If you don't
have a One Year Bible or prefer something online, this link will take you to
the day's reading, http://oneyearbibleonline.com/daily-oyb/. This
site allows you to select from several languages and several English
translations.
OCTOBER 10
Jeremiah 14:11-16:15
Jeremiah
14:11-22
Vs.
11-12 Since the people wouldn't repent, God told Jeremiah, yet again, not to
intercede for the people. This is now the third time God has commanded Jeremiah
not to pray for them.
Vs.
13-16 Jeremiah reminds God that the people were being fed lies by the false
prophets. Yet the people were as guilty as the prophets who told the people
what they wanted to hear.
Vs.
17-22 God told Jeremiah to say this, but what is said is also Jeremiah’s own crying
and lamenting for the people anyway, pleading with God, as Moses and Samuel did
for the people. Notice that in vs. 20-22, Jeremiah isn't pleading for the
people as much as he is for the name and honor of God. All of God's great
followers have prayed for His name and renown.
Jeremiah
15
Vs.
1-4 This is God's answer to Jeremiah's lament and continues what God said in
14:11. God says that the punishment has already been determined and He cites
the sins of Manasseh as the reason (2 Kings 21:16, 24:4).
V.
1 Even if Moses and Samuel pleaded,
God would not hear them.
V.
4 This gives us some understanding as to what was behind the ruination of the
people. Manasseh drove the people to such wickedness and idolatry for 50 years
that the people were incurable. Not only that, God vowed that He would punish
Jerusalem for all the innocent blood that was shed in the city.
Vs. 5-9 God says He
will make the women of Jerusalem like widows. Notice the last sentence of v. 6.
We have watched God relent and show mercy all year long. Verse 7 sounds like
the warnings of judgment found in the messages of both John the Baptist and
Jesus. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his
threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will
burn with unquenchable fire (Luke 3:17).
Vs.
10-21 Jeremiah laments and God answers.
V.
10 Jeremiah laments his life and calling.
V.
11 God assures Jeremiah of vindication and protection…
Vs.
13-14 …by punishing his enemies and making them serve their enemies.
Vs.
15-18 Jeremiah, it appears, tried to quit; but there was no place where he
could turn in the prophet's badge. He had been made the occasion of jokes and
the focus of anger and ridicule. There were threats and ill treatment. But
since he knew the Lord and the truth and had been set free from spiritual blindness
(v. 11), he couldn't keep quiet. Now Jeremiah was wondering if even God would
disappoint him, promising him refreshing and then failing him in the end.
Having been in ministry, I know these feelings too well.
Vs.
19-21 God reaffirms His calling to Jeremiah if he will get out of his self pity
and serve Him. There are great promises here. I suspect that Jeremiah didn't
see some of this blessing until Babylon had invaded Egypt and Jeremiah returned
to retire in Israel.
Notice
that Jeremiah wasn't allowed to compromise the message, or take a step toward
the people in seeing things from their perspective. The repentant would come to
him. God’s truth doesn’t need to negotiate.
Jeremiah
16:1-15
Vs.
1-4 Just as God did to other prophets, He made some demands on Jeremiah to help
him, but also to be a sign to the people. (For Ezekiel's protection and as a
sign to the people, God made him unable to speak unless God was talking through
him.) In this case, God forbade Jeremiah to take a wife during this time of
judgment.
Vs.
5-7 Jeremiah couldn't mourn with the mourning.
Vs.
8-9 Jeremiah couldn't rejoice with the rejoicing.
Vs.
10-13 When Jeremiah declared these restrictions to the people, God knew the
people would act surprised that God was so mad at them. God does not take
idolatry (rejecting God) lightly, but the people didn't take it to heart.
Vs.
14-15 This is a very, very strong thing that God was going to do; and as we'll
see in Daniel, it involved a lot of love and grace and power from God to free
His people from their upcoming captivity.
It
is safe to say that this time in the harvest is a time of grace. We are
relatively free to work in the harvest. But that day will end. No one knows
when the Tribulation will begin, but we know it will. For many people on this
planet the distress of those days will completely blind them to their need to
know Christ. Now is the time to do our work of making disciples, who make
disciples, in the harvest.
1 Thessalonians 2:10-3:13
1
Thessalonians 2:10-20
Vs.
10-12 Poor Paul, always having to defend himself. It was hard for those false
teachers to match Paul's heartfelt compassion, gained from being saved from
what he was saved from. Verse 12 is the focus of all Paul & Co's actions
and teaching.
V.
13 There is a certain miracle in receiving the
Word of God. What cheered this disciple maker even more was that the people
were able to see past Paul to the Author of the Word. It takes a very humble
teacher not to get in the way of the Word and make himself the focus. For the
purpose of dealing with the criticism, Paul is showing them that the power came
from the Word of God, not him or his coworkers.
Vs.
14-16 The first two sentences begin with "for." This shows the proof
of v. 13. The Word had worked. The reality of their faith and growth in Christ
was the persecution they endured. In the seed that had no depth and fell away,
the focus of the persecution and tribulation wasn't Jesus. It was the Word
(Mark 4:17).
Vs.
17-20 Here again is Paul's natural compassion in Christ, in the harvest. How do
you understand vs. 19 and 20? If you were a bricklayer, but never laid a
brick, how would that make you feel? If you were a painter, an artist, but
never painted, how would that be? Paul couldn't be satisfied as a disciple
maker, a laborer in the harvest, without fruit. If you get what is being said
here, my question is how we can be satisfied, regardless of where we work in
the harvest - in the field, in the barn, in the machine shed fixing the
equipment, cooking for the field workers - without seeing fruit coming from the
harvest. Paul was totally invested for the Lord and fell in love with the
fruit.
