23 June (Jeremiah 36-40)

Jeremiah 36

(v.3) Even though God has proclaimed His anger and the calamity that will befall the people, He still gives them another chance to repent! God is patient beyond our comprehension!

(v.30) As we discussed a few chapters ago, God put a curse on the descendants of Jehoiakim, and Jesus was a direct descendant! However, God also had the other son of David, Nathan, whose descendants were Heli and Mary...the earthly mother of Jesus. So Jesus had the rite to the throne through Solomon's descendants, but His blood wasn't cursed since He had David's blood through his other son, Nathan!

Jeremiah 37

(v.9) We are good at rationalization...we can talk ourselves into and out of anything! But God's Word is true, and no matter what we think we can control, for if He wills that we go through trials, then we will. The key is to include Him with us, and we'll get through them quicker and better afterwards! James 1:2

Jeremiah 38

(v.26) I like how the king finally spoke honestly with Jeremiah. Even though it was in private, he wanted to know what the LORD spoke to Jeremiah. It would've been better had he as king proclaimed that the LORD was speaking through Jeremiah, but that's better than nothing! This reminds me of when Nicodemus went to Jesus in the middle of the night so he wouldn't be seen. John 3:1

Jeremiah 39

(v.7) As we saw a few chapters before, king Zedekiah didn't listen to the LORD, so he was taken captive to Babylon, but he never saw Babylon...both Ezekiel and Jeremiah were correct!

(v.12) King Nebuchadnezzar (Nebby) must have heard that Jeremiah told king Zedekiah to surrender to him, so Nebby treated Jeremiah well. It's also possible that Daniel had already been a good influence on Nebby, and he revered the prophets of Israel.

Jeremiah 40

(v.2) I point out to my kids that the guard spoke of God as the true God...not some pagan god among many. God used Daniel and Jeremiah to influence Babylon in a good way.

(v.5) God always has a remnant for His purposes. He made the mighty Babylonians serve Him by being kind to Jeremiah. As we go on, and we see other empires conquer Israel, we'll see more of this.