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.
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