One Year Bible, October 17, 2010

JEREMIAH 30:1 - 31:40                                                                                                   

A BOOK FOR RETURNING CAPTIVES: (Repenting Believers):   Although these next chapters point to some degree to Ezra and Nehemiah's return to Jerusalem, it is obvious that this actually telescopes to refer to Jesus and His Church, and the New Covenant in His Blood. God is determined to accomplish His purpose in His people (believers by faith).  In spite of all our waywardness and foolishness, God still loves us.  God sets us free so that we can freely become His servants.  When we use our freedom for ourselves, we end up back in bondage, miserable, disappointed, and unfulfilled. When we submit to God, we are truly free because we have identity, purpose, meaning, and fulfillment.  We feel complete and alive.  Romans 8:21 calls it "glorious liberty of the sons of God".  This is because the people who are living free have the inward assurance that they are pleasing God, manifesting His glory to the earth.  A train that jumps the tracks to be free, is not free, it is ruined.  It has missed its function and has "come short of the glory of God".  Those who want their OWN freedom to enjoy boundless direction soon discover that that becomes the way of limitations.  Thinking that God would confine them, they run from Him, only to be locked up in the prison of their own selfishness.  When we accept dependence on God and the "narrow" lifestyle (Mat 7:14), we find that God enlarges us.

FREEDOM FROM BONDAGE: (30:1-3; 8-11, 17-18)  Israel went through five captivities: Egypt, Wilderness (to fear), Canaan (to do what was right in their own eyes), Babylon (to idolatry) and the Dispersion (indifference to her calling).   Each time God delivered them, the people used their freedom to serve themselves and ended up in bondage again.  This is because they failed to understand God's ultimate purpose for us to manifest His heart to the earth.  Now Jer 30:3 tells us God's intention is to "return us".  God's grace is demonstrated in freeing from bondage to sinning, especially to compulsive habits.  This same grace makes a way for us to function under God's control.  BUT, man must either submit to God's purpose, or become captive to some other "god" (law).  God does not allow us to live long apart from Him.  His plan is not "spurts" and "sprints", but a consistent walk, a long-distance marathon, leading to an unfolding of His plan.   Deliverance is ALWAYS through obedience to God's methods and is ALWAYS miraculous.  Deliverance is never by might, power, alliances, human wisdom, determination and grit, willpower.  It is through submitting to the "foolishness of God".

P.O.W.'s: The Kingdom of Darkness, called "Babylon" in both Jeremiah and Revelation, is at war with the Kingdom of God, which is Light.   When we sin, Rom 6:16 says, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"  When the people of Judah got carried off to Babylon to be their slaves, they became prisoners of war.  Thank of that.  When we get trapped in sin, after we have already been saved, we are prisoners of war (enslaved by our own lust).  We need to be "redeemed" or "purchased back".  1 John 1:7-9 describes BELIEVERS being washed by the blood.  Bringing the Jews back to Jerusalem is a picture of that process.  Redeemed prisoners of war coming back to the Kingdom of God.  Through redemption, I belong to God, not to myself. He paid the price.

"JACOB'S TROUBLE":  The day of judgment for the Jews.  Keep in mind that what feels like judgment and punishment to the enemy, serves to release God's people from bondage. Babylon will be destroyed, but Jacob  (God's elect by faith in Him) will be saved. In Jacob's own "day of trouble" (Gen 32) he received his name change to Israel.  It is a day of life-change, a day of repentance and cleansing.

THE NEW COVENANT: (31:31-34) This passage is quoted word-for-word in Hebrews 8:8-12 and 10:9, 16-17 showing us that this is a promise to THE CHURCH - not just Israel.  There is no difference between Jew and Greek any more, Jesus died to break down the "dividing wall" (Eph 2:14) and all are saved the same way, - thru the New Covenant of His Blood.   We know God by revelation in our "inward parts", accurately and completely (v.34).  Here we learn that God was a "husband to them", covenanted to His people like a marriage.  Judah broke the marriage up, not God.(v.32) So, God took away the first covenant that He might establish the second covenant. This time God will remake us from WITHIN, giving us the power to do His will (Rom 8:1-6).  This is not an EXTERNAL covenant, but a SPIRITUAL and INTERNAL covenant, based on intimately and accurately knowing God.

CONTRASTS: The Sinai covenant demanded perfect obedience; the New Covenant offers forgiveness of sins.  The Old Covenant was written on stone, the New Covenant is written on our hearts. The Old Covenant was with the physical descendants of Jacob; the New Covenant is to all who come by faith to God.  The Old Covenant COVERED SIN once a year, the New Covenant REMOVED SIN.  The heart of a man is changed from the inside, out.  We live for God because we WANT to.

FROM HORRIBLE TO HOLY: The most abominable piece of real estate on earth (The Kidron Valley) "Valley of Dead Bodies and...ashes") beginning at the Kidron (2 Sam 15:22-30, John 18:1ff) all the way to the "horse gate", also called "dung gate" for obvious reasons - "shall be Holy to the Lord". There shall be no uncleanness in the New City of God (see Heb 12:22), but it shall all be the holy dwelling-place of God-in-the-midst-of-us. The battle against uncleanness: sin and iniquity and transgressions, is won through Blood and forgiveness.

