Category: Prophetic Stream

Posted on

May 24

 
 
Jeremiah 11-14
 
We are in the Prophetic Stream reading from the New International Version.

 

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

 
Jesus, we feel pressed to pray for Jeremiah and provide hospitality or give him a break somehow. Let us take that same sentiment and provide it as support to those who serve you today. Increase our faith and service Lord.  Amen
 
Come this chapter, Josiah has recently died and the reforms he instituted are reverting fast as the people are diving back into idolatry.  It’s not good.  The first wave of the Babylonian invasion is less than five years out and the false prophets are crooning about security and riches and that all is well while they are hypocritical and two-faced as a hyena wearing three halloween costumes.
 

11 – The title of this chapter -from any angle you view it- is basically, “The Covenant is Broken”.  To put it in today’s terms. Your daddy has given you a vehicle, it has a lifetime warranty, bumper to bumper 100% insurance coverage ‘forever’. You’ve been granted a gas card to swipe at any station in the world. Maintenance is also “on the house”. It’s the most beautiful car you ever saw. It is far beyond better than what you were hoping to get. All that’s required is that you drive sensibly, safely, share rides with those who need it as time affords and go to church on Sunday.  Easy enough? Well in chapter 11 of Jeremiah, you’ve been pulled over for driving 85 is a 35 mph zone [AGAIN!], you are inebriated, it’s a 7 passenger car and you have 12 people in it -no one has a seatbelt on, music is blaring and you can’t even hear the policeman trying to ask for your license and registration. You think you should be let off because your daddeo is mayor and you insist you be allowed to drive on and instead you are forced to get out for a DUI test. The others in the car start plotting that they should burn the police car because their “fun” has been interrupted. btw, this is the 60th time you have been pulled over in similar fashion.

[Jeremiah is the policeman here and the people in the car are the residents of Jerusalem about 610-609 B.C.  Make sense?!]
 
12 – Jeremiah’s prophetic heart for ministry is being tested here as he notes the disparaging difference between his situation [as he is loathed for speaking while he serves God] against the way the wicked are thriving and prospering.  It’s a legitimate question. These same people who are smack-mouthed about God since they don’t mean their vows and their hearts are far gone astray,–> these same people are also wanting to kill Jeremiah for exhorting them. God’s reply is sobering and … well, it is what it is.  No one is going to get away for their turning away from God in a cavalier manner.
 
13 – The story is told straight-forward and it is easy to interpret. The linen belt is Jerusalem and Judah. They were beautiful, decorative and helpful – but are now soiled, ugly and useless.  Also,
Judah is going to be smashed the way a loud-mouthed drunk late on a weekend night gets pummeled for shooting off his mouth.   Captivity is coming for these people.  It’s like the whole nation is going to jail !  Apparently they are virtually impossible to “scare straight” so they will be “doing time” in the Babylonian Big House.
 

14 – There is a drought. The famine is going to get worse. The enemy is armed and is coming.  It is awful and it will be more awful before Jerusalem falls silent!  Still Jeremiah prays for this people.  He cares for them in this manner and in the continuing prayer (that goes into ch. 15).  Jeremiah is sounding sort of like Jesus languishing that he would like to gather Jerusalem in his arms but they wouldn’t.  Jeremiah’s prayer here is spot-on accurate theology.  He has the wherewithall to utter, “Oh Lord Our God … our hope is in you.  He may have been the only one in the city praying this but Jeremiah is stallwart in heart to articulate his prayer as he does.

Jeremiah is committed beyond what most all Christians today understand commitment.
Posted on

May 17

 

Jeremiah 8-10

We are in the Prophetic Stream today spendings some time with Jeremiah, the Weeping Prophet. We are using the Common English Bible this week.

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

God of Heaven, hear us when we pray. We see the mess that comes from disobedience. Let us be tender toward you, and listen.  May we be clay that can be molded in your hands. We do not want to be like those we have read about today. Make us like you.     Amen.

ch. 8 – begins midstream [continuing the thought that began in ch. 7]  One version called it “…The Valley of Slaughter”. This is the description of how bad things were in Jerusalem as it was approaching 600 B.C. Human sacrifice had been going on, the priests were agents of darkness and not taking people to God. They had been doing astrology full on; consulting moon and stars like pagans gone amok. So God would see to it that the bones of these false priests would be laid out before the heavens – it was much more like Hindu “theology” for this to happen v.s. Judaic theology wherein the followers are buried at their death v.s. eaten by birds or burned on pyres. Judeans had been playing with false religion so they were going to end up as such.  It’s a horror show, folks.  God has been trying to talk to His people, but one may as well try to have a calm conversation with a scared cat!  They run away, listen to lies, they’re impenitent, oblivious to the Lord, they lie to themselves, lie about God and reject God outright.  Judah will be stripped bare for what they are doing. The harvest will not come in… but the enemy will come.  They’ve poisoned what God gave them and now they are poisoned. Healing? not happening. Jeremiah is very pained by all this.

