The Bible Reading Challenge Presented by VCY

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 30:1-31:26
  1 Timothy 2:1-15
  Psalm 87:1-7
  Proverbs 25:18-19

Jeremiah 30:9 — Why does God bring up the time of “Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7)? So that they may serve the LORD! God is planning on bringing King David back? Since that was not fulfilled after the exile, Jeremiah 30:3 must refer to another event. Between Abraham (2166 BC) and today (2023 AD) we see three major separations of the Jewish people from the land:

• Captivity – 1876 BC (entrance into Egypt under Joseph) until 1446 BC (Exodus under Moses). This occurred under the Dispensation of Promise/Covenant.
• Exile – The Fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC to Sargon and the Fall of Southern Kingdom of Judah in 586 BC to Nebuchadnezzar until the returns led by Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah. This occurred under the Dispensation of Law.
• Diaspora – Starting with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 until the modern Aliyah starting in 1882 and intensifying in 1948 with the formation of the modern state of Israel.

Did any ruler after the Exile time count as “King David?” The Hasmonean dynasty was an independent kingdom for only 50 years (110-63 BC) until it succumbed to the Roman Empire. Herod the Great wasn’t “King David” – he was an Edomite! This prophecy is yet to be fulfilled! In our day we are seeing Israel and Judah returning to the land (Jeremiah 30:3), making Aliyah even today! Unfortunately, they have not returned to serve the LORD; approximately 67% of Israeli Jews identify as secular atheist. Pray with Paul that Israel will be saved (Romans 10:1)!

Jeremiah 30:22 — We talked yesterday that it is good (and even commanded!) to be involved in political campaigns – to seek the good of the land. But how much better would it be to know that our leader is not a mere politician, but He’s God! Note that most of the time in this chapter that He uses the word “LORD” to describe Himself and His relationship to us. But here in this verse He uses the word “God” – Elohim – the same word used to describe Himself as the Creator of the World (Genesis 1:1). Our ultimate Leader, my Father, is omnipotent!

Jeremiah 31:3 — God is not done with Israel! He loves them with an everlasting love!

Jeremiah 31:15 — We’re familiar with this verse from Matthew 2:17. But that’s not the only application. From Jamieson-Faussett-Brown:

In Benjamin, east of the great northern road, two hours’ journey from Jerusalem. Rachel, who all her life had pined for children (Ge 30:1), and who died with “sorrow” in giving birth to Benjamin (Ge 35:18, 19, Margin; 1Sa 10:2), and was buried at Ramah, near Beth-lehem, is represented as raising her head from the tomb, and as breaking forth into “weeping” at seeing the whole land depopulated of her sons, the Ephraimites. Ramah was the place where Nebuzara-dan collected all the Jews in chains, previous to their removal to Babylon (Jer 40:1). God therefore consoles her with the promise of their restoration. Mt 2:17, 18 quotes this as fulfilled in the massacre of the innocents under Herod. “A lesser and a greater event, of different times, may answer to the single sense of one passage of Scripture, until the prophecy is exhausted” [Bengel]. Besides the temporary reference to the exiles in Babylon, the Holy Spirit foreshadowed ultimately Messiah’s exile in Egypt, and the desolation caused in the neighborhood of Rachel’s tomb by Herod’s massacre of the children, whose mothers had “sons of sorrow” (Ben-oni), just as Rachel had.

1 Timothy 2:2 — Do you pray for those in authority? PublicServantPrayer.org has done a great job in identifying a state’s elected officials so you can pray daily for them.

1 Timothy 2:4 — If God wants all men to be saved, how will He get His message to all men? Romans 10:14-15 reminds us that God is sending preachers; they just need to say, “Here I am, LORD. Send me (Isaiah 6)!”

1 Timothy 2:14 — Eve received bad information from Adam and the serpent. God told Adam not to eat of it (Genesis 2:17), but Eve who heard it second hand from Adam said that God had said not to touch it (Genesis 3:3). Interestingly, while the Serpent and Eve are having their discussion, Adam is standing right next to her (Genesis 3:6)!

So why should Eve’s mistake keep women from being preachers today? For that matter, why should woman “have power on her head because of the angels (1 Corinthians 11:10)?” Like Job, we don’t have to understand why, we just have to obey!

