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 11
Jeremiah 16:16-18:23
Jeremiah
16:16-21
Vs. 16-18 There are a
few places in the Bible where God expresses His pursuit of those who reject
Him, and this is one of them. It reminds you of the words in Hebrews
10:31, It is a fearful thing to fall into
the hands of the living God. It is also interesting that
God says He is always watching. We all know it, but because God is invisible we
become desensitized and don't really care. That's one of the reasons why He's
invisible.
Vs.
19-20 This is Jeremiah's confidence in the Lord and his desire to see God
acknowledged.
V.
21 God will bring a time when people will know Him. Here, I think, Israel will
know by the fulfilling of judgment that the events are from God. There will be
recognition. This will be the same thing that happens during the Tribulation.
Humanity will rage against God for the events that come upon the earth,
acknowledging by their anger that God does exist. Some will repent and come to
Him. One way or another, all people will know Him and bow the knee, but
unbroken sin will always, irrationally, want to spit in His face.
Jeremiah
17
Vs.
1-4 God explains how deeply engraved idolatry and ignorance were in the
culture. When God brought Israel into Canaan, the culture was so corrupt that
His only solution was to remove it. This generation in Israel is in the same
state. God will need to punish these people and then totally remove the
survivors to another place to save Israel. It makes you wonder about cultures
today.
Vs.
5-6 The curse of those who ignore God.
Vs.
7-8 This blessing sounds like Psalm 1.
Vs.
9-10 It is interesting that these verses follow vs. 7-8. Blessing is available,
but the heart is incurably sick without God's cure. Verse 9 is famous. The
heart is deceitful and incurably sick. While the penalty and judgment against
sin can be removed, the sickness of sin in us remains strong. Sin is only
broken by coming to Christ for forgiveness and receiving the Holy Spirit and
the new spiritual creation within us. But then, sin is only broken. It is still
active in this body/soul/spirit unity. "Defeating" sin means we need
to be in the Word daily, following the Spirit daily, and responding to Christ
in love for what He has done for us. Thank God for His grace and His cure in
our Lord. Being released from this body to be with Christ will be the death of
sin in us. This is why His return and the resurrection with Him are our hope
(Rom. 8:23-24).
Vs. 11-13 This
appears to be a judgment against injustice that was going on among the people.
True riches are found in God, including the living
waters. John 7:37 On the last
day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and
drink."
Vs.
14-18 In spite of Jeremiah's desire to help his people, the people were getting
tired of Jeremiah and persecution against him was growing. What is interesting
is that Jeremiah's pleas to God are beginning to sound like God's
pronouncements of justice on the people. Jeremiah is beginning to see how
wicked the people are, and in an ironic way, Jeremiah is becoming more like
God.
Vs.
19-27 It looks like God is giving the people a very simple test of their
obedience. Keeping the Sabbath was a simple but profound test of faith. Why
take a day to enjoy the Lord? Why not work or buy or make hay while the sun was
shining? The people wouldn't pass this test.
Jeremiah
18
Vs.
1-11 So what do you think the point of this illustration is? It seems to me
that God is saying that He can shape and change the events and times at will,
so they really ought to obey Him. He had tried to form Israel in His hands, but
they were willfully going crooked. It was time to smash down the clay and
reform a new vessel. Yet, it would be formed out of the same promise to Abraham
and would fulfill the destiny of Israel.
Vs.
12-17 This is the people's response to God and God's pronouncement against
them.
Vs.
18-23 This is the people's response to Jeremiah and Jeremiah's response to God.
Notice v. 23. Jeremiah is now feeling what God is feeling regarding the sin of
the people. In all the years of preaching to and ministering to the people,
Jeremiah has begun to understand God and has become more like God.
As
we work in the harvest God matures our hearts too. Because of the Lord's mercy
to us, we learn to show mercy and to be patient in teaching, reaching out and
making disciples. Yet we also learn not to give dogs what is holy, nor to throw
pearls before swine. We learn to love our neighbors and love our enemies. In
all of this, we know that some will be saved and some will not. Those who are
saved will be saved by God's mighty hand and His grace. Those who will be
punished will have chosen their destiny and will deserve it.
