Overview
Jeremiah: The Lord tells Damascus that other cities are scared because of what happens to Damascus. Their army will be defeated in a day.
About Kedar and Hazor’s kingdoms that Nebuchadnezzar defeated, the Lord told it in advance that they would be defeated and their goods plundered. They should flee because of Nebuchadnezzar’s plans for them. The ones who had lived in safety without gates and bars, he will scatter. Only jackals will live in Hazor.
At the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign, the Lord told Jeremiah what would happen to Elam. He will break them and scatter them among all nations. They will be terrified when their enemies come. The Lord will set his throne in Elam and destroy the king. In the end time, he will restore them.
The Lord also prophesied about Babylon. It will fall and its gods, Bel and Merodach will be put to shame. A nation from the North will defeat it. At that time, Israel and Judah will be reunited and Israelites will turn to the Lord with an everlasting covenant.
Israel has been a lost sheep because of those who led them astray. Enemies killed the wanders and claim to be not guilty because Israel was destroyed because of their sins.
The Lord tells the people to flee from the land of Babylon because of the nation he is bring against Babylon. It will be plundered. Babylon was rejoicing but they will be shamed and destroyed because of the Lord’s anger. He calls for all nations to shoot Babylon. It is the vengeance of the Lord to do to Babylon as they did to others. The Lord will punish Babylon just like he did Assyria.
He will restore Israel. In that time, sin will not be found in Israel. The Lord will pardon the remnant.
The hammer God used on the earth, Babylon, will be broken. The Lord caught it in a trap and used his armory to defeat it. All its stores of food will be destroyed. Some will escape and tell of its destruction to Zion. It will be surrounded by archers to repay it for proudly defying the Lord. The day will come when the Lord will punish it for its pride.
Israel and Judah are oppressed and those who captured them would not let them go. But the Lord is a Redeemer and will take care of them. They will have rest but Babylon will not. He will bring a sword and drought against Babylon. Wild beast will live there and people will never live there again.
The enemy will come from the north and suddenly defeat them like a lion from a thicket. God will do it and he will appoint a ruler over Babylon as he chooses. No one can tell God what to do. His plan will succeed. All the earth will know it when it happens.
Psalm 97: The Lord reigns and everyone should rejoice because he is righteous and just. His power is demonstrated in fire and lightning before which no one or thing can stand. Looking at the heavens shows that he is righteous and that idol worshipers put their trust in the wrong things. Zion and Judah rejoice at God’s judgments and his exaltation. People who love God hate evil. God takes care of them giving them righteousness, joy, and they thank the Lord.
Psalm 98: Sing to the Lord because he has revealed his salvation and righteousness before all nations. It is seen in his love and faithfulness to Israel. All the earth should sing and make joyful music to the Lord. All nature will praise him when he comes to judge the earth.
Proverbs: Sluggards will find any reason to get out of work, like thinking there is a lion outside. So, he simply turns over and goes back to sleep. When he eats, he is so lazy he barely has enough impetus to feed himself. He thinks he is smarter than seven rational men.
Titus: Paul establishes his authority as an apostle of Jesus and his purpose of spreading the truth to God’s selected people. The truth includes godliness and eternal life promised by God before time began. The truth came by God’s word through preaching entrusted to Paul by God our Savior.
Paul is writing to Titus, one he brought to the Lord, for whom he asks for grace and peace from God the Father and Jesus our Savior.
Paul left Titus in Crete to get the church in to shape by appointing elders in each town. He provides the qualification for elders and overseers (bishop) as godly men. Both must be beyond reproach.
The need for the qualities is because there are many who are insubordinate and deceivers. These and people of the circumcision party must be silenced as they are tearing up the church. A Cretan prophet even said they are liars, evil, and lazy gluttons. So, they are to be rebuked so they can be established in the faith. They need to stay away from Jewish myths and stick to the truth. People who are pure look at things from a viewpoint of purity instead of depraved and defiled minds. Depraved people think all things are wicked, because that is the way they are. The unbelievers think they know God but show by their works that they don’t.
