Friday May 8, 2015

Read Jeremiah 9:17-26

While in mission in Vanuatu years ago as a young theological student we were woken early in the morning by the sound of many women wailing. What was going on? What was happening? Was their some national disaster? Had something gone terribly wrong? We were told that a particular person had died and the wailing women - professional paid wailers - had begun the mourning ceremony of wailing over the loved one.

 Jeremiah uses this imagery of wailing women to describe and warn the danger of judgement that is coming upon unrepentant Jerusalem and Judah. While we westerners might have trouble understanding the imagery, the average Hakim in Judah would have immediately seen the connection. Wailing is a sign of death. Death is coming if we don’t repent. God’s anger has been aroused and terrible judgement is coming. Dead bodies will line the streets and the fields like cut grain behind the reaper. Death will be everywhere lest the nation repent!

In the middle of this judgment scene we again have a passage about God. But it’s not as expected. In verses 23-24 we read

23 This is what the Lord says:

“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom

or the strong man boast of his strength

or the rich man boast of his riches,

24 but let him who boasts boast about this:

that he understands and knows me,

that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,

justice and righteousness on earth,

for in these I delight,”

declares the Lord.

In the midst of a message of rabid death, God tells us that He delights in kindness, in justice and righteousness. The implication is as obvious as it is challenging. The people have been uncircumcised in their hearts. They have been stubborn and rebellious in their hearts and have followed the ways of their heart. Yet if they would turn to God and follow Him in kindness, righteousness and justice death would be averted and blessing upon blessing upon would follow.

The Lord still loves kindness and justice and righteousness. But in contrast to the situation in Jeremiah’s day we have the fulfilment where God’s Spirit has been poured out upon all who believe. The prophet Ezekiel looked forward to the day when God’s people would be circumcised in the heart and not just in the flesh. In Ezekiel 36:26–27 (NIV84) we read

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

As such all God’s children in the New Covenant can now follow Him in kindness, in justice and righteousness. We can be certain that God still delights in all of these. We can be certain that death, not physical but eternal or spiritual death, has been overcome and that we have eternal life because of God’s grace and mercy to us. 

Prayer Points:

Using today’s Bible passage and reading notes spend time in adoration, confession, thanks and supplication.

Adoration:

Confession:

Thanks:

Supplication:

· ChristLife Youth Group meets each Friday night. Pray that the Lord would bless their time together and that the youth would grow in faith, in love and in their ability to serve God wholeheartedly.

· Ask the Lord to bless the work of the youth leaders so that they see the fruit of their ministry and so that many more young disciple are made for Jesus’ great name.

 Discussion Questions For Families and Groups

1. Death entered the world through sin in Genesis 3. Trace the development of death throughout the Bible and build a biblical picture of death. from Genesis to Revelation.

2. What role does the death and resurrection of Jesus play in this map of death?