1 Timothy 2:15 — Does childbearing sanctify? No! Paul is going back to the garden – the man was cursed with the sorrow of work, and the woman was cursed with the pain of childbirth. Henry Alford discusses:

The curse on the woman for her “transgression” was, “in pains you will bear children” (Genesis 3:16). Her “childbearing” is that in which the curse finds its operation. What then is here promised her? Not only exemption from that curse in its worst and heaviest effects: not merely that she shall safely bear children: but the Apostle uses the word “will be saved” purposely for its higher meaning [eternal salvation], and the construction of the sentence is precisely as [in] 1 Corinthians 3:15 — “he will be saved, yet though as through fire.”

Just as that man should be saved though as passing through fire, which is his trial, his hindrance in his way, in spite of which he escapes — so she shall be saved, though as passing through her child-bearing, which is her trial, her curse, her (not means of salvation, but) hindrance in the way of it.

Alford, H. [2010]. Alford’s Greek Testament: An Exegetical and Critical Commentary [Vol. 3, 320]. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software

Proverbs 25:19 — Are you trusting the right people? Solomon said earlier that it’s hard to find such a one (Proverbs 20:6).

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 28:1-29:32
  1 Timothy 1:1-20
  Psalm 86:1-17
  Proverbs 25:17

Jeremiah 28:3 — Hananiah the son of Azur was a morale booster. Today we call his work PsyOps. And while it was lauded by the king, it would be worthy of death by God (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). Hananiah’s prophecy was two years out. The prophecy of Jeremiah was time sensitive. How would the people know who was the right prophet?

Jeremiah 28:16 — Jeremiah prophesied that Hananiah would be dead within the year, even though Hananiah prophesied there would be peace within two years.

Interestingly, in recent times John Alexander Dowie, founder of Zion, Illinois, entered into a prayer duel with the founder of Ahmadiyya.

A bizarre sidelight on Dowie’s later years is that he became embroiled in an acrimonious public dispute with a controversial Indian Muslim religious figure, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, founder of the Ahmadiyya movement. In 1903 they engaged in a widely publicized prayer duel, each calling upon God to punish the other to expose him as a false prophet. Ahmad and his followers proclaimed Dowie’s rapidly ensuing illness, disgrace, and death as a vindication of their religious beliefs. Ahmad died in 1908, a year later than Dowie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Community_Church

Jeremiah 29:2 — It is strange that we see the eunuchs mentioned here. This is another pagan practice that had been adopted by Israel. Deuteronomy 23:1 declared that castration prevented a man from the assembly of the LORD. Why would a political leader cut off his advisers from the LORD? An attempt to be like the surrounding nations? Then again, the people offered their children to Baal as burnt offerings (Jeremiah 19:5) and castrated their advisers.

Jeremiah 29:5-7 — This is good advice for us today. We are away from our true home. Jeremiah 29:10 says that the Israelites will be in captivity for 70 years. Interestingly, Psalm 90:10 talks about our threescore and ten (70) years on earth before we go to our New Jerusalem (Revelation 21)! The “United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing,” better known as Shakers, believed that Jesus was coming back so soon that they did not need to “bear sons and daughters” (Jeremiah 29:6). Even today many talk about how they can’t imagine bringing children into the world.

What are we to do? Prepare to stay awhile through:

• personal comforts (build houses)
• profits (plant gardens)
• procreation (take wives, bear sons and daughters)
• politics (seek the peace of the city)

Yes, God is okay with you living in a nice house, having a 401k, bringing children into this world, voting, volunteering on a campaign, donating to a candidate, or even running for office yourself! BUT …

Jeremiah 29:10 — There is something better coming (taking you to the New Jerusalem)! That is the expected end. We can enjoy this present life but remember to call upon the LORD (Jeremiah 29:12). Someday, just like Israel, we will be gathered in as well (Jeremiah 29:14).

Jeremiah 29:22 — That is a vivid image of the end of a false prophet!

1 Timothy 1:3 — Jeremiah battled the false teachers Hananiah (Jeremiah 28:15) in Jerusalem, and Ahab and Zedekiah (Jeremiah 29:21) in Babylon. Timothy is now battling false teachers in Ephesus.

1 Timothy 1:15 — The anointed Messiah, “Jehovah is Salvation,” entered the world on purpose, to save people who admit they are horrible people. The good people (those still in Jerusalem per Jeremiah 29:16-19) won’t be saved. But the bad people – those who went into captivity (Jeremiah 27:12-13) – can live if they surrender!