What Stood Out
Jeremiah: “How the hammer of the whole earth is cut down and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!” (Jer 50:23).
Psalm: “Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him” (Ps 98:1).
Proverbs: “The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly” (Prov 26:16).
Titus: “To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled” (Titus 1:15).
Insight
Jeremiah: God used Babylon to do some incredible things. It conquered nations of the Middle East and even Egypt. From the viewpoint of Israel, they were like a hammer and God described them as his hammer (Jer 51:20). However, they became prideful and didn’t acknowledge that the Lord was the one who directed their paths. They believed their gods, Bel and Merodach gave them their victory. The Lord took vengeance on them. He told them exactly what was going to happen to them. It was all part of God’s plan because there are no surprises for God. He planned for Judah to be captive for 70 years and he knew that Babylon would not let the people go. So he punished them for their pride and insolence in thinking they had accomplished the victories and not God. Their replacements would be the ones to allow the captives to return.
We can get off track when the Lord has used us. We can add to what he wants us to do or we can neglect to do it all. We can forget that it is the Lord working in us who is accomplish whatever we do. It is easy to take credit for what the Lord works through us. We should be careful to avoid this because the Lord will not give his glory to another. God can replace us as easily as water fills the place where your finger was after taking it out of a bowl of water. If we become prideful, he can find another to do the job and we will face the consequence of our pride.
Psalm: I picked up The Book of Hymns: Official Hymnal of the United Methodist Church, (1966). It has 552 hymns in it. The American Hymnal: For English Speaking People Everywhere, (1933) has 526 hymns. This is just a sample of older hymnals. People have been taking the admonition of Psalm 98:1 literally by composing new songs to the Lord every year and every day. With modern technology, we tend to flash the word on the screens so we don’t have hymnals. You can google “worship songs” and find lists of popular new songs.
Some of these are better than others when it comes to celebrating God’s salvation. Some are great at praising God for his attributes. Some are great at giving thanks. There are many reasons to sing to the Lord. Some of us have to skip down to Psalm 98:4 and just make a joyful noise to the Lord. All kinds of musical instruments should be used to in accompaniment. Because we are saved, we can and should praise the Lord. To refrain would be unthinkable.
Proverbs: Sluggard or lazy people have something in common with fools. They both think they are smarter than they are. The convicting thing about this is that it also applies to most of us. We all tend to think we are smarter than others and we can generally find someone to compare against us who is not as bright, like the sluggard. The issue is pride, and it is a sin. That is at the heart of laziness and most other sins. That makes us no better than the sluggard or the fool. The solution is simply repenting and working on ourselves instead of the comparing ourselves to others.
Titus: You’ve probably heard someone say, “Get your mind out of the gutter.” This is what Paul is saying about unbelievers (Titus 1:15). Their minds are in the gutter as they view the world from a depraved mindset. An innocent comment can take them on a lustful journey in their imagination. They can twist a book of beautiful poetry into pornography. They can listen to a preacher and accuse him of all sorts of depravities. They suspect the worst of people because that is what’s in their minds.
On the other hand, when we become Christians we get a renewed mind (Titus 3:5). While we still recognize sin in the world and in our own hearts, we are able to look at the world with the mind of Jesus (Phil 2:5). We don’t automatically think the worst of people and maybe that’s why we are sometime more gullible than those who don’t believe in Jesus. We work on changing our thinking so that it will be more like Jesus’ (Eph 4:23-24). Jesus warns us that though we will see things as pure, we must still be wise because there is evil in the world (Matt 10:16). Yet in the midst of this evil, we can be pure and have pure thoughts.
Application
I want to be pure in my thoughts and not get distracted by worldly mindsets that seek to drag us down to their level. I also want to be careful about giving glory to God for all that I am able to do and not become proud, thinking anything is my own accomplishments. That includes having a pure mind.
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