1 Thessalonians 4-5:3
1
Thessalonians 4
Vs.
1-8 It is interesting that both Corinth and Thessalonica were known for loose
living. Paul had to urge believers in both cities to concentrate on living holy
to God and resisting immorality. The church today still needs to hear this. The
sexual saturation of our culture - TV, movies, and especially the web - has
made this even more necessary now than back then. Paul and the Spirit say that
to disregard any of these commands is to disregard God and grieve the Holy
Spirit within us.
It
is interesting that all of these commands can be guided by the first line of
the Lord's Prayer. If we remember we are to honor God's name in everything, we
would be alert to our hearts and thoughts, and careful to how we respond to the
situations that come into our day.
Vs.
9-12 This is an interesting mixture of thoughts. How do love one another and live
quietly work toward being a witness to the unbelieving? I think that both
of these have to do with giving testimony to our Lord. Loving one another has
to do with our common salvation and mission in Christ. It shows the bond of
being forgiven, and it shows the unity of living for a common Savior and
mission. Living quietly is for working under the radar, contacting people for
our Lord in the harvest (1 Tim. 2:1-6).
Vs.
13-18 There appears to have been some misunderstanding of Paul's teaching, or
there was some other teaching that contradicted what Paul had taught. It seems
to me that someone was teaching that those who had died as believers in Christ
would not be a part of the church uniting with Christ at the rapture. In fact
the dead in Christ are raised first, and then the living church will be changed
immediately afterward (1 Cor. 15:51-52). Paul was speaking to encourage and
restore the hope of being united in the resurrection at Christ's coming.
Just
as a point of trivia, when Jesus comes after the Tribulation, at His second
advent, He will likewise raise all the Old Testament believers and the martyrs
of the Tribulation first. And then all the believers scattered all over the world
will be gathered to Jerusalem, but they will not be spiritually transformed
like the church. They will enter the Millennial Kingdom as normal people who
live and die and have families.
1
Thessalonians 5:1-3
This
day of the Lord is the seven-year
Tribulation. The beginning of this time is hidden, but once it begins, you can
mark off the days until the return of Jesus. The beginning of this time will be
marked by the gathering of the church to Christ and a revival of faith among
Jews. There may be other events suggested in the Book of Revelation, but many
people believe the rapture of the church and the renewal of faith in Israel
will be the first visible events.
Psalm 81
Vs.
1-3 It is interesting that this psalm begins with celebration because the rest of
it is pretty rough. I'm guessing this was written after the return of the
exiles from Babylon. It says in Nehemiah 8:17, that this celebration of the
Feast of Booths was the first time the nation celebrated the Feast of Booths
since the time of Joshua, where people actually lived in handmade tents for the
feast week. That should be sad, heart-wrenching, and unbelievable. What had the
people missed by not celebrating this feast in this way? Everything. This feast
was to remind Israel how God sustained them 40 years in the wilderness, and
could do it again and again for them every day.
Vs.
4-10 This is a summary of God's working and salvation in bringing Israel out of
Egypt.
Vs.
11-16 This is a summary of Israel's history and their exile. If they had only listened.
They stopped listening when their cares and comforts became too important to
them. They didn't keep the Sabbath. They didn't waste their time keeping a
feast like the Feast of the Tabernacles. Yet in becoming consumed in their
lives, they forgot God and couldn't hear His voice.
What
stands out to me here is God's pleading for the people to listen to Him. God
said this of Israel, and I'm sure He says it of this generation of people on
the earth today. I wonder if He says this about the church. In our reading
today, thinking about the effects of sin on us, on culture, on our response to
God, it all points to the need to keep before the Lord and plead with God for
ourselves and others in the harvest. Our hearts need to be kept aflame in His
love, and we have a harvest to work in before the Lord returns.
Proverbs 25:6-7a
This
sure sounds like something Jesus said about not seeking status. Apparently the
Pharisees didn't read the proverbs.
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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