1 Timothy 1:17 — The hymn “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” is based on this verse.

1 Timothy 1:18 — In 1 Timothy 6:12, Paul will get back to this expression when he urges Timothy to fight the good fight!

Psalm 86:1 — The Psalmist recognizes the same truth that Paul and Jeremiah do: God hears those who admit they are needy

Proverbs 25:17 — As we say today, “Don’t wear out your welcome!”

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 26:1-27:22
  2 Thessalonians 3:1-18
  Psalm 85:1-13
  Proverbs 25:16

Jeremiah 26:1 — Have you noticed that Jeremiah’s writings are not in chronological order? Earlier we read that God would not turn even if Samuel prayed, but now He offers to hearken (Jeremiah 26:3). From J. Carl Laney:

According to Murphy, the individual units of Jeremiah were originally addressed to the people to whom Jeremiah ministered at different stages throughout his ministry. The final form of the work, compiled after Jehoiachin’s release in 561 B.C., was a message to the exiles in Babylon providing encouragement and hope through promises of restoration. Since the judgments which Jeremiah announced had been fulfilled, the exiles in Babylon could be confident that the restoration would also come about.

Murphy believes that Jeremiah has been carefully constructed to a recurring theological message of judgment and hope for God’s exiled people (p. 315). Because they have broken the Mosaic Covenant, they experienced judgment (Lev. 26, Deut. 28). But because of God’s unconditional promise to Abraham (Gen. 12:2-3), God would deliver His people from exile and rebuild them as a nation. So Jeremiah repeatedly presents Yahweh’s judgment and promised hope, destruction and restoration, and cursing and blessing.

The entry and exit points of the anthology, according to Murphy, are chapters 1 and 52. These chapters serve as “bookends” to hold the work together as an anthology. Chapter one verse 10 sets forth the agenda of the book. Here we see “in seed form” the themes of judgment and restoration which make up the rest of the book. The final chapter (52) highlights these same themes by recounting two incidents. Chapter 52 tells of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, emphasizing the theme of judgment. But the book concludes with a message of hope. Jehoiachin is released from prison, anticipating the future restoration and return of the people of Judah.

Jeremiah 26:14 — How could Jeremiah be so cavalier about his own life? Because he had accomplished what the LORD sent him to do (Jeremiah 26:12).

Jeremiah 26:18 — Who is this Micah the Morasthite? When we turn to Micah 1:1, we realize that this was the same prophet!

• Jeremiah 26:18 recognizes the prophecy of Micah
• Daniel 9:2 recognizes the prophecy of Jeremiah
• Ezekiel 14:14, Ezekiel 14:20, and Ezekiel 28:3 recognize Daniel
• 2 Peter 3:15-16 identify Paul’s writings as Scripture

We find several times in Scripture a reference to other people in Scripture. It’s not just an anthology of religious sayings, but the Word of God pointing towards His Son, Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah 26:23 — Religious persecution was evident in the “theocracy” of Judah with the death of Urijah. It also was evident in the Puritan colony of Massachusetts with Obadiah Holmes:

Obadiah Holmes (1610 – 15 October 1682) was an early Rhode Island settler, and a Baptist minister who was whipped in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his religious beliefs and activism.

In 1650 he and others were taken to court for their religious views and practices, and compelled to leave the colony. He settled in Newport in the Rhode Island colony and soon befriended John Clarke and John Crandall. In July 1651 these three men, while visiting an elderly friend in Lynn, Massachusetts, were apprehended, tried, and given exorbitant fines for their religious practices. Friends paid the fines for Clarke and Crandall, but when Holmes learned of this he refused to allow them to pay his fine. Six weeks after trial he was taken to the whipping post in Boston and given 30 strokes, which were laid on so harshly that for weeks afterward Holmes could only sleep while on his knees and elbows.

Jeremiah 27:3 — A very unpatriotic message to send to Israel’s would-be allies, even though it was a message of hope (Jeremiah 27:13).

2 Thessalonians 3:1 — Pray for missionaries and evangelists that the Word of the LORD would have free course!

2 Thessalonians 3:6 — We are commanded to separate from disorderly brethren. What are their characteristics? False doctrine (2 Thessalonians 3:6), “too busy to work” (2 Thessalonians 3:11), and disobedient to Scripture (2 Thessalonians 3:14).

Psalm 85:6 — ”Revive us again!”

Proverbs 25:16 — Yes, you can have too much of a good thing!