This
is the first year I have noticed that this chapter ends with a mention of the
Lord's return. I wonder if all the chapters end with some reference to the
Lord's return?
1
Thessalonians 3
Vs.
1-5 Two things stand out to me. First, Paul had someone like Timothy who would
go back into a tough situation, who knew how to teach and to strengthen.
Second, Paul gave this young church and these new believers a vision of
following Christ that included suffering and affliction.
Vs.
6-10 What is interesting to me in this section is the weight of care Paul had
for them in Christ. I wonder if Jesus' weight of care for us is any less. Lacking is not referring to there being
something wrong with their salvation, but rather that Paul wanted to strengthen
them further in the faith.
Vs.
11-13 These are familiar themes: love for
one another out of the love of Christ, and honoring God. But did you notice
how this ended? Jesus is the finish line. Our goal is meeting this person, our
Savior. Our goal is not doing good and being religious. That's a huge
difference.
And
this is the ending of another chapter, and it talks about the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
As
disciples our Lord's coming is to become our desire and hope. At the same time,
our Lord's coming looks like great clouds building in the west and coming over
the fields we are working in. What an interesting mixture of joy and urgency.
Psalm 80
This
had to have been written during the years of Isaiah or after the exile. Isn't
it interesting reading this psalm now while we're in Jeremiah?
Vs.
1-2 This is the cry for the Lord to regard the remnant as His flock.
V.
3 This is the great refrain of this song.
Vs.
4-6 The nation that was to have been the glory of God and to have drawn all
nations had become a sign to the nations of what happens when a people rejects
God. Israel had suffered, by serving as a lesson to the world.
V.
7 I'll bet this sounded great as a poetic and musical refrain.
Vs.
8-13 God had planted Israel as His own nation and rescued them from Egypt. Then
God had allowed the wild animals to trample His vineyard. The question of v. 12
seems answered in Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Vs.
14-16 In asking God to regard how the nations had crushed Israel, notice the
reference to God turning to look in v. 14 and the rebuke of His face in v. 16.
Vs.
17-18 Doesn't this look like a cry for the Messiah and the fulfillment of God's
promises in the Millennial Kingdom?
V.
19 I love this refrain. I can identify with this psalm. I want the Lord's face
to shine on my life and work for Him in the harvest.
Proverbs 25:1-5
This is my favorite chapter in
Proverbs. Someday, Lord willing, I'm going to memorize it.
Vs. 2-3 Substitute for kings, "lovers of Jesus."
Vs. 4-5 Those in the presence of
the king are those people he confides in and seeks advice from. For us as
disciples, as lovers of Jesus in the harvest to be established, we need other
lovers of Jesus who are tender in the love and faith that are in Christ and
passionate about the harvest. Too many lovers of Jesus fail for lack of kindred
spirits and become influenced instead by the lukewarm and the resistant.
Please Read
the Following Disclaimer
I'm writing the Reading Notes to and
for those who are following a One Year Bible and are interested in growing
deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see the
growth of a discipleship culture in the church, that is, groups of 3-4
disciples, meeting weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to
reach out and make disciples, who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most
universal and important discipleship manual we have and it is the key to our
growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us more focused on why we are here,
or what we are to be doing, or whom we are to be following. My comments are
only meant to provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of
God's plan of redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are
designed to keep us, as disciples, focused on Christ and our role in His
harvest. My hope is that the people in these groups will grow in Christ and be
willing, after a year, to find 3 others to meet with and encourage in their
growth as disciples, making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a more descriptive
commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary (BKC).
I read the BKC in doing background for the Reading Notes and refer to it quite
often. I also make reference to maps or charts in the BKC, though I will only
note where those resources can be found. Often you can do a search for these
and find them in Google books. Buying both volumes of the Bible Knowledge
Commentary would be a good idea.
I am not endorsing any particular
One Year Bible translation; in fact, I read something you probably don't, Die
Revidierte Lutherbibel, 1984. Unless noted, all Scripture quotes are from the
ESV Bible.
Anyone reading along with us is
welcome to do so and is encouraged to take their own notes and make their own
observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition
or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any
point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as
I understand it. Often there is a breadth of opinion on certain events, both
historical and prophetic. Many of my views come from my church background,
theological training and my personal study.
I'm
doing this with discipleship in mind, meaning, I'm writing out thoughts that
will keep discipleship and our growth as disciples applied to what we are
reading. Remember, the real focus of the Reading Notes is to be a
supplement, a disciple’s commentary, giving motivation and insight so that we
will keep following our Lord in the harvest, reaching the lost and making
disciples, who make disciples. Being in
the Word every day, sitting at Jesus’ feet, learning directly from Him, is the
essential essence of being and making disciples.
May the Lord bless you as you follow Him in the
harvest, reaching the lost and making disciples, who make disciples. Dan
If you would like documents
containing an entire month of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes.
If you would like a full
presentation of discipleship read Simply
Disciples*Making Disciples.
Or if you are struggling with
insomnia and would like a long boring dissertation on disciple making, these
can both be found on https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes.
Reading Notes ©, Dan Kachikis
2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
The One Year Bible © by
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton Illinois 60189
The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.
All charts/graphics/outlines
from the Bible Knowledge Commentary are used with the permission of David C.
Cook.
© 1983, 2001 John F Walvoord and Roy B Zuck.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary is published by David C Cook.
All rights reserved. Publisher permission
required to reproduce.
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