 
9 – The first verses here is why Jeremiah is nicknamed the Weeping Prophet. What ‘once was’ compared to ‘what is now’ has decayed to such a sorry state of rottenness both spiritually and culturally. Deception is everywhere. The desolation they are seeing will soon completely overtake them.  This once beautiful city will soon be worse off than a dog pen. Jeremiah saw distinctly what was coming for these people. He walked among them (for well over a generation of time) and pleaded, practically begged- trying to persuade them – imploring them to turn from wickedness.  Btw, no one “converted” in his 60 years of ministering and prophesying. Jeremiah certainly had a discouraging assignment. The rebellious and callous ungodliness of these people -who had “firstborn” status with God- virtually broke Jeremiah’s heart.  There will be so many dead bodies when the Babylonians stomp through Judah! My God, My God, won’t these people hear the warnings?!
 
10 – is a glaring rendition of the pure worthlessness and empty stupidity of idols: either making them, using them, or worshiping them in any manner.  God is true, and living, and powerful, and renders justice, and applies his wrath properly.  He controls all nature – these idol makers are fools; buffoons.  Will you come home to Almighty God?        Since you won’t, you may as well get to packing up your things for you are going to be run out of here.  Your injuries, your destroyed belongings, your decimated families … what did you think would happen for ignoring the Lord’s instruction?!

Then Jeremiah ends the reading today with a humble prayer that is ‘one for the ages.’   “Correct me Lord, but with justice, and not in your anger, or else you will reduce me to nothing.”  Jeremiah knew the times he was living in for certain.

 
Posted on

May 10



Jeremiah 5-7

We are in the Prophetic Stream reading the judgments as written by the prophet Jeremiah. We are reading from the Easy-to-Read Version this week.

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

God, we ask that you would be a comfort to us; an ever present help in times of trouble. Guide us as we aim to live as Jeremiah did and speak up amid a culture that seems bent on disobedience. We trust you to guide us in our pilgrimage and ministry as we find ourselves living in similar times to what Jeremiah lived in.  Amen
 

5 – Jeremiah is appalled that there is not even one righteous/loving/God-fearing soul in Jerusalem.  The people talk of God but it is hollow. He then goes into a prayer for 15 verses straight.  Jeremiah vents to God about their wickedness, the punishment coming to them like a lion pouncing on its prey.  They’re about to be treated like animals -since they wander away from God. The children, the leaders, everyone is going to feel the punishment. They ignore His prophecy so the LORD must bring in a foreign nation.  They’ve brought foreign gods to worship from another land, so they are going to be taken to a foreign land (what do they THINK is going to happen?!)  They and everything they own is going to be devoured. These Babylonians may as well be six foot tall locusts – they will leave nothing. These people of Judah are not accidentally straying; their rebellion is deliberate. They are deaf and blind but think they are fine. They lie and are treacherous. It will require the Babylonian army to get their attention.

 
6 – The enemy of the people of God is coming, and they come to destroy. The people have stopped their ears long enough and God is going to use this foreign army to “cleanse” Judea. The chapter reads like God is even directing the Babylonians, telling them how to overtake the city. As believers we read this and may think, “God, what are you doing?!” Hey, what is God supposed to do? The Judeans have been up and down spiritually for almost 350 years. The north had fallen to Assyria (150 years before Judea did) and in the intermittent century and a half, Judea more or less has an ungodliness contest with itself to see how far they can press the matter in their disobedience. They had deluded themselves. Remember, later in Jer. 25:9 and 43:10 God refers to the Babylonian king as “His servant.” This king Nebuchadnezzar will be sent (by God!) to clean up Judea. If God is not allowed to, then a dark force will be put to work on them. Obedience to God would have been a much better plan. This is just like in Eden; When God’s people do not obey God or His plan, what is God to do?  When they (we) won’t obey, God just needs to clean house. We do the same with spiders and roaches in our houses, do we not? Judea refuses to repent. And they keep bringing offerings to God as if that would cover for their wickedness. The warnings for repentance are insistent, even pathetic. The awful punishment coming to them could be avoided through repentance. But Judah won’t.
 

7 –  Jeremiah is assigned to stand in the gateway to the city and prophesy to the people about the matter of obedience and repentance. Jeremiah is laying it all out here! The people have been treating the Temple like a kid playing “tag” or something like that. A kid will run all around a yard and then stop with a hand on a structure and declare, “Base!” meaning they can’t be caught or tagged because they are on a base.  Judah was breaking all the commandments all over the country in their ungodly behavior and then coming to the Temple and declaring to themselves that they would not be punished because they were in the Temple. It’s like they are yelling “base!” to God.  I mean God isn’t going to let His own Temple be smashed is He? Not with us in here with our offerings, right? Think again!  The reference in v. 18 “Queen of Heaven” was Ashtoreth. They were worshiping this female sex deity just like all the surrounding pagan nations were doing. All God wanted was their obedience. They are countering with, “we won’t obey, …but we will bring sacrifices! [durrr] The Judeans revered their ancestors (uh, they weren’t obedient either!).  And the more time passes, the worse people become. They have been as pagan as the pagan nations and worse. They’ve done infant sacrifice right in the city, the Temple is polluted by their deeds as they play both sides. They do this Satanic level wretchedness and then bring their offerings to the Temple (same people!) Well God is going to end all this and there will be so many dead that vultures will swarm in to clean up the bodies. Some Hebrews will be preserved in another land, but Jerusalem is going to fall silent.  A preview of this is in Lamentations 1 “…the city is deserted…”  This all- so- did- not- need to happen. But with Judah’s behavior – it did happen.

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