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 23:21-25:38
  2 Thessalonians 2:1-17
  Psalm 84:1-12
  Proverbs 25:15

Jeremiah 23:21-22 — Now, this is an odd scenario. There are prophets prophesying, but they weren’t sent nor spoken to by the LORD. An avalanche of alleged ambassadors from the Monarch of the World. Yet, with the plethora of people purporting to proclaim the King’s Word, none of them have turned from their evil way.

Jeremiah 23:34 — A promise of punishment for presumption! If you are a preacher and do not preach God’s Word but your own ideas, God will judge! Unfortunately, since Jonathan Edward’s day, “eminent saints” have been misled by what they thought was God speaking to them:

I . . . know by experience that impressions being made with great power, and upon the minds of true saints, yea, eminent saints; and presently after, yea, in the midst of, extraordinary exercises of grace and sweet communion with God, and attended with texts of Scripture strongly impressed on the mind, are no sure signs of their being revelations from heaven: for I have known such impressions [to] fail, and prove vain.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-do-we-say-god-told-me

Jeremiah 24:7 — Let’s pray for a heart to know the LORD, so we can appreciate that He is our God and follow Him with our whole heart.

Jeremiah 25:12 — There is so much evil to judge! God will punish Israel for 70 years, then punish Babylon for their sins. Yes, it was made desolate and still is today!

Before Hussein’s reconstruction, there had already been destruction from the shifts in rivers and deserts, and still more from colonial powers. Germans took the Ishtar Gate, which is now in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, while the French took ceramics, and the Turks used Babylonian bricks to build dams on the Euphrates.

The occupation of US forces also damaged the site. Following the 2003 invasion, the US camp Alpha was set up on the ruins. Areas were leveled to create landing pads for helicopters and parking lots for vehicles. Tanks rumbled over the ancient bricks, and Polish troops dug trenches through a temple. Soil holding artifacts and bones was scooped into sandbags. And even the military presence couldn’t keep out looters, who ransacked Iraq’s more than 10,000 historic sites after the invasion.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/babylon

2 Thessalonians 2:3 — What is the falling away (apostasia)? From Jimmy DeYoung:

A close and careful word study of the Greek word apostasia will conclude that the true meaning of the word is found in the phrase, “departing from one place and going to another”, not a falling away from the doctrines of the church.

If the word “apostasia” was communicating that “apostasy” was what it was talking about then the Rapture and the coming of the Antichrist would have happened during the writing of II Thessalonians. Apostasy had infiltrated the early church by the time Paul wrote this passage.

What Paul is saying here is that the Antichrist, the “Son of Perdition”, would not come until the Church departs from one place and goes to another. That is what happens at the Rapture. The scenario for the future according to all prophetic passages is that the Rapture takes all Christians into Heaven and then the Antichrist appears on earth.

http://devotional.prophecytoday.com/search/label/II%20Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians 2:4 — Image of the Beast, the 3rd in the Thief in the Night series, depicts this defiling of the Temple.

2 Thessalonians 2:11 — God sends a strong delusion so that people believe a lie. As we read in Jeremiah today, there are times when He is angry (Jeremiah 25:38) and will not have a message for the people other than forsaking them (Jeremiah 23:33).

Psalm 84:10 — I heard a great message at the Christian School conference I was at the past few days. Discouragement comes in when we start calculating our hourly wage rather than our eternal reward.

Psalm 84:11 — The verse is a setting of a song from the WILDS.

Proverbs 25:15 — Pastor Andrew Brunson was finally released after two years of negotiations. The FBI’s lead hostage negotiator shares that the best way to negotiate is with “the late-night DJ voice,” i.e. slow, deep, and calm.

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 22:1-23:20
  2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
  Psalm 83:1-18
  Proverbs 25:11-14

Jeremiah 22:1 — As I write this, we are less than a month from the next election. We’ll be electing leaders who will be passing laws. How will they decide which laws are worth passing? That comes from their personal morality. Is it more important to do X or to do Y? The job of the church in relation to the government is to teach biblical values in order to inform the policies made. As we’ve all heard, all legislation is morality; it’s just a question of whose morality we’re going to legislate.

Jeremiah 22:13 — Morality begins in the home. It is not until we repair our relationships that we can be blessed by God.

