Today’s passage: Jeremiah 21:1-14
Helpful thoughts:
- This Pashhur is different from the one in the last chapter.
- God’s answer to their request made it very clear. God wasn’t just sitting this one out (Does God ever sit anything out?). He was bringing Babylon and using them to defeat Judah.
- In God’s mercy, He still gives the people a way to obey Him and preserve their lives. Though, as a consequence of their years of sin, their earthly options still ranged from bad to worse.
Questions to consider:
- After reading all of Jeremiah thus far, what did you think after reading verse 2? When did they decide to take God seriously? How much attention had they paid to God before the crisis hit? What can we learn from this? What must be the condition of our hearts if we think we can disregard God when everything appears to be going well, but then expect Him to show up in our defense when things get hard?
- If you were the king and God told you the nation was going to end, why would it still be right to obey Him? We might be prone to think, “If there’s no way I can reverse this, then forget it!” But, should our obedience only come when there is a promise of immediate earthly blessing? Why is it always right to obey God?
- These ideas and questions can cause us to search deep into our hearts, and by the grace of God, perhaps see things that are true about ourselves that we have not thought of before…How could this gift of self-awareness cause us to be all the more thankful for Jesus’ work on the cross for our sin? How great is the love and grace and mercy and redemptive work of God?