Prayer: Father, there was a time when I too looked back on my life as said, “What have I done?” May many be led to reflect upon their life and return to You from the reading of Your word. Amen.
Reading: Jeremiah 8 key: vs. 5-7 “Why then has this people—Jerusalem— turned away in perpetual backsliding? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return. I listened attentively, but they have not spoken what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Each one turns in his own direction, like a horse charging into battle. Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed times, and the turtledove, swallow and crane observe the time of their migration, but My people do not know the judgments of Adonai.” TLV
Attention: For those who embrace the prophetic, here is a classic example, prophesied by Adonai. It was not a practice of Hebrew culture to dig up their buried deceased and spread their bones out on the ground with no intention of reburying their deceased.
I queried Microsoft’s new co-pilot if there was any documentation of “any practice of the ancients to dig up the deceased and spread their bones out on the ground, not to be reburied?” The reply, “The practice was particularly common among Jewish communities during the Second Temple period.”
The documentation is confirming Adonai’s prophecy, that upon the post exilic return of the Jewish nation from Babylon and the rebuild of the Temple, they practiced digging up the bones of their deceased and laying them before “the sun, the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, and after which they have walked and sought, and which they have worshipped (vs. 2b).”
Remember, the exile is being prophesied by Adonia via Jeremiah. He is Adonai’s chosen prophet and method of sounding the alarm. He is God’s mouthpiece and writer/documenter. Judgement is a method of correction which Adonai uses for His purposes. When judgement, discipline, or correction comes to our lives, do we recognize it being from God, or do we slough it off as just coincidence?
Repentance comes from the awareness first of “What have I done?” Their sin was against God. All sin is sin because it is against God and His Law. Sin is falling short of the perfect standard of Messiah.
I encourage you to consider the reality that God disciplines His own. If you say, “I have never been disciplined,” then consider what the writer of Hebrews says, “Have you forgotten the warning addressed to you as sons? “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of Adonai or lose heart when you are corrected by Him, because Adonai disciplines the one He loves and punishes every son He accepts. It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline? But if you are without discipline—something all have come to share—then you are illegitimate and not sons (vs. 5-8).”
Action: I choose to accept the discipline of the Lord as His love for me.
Yield: I choose to submit to the discipline of the Lord as a demonstration of His love.
Engage: I choose to engage with the Holy Spirit in mentoring me as a disciple of Messiah.
Relationship: I choose to live in obedient, intimate relationship with Adonai.
Prayer: Father, I love Your instruction and loving discipline. You are the perfect Father and Sovereign of my soul. Amen.
Memory Verse: Hebrews 12: 9-10 “Besides, we are used to having human fathers as instructors—and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? Indeed, for a short time they disciplined us as seemed best to them; but He does so for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness.” TLV
Music Video: David Crowder—How He Loves Us https://youtu.be/qDSE438XMaQ?si=6uYm7VJagZavRlXI
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”