Jeremiah 22:30 — From Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers:

Write ye this man childless.–The meaning of the prediction, as explained by the latter clause of the verse, was fulfilled in Jeconiah’s being the last kingly representative of the house of David, his uncle Zedekiah, who succeeded him, perishing before him (Jeremiah 52:31). In him the sceptre departed, and not even Zerubbabel sat upon the throne of Judah. Whether he died actually childless is less certain. In 1 Chronicles 3:17 Assir (possibly, however, the name should be translated “Jeconiah the prisoner”) appears as his son, and as the father of Salathiel, or Shealtiel; and in Matthew 1:12 we find “Jechonias begat Salathiel.” In these genealogies, however, adoption or succession, or a Levirate marriage so constantly takes the place of parentage, that nothing certain can be inferred from these data, and St. Luke (Luke 3:27) places Salathiel among the descendants of Nathan, as though the line of Solomon became extinct in Jeconiah, and was replaced by the collateral branch of the house of David (see Note on Luke 3:23). The command, “write ye this man childless,” is apparently addressed to the “scribes who kept the register of the royal genealogies (Ezekiel 13:9; Psalm 69:28-29). They were told how, without waiting for his death, they were to enter Coniah’s name in that register.

Jeremiah 23:4 — This month is Pastor Appreciation Month – thank God for good pastors!

Jeremiah 23:16 — 1 John 4:1 commands us to “try the spirits” and not secretly adopt them. There are many people today who are similar to the false prophets, walking after the imaginations of their hearts.

2 Thessalonians 1:5 — Worthiness for the kingdom comes from suffering in this life? No wonder Paul had to write to clarify his instructions from previously!

Psalm 83:6 — The tabernacles of Edom? Jimmy DeYoung explores Edom in his documentary: “Esau and the Palestinians.”

Psalm 83:18 — Praise the LORD – there is no other, there is no other by His name!

Proverbs 25:11 — Discernment and application are great life-long skills to have.

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 19:1-21:14
  1 Thessalonians 5:4-28
  Psalm 82:1-8
  Proverbs 25:9-10

Jeremiah 19:3 — This warning wasn’t to pagan Assyria or wayward Israel, but the Kings of Judah! They have built altars to Baal and offered their sons to Baal.

Jeremiah 19:9 — Baal was a fertility god. The people offered their firstborn to Baal so that Baal would grant them many more children. The LORD didn’t ask for human sacrifice but offered redemption (Exodus 13:15). The LORD drew a distinct difference between mankind and the animals. This act was a memorial of the Passover which itself foreshadowed our Passover Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 5:7)! Because the firstborn had been sacrificed to Baal, they could not be redeemed to the LORD.

Note the similarity between this and the Garden of Eden. The Tree of Life is more powerful than the Tree of Death/Knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 3:22). If Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Life first, they would live forever (Genesis 3:22). If they ate of the Tree of Life after, it would reverse the Tree of Death. But because they ate of the Tree of Death first, God put a guard at the east entrance to the way of the Tree of Life to keep them from eating it (Genesis 3:24). He did so because the life that comes ‘free’ must now be paid for with blood (Hebrews 9:22). Satan had a plan to keep Adam & Eve from the Tree of Life by getting them to the Tree of Death first, just like he planned to keep the kids from being redeemed by the LORD by being sacrificed to Baal (Jeremiah 19:9).

If they will offer their firstborn to Baal, the LORD challenges Baal to try to deliver the other kids from the LORD’s promised judgment, a judgment that will cause not just filicide but cannibalism as well! Jeremiah also said (because they apparently do not value children as much as prosperity) that if they went to worship by burning their children alive at Tophet (Jeremiah 19:2, Jeremiah 19:6), God would make their houses like Tophet as well (Jeremiah 19:13).

Jeremiah 20:2 — Well, the street preacher Jeremiah has been arrested (no 1st Amendment rights in Jerusalem!), beaten, and put in stocks.

Jeremiah 20:9 — A reluctant witness for the LORD cannot stay silent. His Word is like a burning fire shut up in the bones – release it!

Jeremiah 21:9 — The only way to survive is to surrender. Do you surrender all to Jesus?

1 Thessalonians 5:8 — Americans consumed 7 billion gallons of beer last year. But Paul urges us to be sober!

1 Thessalonians 5:11 — Whether we live or die, our comfort is that we are with our LORD!

1 Thessalonians 5:17 — Pray on occasion? No! Pray without ceasing! Pray for us (1 Thessalonians 5:25)!

1 Thessalonians 5:23 — From Earl Martin:

Psalm 82:3-4 — Looking at what we read in Jeremiah, who is poorer or needier than the young firstborn babies that were sacrificed to Baal? Who needs protection more than the widow on the verge of being fleeced by the unscrupulous dealmaker?