RESPONSE:  Some people go thru life getting results, others get consequences. The fear of God is what keeps us aware that our choices have consequences. When we keep God in the center of our lives and stay dependent on Him, (I didn't say "CO-dependent"), then we reap RESULTS.  When we go our own way, thinking we are "free" - then we reap CONSEQUENCES.  Like a train that has jumped the tracks.  We won't get anywhere with our lives, and most of all, we won't live with purpose or with joy.

1 TIMOTHY 2:1-15                  ______                                                                               
"PURSUE GODLINESS & FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT OF FAITH": And we do this by living to please God in everything we say and do; AND "wage the fight of faith".  Faith is a lifestyle of living God-centered, trusting God in everything. The best monitor we have for our faith-walk is our "conscience", which tells us when we are acting or thinking OUTSIDE of faith (Rom 14:23).

CHAPTER 1: The law is for law-breakers, not for salvation or deliverance. To say that we must submit to "other doctrine, fables and endless genealogies” (for example, thinking we have to pray against "generational curses", etc.), the Bible calls this "blasphemy", and put the people teaching this OUT OF THE CHURCH!

CHAPTER 2: The lifestyle that pleases God: "a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and integrity." (2:2-3)  What is "good and acceptable" (pleasing) to God?

(1) (2:4-8) God wants "all men to be saved and know the Truth", as evidenced by their "testimony".  The "testimony" spoken of here is not a speech.  It is a lifestyle of death-to-self, and living-to-God, thus the Greek word for "testimony" is "martus", from which we get the English word martyr.  As proof that the Gospel is for ALL MEN, not just law-keeping ones, Paul was called to be a preacher, apostle and teacher of the Gentiles!  The emphasis in that verse is "all men".  So, go ahead! Pray, worship, rejoice "without wrath and doubting" - because you are God's chosen, His elect!

(2) (2:9-15) "All men" includes all women, too!  God doesn't want women believing that they can depend on their "feminine wiles" to get somewhere in the church.  Godly behavior is expected of them, too.  This is because women have SO MUCH POWER over men already (God made females that way), so we must "sit and learn" before we teach (v.12 reads as a temporary measure). "Usurp authority", look it up, means "to use our feminine wiles". That wily power does not give us the right to rule!  Eve (or woman) was NOT the enlightened originator of life - - - Adam was.  Eve was totally deceived and fell into death. HOWEVER, she is "saved" from her deceived condition and saved from perishing, because of "the childbirth" - (Gen 3:15) - JESUS. In fact every child of the Kingdom produced by woman is a threat to the devil, as long as we walk in "faith, holiness, and good judgment".

RESPONSE: People who use this chapter of Scripture to say that woman can't preach or teach in a church where men are present MAKE ME MAD!  They are reading it opposite of what it actually says! In fact, the author, Paul, respected women and ministered alongside them. (eg. Priscilla, Phoebe, the woman of Romans 16, et al) He even gave rules for WHEN, not if,  women prophesied (1Cor 11:5). Jesus set us ALL free!  Gal 3:28 says "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."  This means there is no ethnicity (race), no class system, and no gender in the Church.  Gender was given to us for procreating, for completion and for godly role assignments.  If it weren't for the women, a lot of churches wouldn't even exist!  Paul started the church at Philippi with women (Acts 16:12-13).  The problem in the church both here and today is, that some women practice the same behavior they had in the world to "get ahead" - in the church!   THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!  "Shut up! Sit down! And learn!”

PSALM 87:1-7                                                                                                                    
WHAT EXCITES GOD? ZION!  Psa 48 tells us that Mt. Zion is the "city of our God", the Holy Mountain, the City of David, the "mountain of holiness", and Hebrews 12:22-23 says that Zion (Sion) is in God's Presence and it is the dwelling-place of God's elect - the church both here and in heaven. Now we read that The Lord loves its gates more than any place else, because the gates access us to His Presence.  His love and pleasure are in Zion.  Psa 87:4-7 tells us that what makes Zion so "glorious" is that it is INCLUSIVE of all who come to worship freely and exuberantly. "All my fountains are in You" means that God abundantly satisfies every thirst. He is everything that I need.

PROVERBS 25:18-19                                                                                                    
A person who lies about someone else is like a SLEDGE HAMMER! They don't want to ruin you, they want to finish you off!   And there is nothing worse than a "broken tooth" or a "wobbly and unreliable foot".  They aren't just useless, but they are PAINFUL - they just make every situation worse. That's what an "unfaithful man" does.

RESPONSE:  I have unreliable feet - my knees sometimes "give way" and I stumble. One Sunday morning after church, I was going down the grand stairway leading out of the sanctuary - behind a large group of people who were also exiting the church. My unreliable foot gave way and I tumbled down the stairs, knocking people over like bowling pins! Of course, I was 240 pounds of magnificent woman at the time! If someone had been leaning on me at the time, they would have gotten hurt too. My physical stability wasn't reliable (faithful). That's humorous, but when someone needs me, I need to be reliable.