Jeremiah 27 (HCSB)
The Yoke of Babylon
1 At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “This is what the Lord said to me: Make chains and yoke bars for yourself and put them on your neck. 3 Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon through messengers who are coming to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem. 4 Command them to go to their masters, saying: This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: This is what you must say to your masters: 5 By My great strength and outstretched arm, I made the earth, and the people, and animals on the face of the earth. I give it to anyone I please. 6 So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I have even given him the wild animals to serve him. 7 All nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until the time for his own land comes, and then many nations and great kings will enslave him.
8 “As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish by sword, famine, and plague”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“until through him I have destroyed it. 9 But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, fortune-tellers, or sorcerers who say to you, ‘Don’t serve the king of Babylon!’ 10 for they prophesy a lie to you so that you will be removed from your land. I will banish you, and you will perish. 11 But as for the nation that will put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave it in its own land, and that nation will cultivate it and reside in it.” This is the Lord’s declaration.
Warning to Zedekiah
12 I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah in the same way: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, serve him and his people, and live! 13 Why should you and your people die by the sword, famine, or plague as the Lord has threatened against any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon? 14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are telling you, ‘You must not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying a lie to you. 15 ‘I have not sent them’—this is the Lord’s declaration—‘and they are prophesying falsely in My name; therefore, I will banish you, and you will perish—you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.’”
16 Then I spoke to the priests and all these people, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not listen to the words of your prophets. They are prophesying to you, claiming, “Look, very soon now the articles of the Lord’s temple will be brought back from Babylon.” They are prophesying a lie to you. 17 Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live! Why should this city become a ruin? 18 If they are indeed prophets and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them intercede with the Lord of Hosts not to let the articles that remain in the Lord’s temple, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem go to Babylon.’ 19 For this is what the Lord of Hosts says about the pillars, the sea, the water carts, and the rest of the articles that still remain in this city, 20 those Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he deported Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. 21 Yes, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about the articles that remain in the temple of the Lord, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: 22 ‘They will be brought to Babylon and will remain there until I attend to them again.’ This is the Lord’s declaration. ‘Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’”
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 11): Although I am not of the time of Babylon obviously, I do feel the Spirit speaking to me about this particular verse in my work life. I often have let my pride, anger and selfishness get in the way of being a good follower throughout my military career. Not always, but I have done this quiet a bit throughout my 20+ years in the military. Please forgive me for this way of speaking to my “masters” of today, better known today as my bosses. Forgive me for often rebelling against my bosses in a way that does not glorify You in any way, Father. Help me to be a better follower of those appointed over me in this life, so that I may glorify You through all that I do for them. Help me to also have Your discernment to know when I should stand up for things, but to do so in a more respectful and peaceful way that glorifies You through that disagreement.
PROMISE (verses 9-10, 14-17): You promise us here that there will be many in our paths and in our lives that say things to us and claim it to be in Your name, but they are lying. Thank You for always showing us the truth about this life, Father. Thank You for always helping us to protect our righteousness through discernment. Help me to remember this promise anytime someone approaches me with Godly wisdom, so that I may be able to tell if it is Your truth or if it is a lie as You promise us about some people in these verses.
ATTITUDE (verses 9-10): Help me with this one, Father, as I often struggle with the attitude of discernment. Help me to discern truths from You versus lies from the world. Help me to have an attitude of Your discernment through all experiences I have in this life, Father. Help me to remember that Your way and Your truth are the only things that matter in this life. Remind me of Your truths in the times when discernment becomes difficult for me. Help me to become more mature in my Spiritual discernment so that I am able to glorify Your kingdom in this life’s experiences.
COMMAND (verse 2): In this verse You tell us to make our own chains and yoke bars, then to put them on us so that we may serve Your will for our lives appropriately. Help me to live with the chains and yoke that You want me to wear, Father. Help me embrace these chains and the yoke so that I do not stray too far from the path You want me to be on in those moments that I do mess up, which I know will happen. Use the yoke to slow me down when I want to run. Use the chains to hold me close to Your will for my life when I feel the urge to stray. Keep me close to You, Father, so that in my times of weakness, Your strength binds me.
EXAMPLE (verse 1): Jeremiah once again provides us with such an amazing example to live by. The message You wanted him to relay to the people here was quite a painful and damning message to them. You essentially told them to simply give themselves up to the new leader so that they do not perish where they stand. Jeremiah’s example here is that he took Your message and relayed it without hesitation. I can only imagine how frightening that could have been for him in the moment, because of the harshness of the message You asked him to relay, but he was faithful through it all and relayed the message immediately and directly, while glorifying You through all of it. Please help me to be better and more confident at communicating Your truths and Your words to others, Father, without fear of backlash, repercussions, or anything of the sort. Help me to fully rely on Your strength, confidence, and wisdom when the time comes for me to speak Your truths to others.
*DAILY NOTE: I do struggle often with my pride and ego in this life, Father; mostly at work, but also in my personal life. Thank You for showing me that this is not right. Although I continue to struggle with this, I have gotten better since coming to faith, so I am dipping into that negativity less and less as I become more mature in my faith. It is through Your grace and Your counsel that I have been able to accomplish even this much change thus far, so I thank You and I praise You for that, Father.
*GENERAL NOTE: I always "sandwich" my quiet time with God in prayer and do it in a location that I will not have any distractions so that I can be focused on my quiet time with God. Do not worry about how short or long your journal entries are for that day's quiet time. Just focus on the actual quiet time and relational conversation with God through the Holy Spirit and His Word. The journaling is an enhancement to your quiet time conversation with God, but also to allow you to reflect on things later as you can look back on your journal entries later when you do the chapters again in the future to see how you have grown. See the FAQ for more detail on how I do my quiet time.
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