Proverbs 25:9 — Debate thy cause with thy neighbor on Facebook … or privately? Yes, discretion is a valuable tool in the Christian’s arsenal!

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 16:16-18:23
  1 Thessalonians 4:1-5:3
  Psalm 81:1-16
  Proverbs 25:6-8

Jeremiah 16:17 — God is watching! God is watching our ways, and He sees our actions. My wife is very observant, but I can hide stuff from her. The CIA may be tracing my laptop, but there are ways with torrents and proxies to hide my internet traffic. Nothing is hid from our God, however. “… neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.”

Jeremiah 17:5-8 — I just talked to the desk clerk at the hotel I’m staying tonight. He enjoys learning and philosophy, yet due to a tragedy in his family, he seems to think that if there was a loving God, then He would have prevented it. Instead of trusting in God, he trusts in the potential of mankind. Pray for him that God would reach him and heal his hurting heart (Jeremiah 17:14).

Sadly, God warns us against trusting in man. He gives a vivid contrast between trusting in man (like a heath in the desert) and trusting in God (a tree planted by the waters).

Jeremiah 17:19-20 — Jeremiah the street preacher! Yes, today we can speak on the sidewalks of America and warn the nation about the sin in our country.

Jeremiah 17:25 — God had offered to protect the city from invasion forever if they would obey. Seven hundred years later, the people would crucify the King who entered the city by the Eastern Gate (Luke 19:37).

Jeremiah 18:9-10 — During the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin said:

“I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth – that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?”

https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/benfranklin.htm

Jeremiah 18:19-23 — Notice the abrupt changes from the beginning of this chapter:

• Jeremiah hears the word of the LORD
• The people plot revenge against Jeremiah
• Jeremiah prays a very personal, impassioned, private imprecatory prayer to the LORD

1 Thessalonians 4:3 — God tells us what His will is for our lives. The same thing we’ve read in the Old Testament: obedience!

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 — This is a great promise that God has given us. We will not miss the rapture of the Church!

Psalm 81:13 — What blessings in your life has God withheld because of your disobedience?

Proverbs 25:7 — Humility is a valuable virtue to follow.

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 14:11-16:15
  1 Thessalonians 2:9-3:13
  Psalm 80:1-19
  Proverbs 25:1-5

Jeremiah 14:11-12 — There is no hope for deliverance when God has told me not to pray, especially if He doesn’t accept my fasting or sacrifice. Jeremiah could pray, but God said He would already protect him (Jeremiah 15:11). Jeremiah was prevented, however, from interceding for those that had knowledge of God but rejected Him.

Jeremiah 14:14 — What was the punishment for prophets who prophesied lies? Death (Deuteronomy 18:20)!

Jeremiah 14:17 — The Weeping Prophet again has his eyes running with tears night and day.

Jeremiah 15:1 — Moses interceded for Israel in Exodus 32:12-14 and Deuteronomy 9:13-14. Samuel interceded for Israel in 1 Samuel 7:5-11. But God says the time of intercession is over. Tragically, God allowed Abraham to intercede for Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18:22-33. Abraham could beg for mercy for those who had not heard, but Jeremiah could not now intercede for those who heard and rejected.

Jeremiah 15:16 — Is God’s Word the joy and rejoicing of your heart? If not, are you called by Christ’s name?

Jeremiah 16:2 — Interesting the role of God in determining our wives. Jeremiah was denied a wife. Hosea was given a prostitute for a wife (Hosea 1:2). Adam didn’t have a choice about his wife (Genesis 2:22). God doesn’t necessarily want us married or single, but obedient to Him. Even if we are married, God wants us to be Christlike first. I just started reading a great book on this topic: Discovering the Mind of a Woman (Spoiler alert – it starts with being Christlike!).

Jeremiah 16:13-15 — From Jimmy DeYoung:

This is a “spiritual application” from this passage. As we come back now to the “technical interpretation” of the passage notice in verses 13-15 that the Lord speaks of scattering the Jews across the world, casting them out of their land to places they knew not, where they would serve other gods and the Lord would show them no favor.

Verse 14 reveals that the day will come when the Jews will not speak of the “Exodus” at the Passover Seder, as is the custom, but instead will talk about how the Lord brought them from the “land of the north” verse 15, and all the lands where they had been scattered for the last 2,000 years.

