Through the Bible - Jeremiah 27-28, Titus 1
Good morning,
A devotional that I read this morning brought me to Acts 18 where Paul "was compelled" to speak to a group of people.
Reading through Jeremiah this month has brought me to the point where I feel compelled to write this morning's devotional.
I most often try not to take up political sides here, but the similarities with the Old Testament times and ours bring me, compell me to do so.
I have a hard time when I hear of fellow Christians willing to go along with Obama when you hear of his stand, his firm stand on abortion, even allowing a baby born after a botched abortion to die because he "would not want to burden the mother and doctor with having to make that decision (to kill the baby) again". Most often they will say that they support Obama's economic policies.
Today's verses come from Jeremiah 19, a sobering passage which spoke of the financial and moral collapse that followed the Jews' disregard for life.
Jer 19:4 "Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents 5 (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind), 6 therefore behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. NKJV
or from The Message:
Jer 19:4-6 Doom — because they've walked off and left me, and made this place strange by worshiping strange gods, gods never heard of by them, their parents, or the old kings of Judah. Doom — because they have massacred innocent people. Doom — because they've built altars to that no-god Baal, and burned their own children alive in the fire as offerings to Baal, an atrocity I never ordered, never so much as hinted at!
At other times in their history the Jews left God and offered their children as sacrifices to Molech, a "fertility god" in hopes that he would bless their crops. Abortions today are often done in the same way today, with the attitude "let's wait until we are in a better financial position before bringing a child into the world".
Verse 6 mentions Tophet of which MacArthur writes "Hebrew uses the word "toph" for drum. This was another name for the Valley of Hinnom, an E-W valley at the S. end of Jerusalem where when children were burned in sacrifice to idols (v.4-5), drums were beaten to drown their cries. Rubbish from Jerusalem was dumped there and continually burned. The place became a symbol of the burning fires of hell, called Gehenna (Matt. 5:22). It was to become a place of massacre."
Children are still being sacrificed here in this country for idols and God is not pleased.
He is sovereign and has control over the economy. He has the power and authority to bring about a financial collapse and would have a just reason for doing so when you think of how far our country has fallen away from Him to serve other gods. He can cancel all the plans that are being made for the economy.
Obama has flip flopped on many issues. Politicians will do this on things that are not at the core of their beliefs. Somehow abortion, even late term, seems to be something that is a core belief, something that he'll hold onto and won't let go.
I'll post today''s passage in The Message, which is in more modern language.
All that being said, all is not lost if Obama should win the election.
In Christ,
Mike
mikevw@bellsouth.net
Jer 19:1-20:1
Smashing the Clay Pot
19 God said to me, "Go, buy a clay pot. Then get a few leaders from the people and a few of the leading priests and go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom, just outside the Potsherd Gate, and preach there what I tell you.
"Say, 'Listen to God's Word, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem! This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel. I'm about to bring doom crashing down on this place. Oh, and will ears ever ring! Doom — because they've walked off and left me, and made this place strange by worshiping strange gods, gods never heard of by them, their parents, or the old kings of Judah. Doom — because they have massacred innocent people. Doom — because they've built altars to that no-god Baal, and burned their own children alive in the fire as offerings to Baal, an atrocity I never ordered, never so much as hinted at!
"'And so it's pay day, and soon' — God's Decree! — 'this place will no longer be known as Topheth or Valley of Ben-hinnom, but Massacre Meadows. I'm canceling all the plans Judah and Jerusalem had for this place, and I'll have them killed by their enemies. I'll stack their dead bodies to be eaten by carrion crows and wild dogs. I'll turn this city into such a museum of atrocities that anyone coming near will be shocked speechless by the savage brutality. The people will turn into cannibals. Dehumanized by the pressure of the enemy siege, they'll eat their own children! Yes, they'll eat one another, family and friends alike.'
"Say all this, and then smash the pot in front of the men who have come with you. Then say, 'This is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies says: I'll smash this people and this city like a man who smashes a clay pot into so many pieces it can never be put together again. They'll bury bodies here in Topheth until there's no more room. And the whole city will become a Topheth. The city will be turned by people and kings alike into a center for worshiping the star gods and goddesses, turned into an open grave, the whole city an open grave, stinking like a sewer, like Topheth.'"
Then Jeremiah left Topheth, where God had sent him to preach the sermon, and took his stand in the court of God's Temple and said to the people, "This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies to you: 'Warning! Danger! I'm bringing down on this city and all the surrounding towns the doom that I have pronounced. They're set in their ways and won't budge. They refuse to do a thing I say.'"
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