 25 And though the urban center will exist given into the hands of the Babylonians, y'all, Sovereign Lord, say to me, 'Buy the field with silver and have the transaction witnessed. '"
Commentary
The Spirit helps you to do right
In one of the greatest prophecies of the Quondam Testament, Jeremiah foresees the new covenant (31:31). The new covenant volition be unlike from the old ane (5.32).
'"This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel
later that time," declares the Lord.
"I volition put my law in their minds
| and write it on their hearts.
I volition be their God,
| and they will be my people.
No longer volition they teach their neighbour,
| or say to one some other, 'Know the Lord,'
because they will all know me,
| from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the Lord.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
| and will call back their sins no more."' (vv.33–34).
These few verses are alluded to once more and again in the New Testament (see, for instance, Luke 22:20; 2 Corinthians iii:5–xviii and Hebrews eight:viii–12). They highlight a series of wonderful promises about this 'new covenant', which pointed frontward to Jesus:
1. God forgives your failure to practice the right things
This new covenant was made possible by the blood of Jesus Christ. At the last supper, before he was crucified, 'he took the cup and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my claret, which is poured out for you"' (Luke 22:20).
The new covenant between God and humans that Jeremiah spoke about enables yous to be in right relationship with God. Information technology came about through Jesus' blood shed on the cross.
All of your sins have been forgiven, 'the slate wiped clean' (Jeremiah 31:34, MSG), through the blood of Christ. As Joyce Meyer writes, 'Whatever your sin or failure, you demand to confess information technology to God so let it go. Stop punishing yourself for something that is in the past. Pass up to remember something God has called to forget.'
2. God's Spirit helps yous to do the right affair
We have the extraordinary privilege of living in the age of the Spirit. God'south police is not merely written on tablets of stone. Rather, God works in yous, by his Spirit, to give you a passion to please him ('I will put my police force in their minds and write it on their hearts,' v.33b), and to give yous the experience of a personal human relationship with him ('I will be their God and they will be my people,' v.33c). Nosotros can all know the Lord (v.34).
God calls you to do the right thing fifty-fifty when it'south not piece of cake. Doing what is right does not necessarily lead to an easy life. Jeremiah was shut up in jail in the royal palace. Zedekiah locked him up for choosing to do the right thing (32:1–iii).
We see some other example of Jeremiah doing the right thing in spite of the circumstances (vv.vi–eight). God tells him to buy a field, even though the Babylonians were about to take Jerusalem. The field itself would get utterly worthless. But Jeremiah was not concerned about money. Doing the right thing is more important than financial gain or the likelihood of success.
Jeremiah's obedience in doing the right thing was remembered for all fourth dimension. In Matthew's Gospel, we read that the purchase of the 'potter'south field' with the money paid to Judas for his betrayal of Jesus was a fulfilment of Jeremiah'southward prophetic action (Matthew 27:5–10).
Prayer
Lord, assist me to do the right affair regardless of circumstances. Thank you that the past is forgiven and forgotten. Thank you that I can know you. Thank you that you have put your Spirit into my heart. Guide me to do the right thing today and into the futurity.
Pippa adds
Jeremiah 31:34
'For I will forgive their wickedness and will call back their sins no more than.'
Information technology is not that God has a bad memory (like me). Just God chooses to forget our sins when we confess them and ask for forgiveness. The enemy tries to remind u.s.a. of them. Just nosotros, also, take to choose to forget them… and we take to choose to forget the sins of other people equally well!
Verse of the Day
Jeremiah 32:17
'Null is also hard for [the Lord]'.
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References
The One Twelvemonth® is a registered trademark of Tyndale Business firm Publishers. Used by permission.
Joyce Meyer, The Everyday Life Bible (Faithwords, 2018), p.1199
Ken Costa, God at Piece of work (Alpha International, 2013), pp.69–70, 85.
Martin Luther King, 6 February 1968, Washington DC, quoted in Gordon Dark-brown, Courage – Eight Portraits (Bloomsbury, 2008) p.113.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette United kingdom company. All rights reserved. 'NIV' is a registered trademark of Biblica. Great britain trademark number 1448790.
Scripture marked (MSG) taken from The Bulletin. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Grouping.
Source: https://bibleinoneyear.org/en/classic/288
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