This prophecy is being fulfilled even today as we witness over one million Jews from Russia, the “land to the north,” immigrating into Israel. There are Jews who have come from over one hundred nations of the world, back into the land as Jeremiah said they would do in the last days.

http://devotional.prophecytoday.com/2017/12/jeremiah-1617.html

1 Thessalonians 2:12 — This is the 3rd time Paul has exhorted his people to walk worthy.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 — The Word of God is effectually working! It’s time to unleash it! As Charles Spurgeon said, “Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself.”

1 Thessalonians 3:10 — Wednesday night prayer meetings used to be a fixture at many churches, but now many of those meetings have fallen by the wayside. Perhaps the prayers go long, and people feel it has become routine. Imagine being at a prayer meeting with Paul!

Psalm 80:4 — Yes, our sin can block God hearing our prayer, as we saw earlier in Jeremiah 14:11. But God will hear us if we repent (1 John 1:9).

Proverbs 25:5 — Maybe you’re not one of the 15 remaining kings on earth, but if you’re a child of God, the Scripture says you can reign with Christ (Matthew 19:28, 2 Timothy 2:12, Revelation 3:21). How should you behave as a king? Take away the wickedness from your life! How do you find the wickedness? Ask God to search your heart (Psalm 139:23-24)!

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 12:1-14:10
  1 Thessalonians 1:1-2:8
  Psalm 79:1-13
  Proverbs 24:30-34

Jeremiah 12:1 — This is a continual question of the Old Testament. We’ve seen this with Asaph in Psalm 73.

Jeremiah 12:12 — This is the 5th time the phrase “Sword of the LORD” is found in the Bible. David saw three days of the sword in 1 Chronicles 21:12, and seventy thousand men died in those three days.

Jeremiah 12:16 — Obedience, the universal call of God. Yes, God’s mercy extends even unto pagan nations (Jonah 1:2).

Jeremiah 13:9 — This object lesson is a vivid portrayal of how God marred the pride of Judah. God would later tell how long this judgment would be. Both Jeremiah 25:11-12 and Jeremiah 29:10 show the seventy years of judgment that Daniel read about (Daniel 9:2).

Jeremiah 13:23 — Human reform falls short. We can try to change our actions, but only God can change our hearts.

Jeremiah 14:8 — The Savior stands as a stranger in the land, waiting at the door (Revelation 3:20). The hymn “Abide With Me” is based on this passage. It’s all about inviting the Savior to come in. Oscar Eliason also wrote another song based on this verse:

Why should He stand as a stranger
Close to your heart’s bolted door?
Graciously, tenderly, pleading,
Gently He knocks o’er and o’er

Why should He stand as a stranger,
He Who can save you from sin?
Peace to your heart Jesus waits to impart
The moment that you let Him in.

Oscar Eliason

1 Thessalonians 1:1 — Welcome to a new epistle! No, the epistles were not the wives of the apostles! From J. Vernon McGee on 1 Thessalonians:

This wonderful epistle is almost at the end of Paul’s epistles as far as their arrangement in the New Testament is concerned. However, it was actually the first epistle that Paul wrote. It was written by Paul in A.D. 52 or 53.

Thessalonica was a Roman colony. Rome had a somewhat different policy with their captured people from what many other nations have had. For example, it seems that we try to Americanize all the people throughout the world, as if that would be the ideal. Rome was much wiser than that. She did not attempt to directly change the culture, the habits, the customs, or the language of the people whom she conquered. Instead, she would set up colonies which were arranged geographically in strategic spots throughout the empire. A city which was a Roman colony would gradually adopt Roman laws and customs and ways. In the local department stores you would see the latest things they were wearing in Rome itself. Thus these colonies were very much like a little Rome. Thessalonica was such a Roman colony, and it was an important city in the life of the Roman Empire.

1 Thessalonians 1:3 — We encounter again the “virtue trinity” of faith, hope, and love. Paul highlighted this in 1 Corinthians 13:13, referred to this in Colossians 1:4-5, and will reiterate this in 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

1 Thessalonians 1:9 — Paul commended the Thessalonians for turning from idols to the living and true God, while the Jews turned from the living and true God to swearing by Baal (Jeremiah 12:16).

1 Thessalonians 2:2 — Sometimes it’s difficult to continue sharing the gospel when you get shut down. Paul suffered in Philippi but kept preaching in Thessalonica.

1 Thessalonians 2:5-6 — Paul lived his life for “an audience of one.” He liked quoting Jeremiah; glory in the Lord (Jeremiah 9:24 … see also 1 Corinthians 1:31 and 2 Corinthians 10:17)!

Psalm 79:1 — As we saw earlier, God doesn’t value relics. From EnduringWord.com:

Psalm 79 is titled, A Psalm of Asaph, though it was clearly written after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies. This event was so traumatic and important in the scope of Jewish history that it is described four times in the Hebrew Scriptures: 2 Kings 25, 2 Chronicles 36:11-21, Jeremiah 39:1-14, and Jeremiah 52. Since the Asaph most prominent in the Old Testament lived and served during the reigns of King David and King Solomon, this is likely a later Asaph.

Boice (writing regarding Psalm 74) explains the concept of a later Asaph: “Either this is a later Asaph, which is not unlikely since the name might have been perpetuated among the temple musicians, or, more likely, the name was affixed to many psalms produced by this body of musicians. We know that the ‘descendants of Asaph’ were functioning as late as the reign of Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:15).”

Psalm 79:13 — The Psalmist echoes Psalm 100:3, “Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”

Proverbs 24:34 — Patch the Pirate has a great song for this: “Rise and Shine!“

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Jeremiah 10:1-11:23
  Colossians 3:18-4:18
  Psalm 78:56-72
  Proverbs 24:28-29

Jeremiah 10:3 — Is this passage talking about Christmas trees?

If people were praying to their Christmas trees or worshiping them as deities, these passages would certainly apply. But that is not, nor has it ever been, how Christmas trees are used. Christmas trees were never appealed to for blessings nor incorporated into religious rituals or acts of worship. While the exact origin of the Christmas trees is unknown and highly disputed, the tradition seems to have come into existence as late as the 16th century during the Protestant Reformation in Germany. There is no evidence that Christians ever used them as anything other than home decorations for the holidays. There is nothing in this tradition that is innately idolatrous or in any way contrary to the biblical prohibitions against carving trees into false gods.

https://carm.org/does-jeremiah-10-forbid-christmas-trees

The better argument (in addition to understanding the anachronism) seems to be analyzing Jeremiah 10:6. These trees kept the people in fear because of an association with evil.

Jeremiah 10:13 — This verse may help us identify Psalm 135 as being written by Jeremiah:

[Psalm 135:7] is practically identical with Jeremiah 10:13 and Jeremiah 51:16, suggesting the possibility that the prophet Jeremiah may have written the otherwise anonymous Psalm 135. The two Jeremiah passages do preface this statement with the note that there is “a multitude of waters in the heavens” in connection with the processes described in the verse.

In any case, this thrice-mentioned mechanism beautifully summarized what we now call the hydrologic cycle, and it did so over 2,000 years before the cycle began to be understood by modern scientists. In order to provide rain to water the earth, there must be vapors ascending all over the earth (that is, evaporation from the world’s great oceans), winds then blowing from God’s unseen treasury (actually the global atmospheric circulation), and, finally, lightnings for (or “with”) the rain (electrical discharges associated with the condensation and coalescence of the particles of water vapor in the atmosphere). All of this repeatedly transports purified waters from the ocean back over the lands to fall as rain and snow, there finally to run off back to the oceans after performing their life-sustaining ministries on the lands. “Unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again” (Ecclesiastes 1:7).

http://www.icr.org/article/ascending-vapors/

Jeremiah 11:17 — Good thing that nobody offers incense to Baal today. Do we cast our care upon the LORD (1 Peter 5:7), though, or other people? Do we seek Him early (Psalm 63:1), or do we seek other things?

Colossians 3:24 — Wives, husbands, children, fathers, and servants are all given instructions, and then we’re told that we shall not be rewarded for our work by our spouses, parents, children, or masters, but by the LORD! Never forget, we are serving Him! Remembering who gives the reward will change the way you approach your job!

Colossians 4:5 — Rick Grubbs of “Redeeming The Time Radio” shares many timely truths.

Colossians 4:12 — Ah, for a prayer warrior like Epaphras!

Colossians 4:14 — Poor Demas! In Philemon 1:24 he’s still a fellow laborer, but in 2 Timothy 4:10 he will have forsaken Paul for a love of the present world.

Psalm 78:72 — Integrity of heart, skillfulness of hands. May we seek to have a single-minded heart for God coupled with the capacity to serve Him!

Proverbs 24:29 — The golden rule is not “do unto others as they have done unto me,” but “do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12).”

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.