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Quiet Time in Jeremiah 8

Updated: Mar 16, 2022



Jeremiah 8 (HCSB)


Death over Life

1 “At that time”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of her officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the residents of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves. 2 They will be exposed to the sun, the moon, and the whole heavenly host, which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be collected and buried but will become like manure on the surface of the soil. 3 Death will be chosen over life by all the survivors of this evil family, those who remain wherever I have banished them.” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.


4 “You are to say to them: This is what the Lord says:


Do people fall and not get up again? If they turn away, do they not return?

5 Why have these people turned away? Why is Jerusalem always turning away? They take hold of deceit; they refuse to return.

6 I have paid careful attention. They do not speak what is right. No one regrets his evil, asking, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone has stayed his course like a horse rushing into battle.

7 Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons. The turtledove, swallow, and crane are aware of their migration, but My people do not know the requirements of the Lord.


Punishment for Judah’s Leaders

8 “How can you claim, ‘We are wise; the law of the Lord is with us’? In fact, the lying pen of scribes has produced falsehood.

9 The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and snared. They have rejected the word of the Lord, so what wisdom do they really have?

10 Therefore, I will give their wives to other men, their fields to new occupants, for from the least to the greatest, everyone is making profit dishonestly. From prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

11 They have treated superficially the brokenness of My dear people, claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.

12 Were they ashamed when they acted so abhorrently? They weren’t at all ashamed. They can no longer feel humiliation. Therefore, they will fall among the fallen. When I punish them, they will collapse,” says the Lord.


13 I will gather them and bring them to an end.

This is the Lord’s declaration.

There will be no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig tree, and even the leaf will wither. Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.


God’s People Unrepentant

14 Why are we just sitting here? Gather together; let us enter the fortified cities and perish there, for the Lord our God has destroyed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.

15 We hoped for peace, but there was nothing good; for a time of healing, but there was only terror.


16 From Dan the snorting of horses is heard. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds, the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all its residents.

17 Indeed, I am about to send snakes among you, poisonous vipers that cannot be charmed. They will bite you.

This is the Lord’s declaration.


Lament over Judah

18 My joy has flown away; grief has settled on me. My heart is sick.

19 Listen—the cry of my dear people from a far away land, “Is the Lord no longer in Zion, her King not within her?” Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?

20 Harvest has passed, summer has ended, but we have not been saved.

21 I am broken by the brokenness of my dear people. I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why has the healing of my dear people not come about?




PERSONAL JOURNAL:

SIN (verse 6): Ever since coming to faith I had not been fully committed to following You as I should have been, Father. I stayed the course in my evil ways for a long time without regret. Please forgive me for this, Father. Forgive me for being so stubborn in my ways that I thought they were better for me than Your ways. Forgive me for listening to the world instead of You for how I should live my life. As a result of this, I had been stuck in unhappiness, anger, isolation, and irritability for a very long time. I had been stuck in the ways that just kept digging those negativity holes even deeper and deeper. If I had just truly began to have a relationship with You sooner, then all of those holes would’ve never existed. Please forgive me for not building up and focusing on this amazing relationship with You sooner, Father.

PROMISE (verses 8-9): You promise us in these verses, Father, that those who claim wisdom from You but are actually producing falsehoods will be punished. You say they will falsely claim they are wise in Your word, yet they will be put to shame as they’re lying about all of their self-proclaimed wisdom. Help me with discernment in this, Father, so that I can tell the difference in this life between those that are truly wise in Your wisdom versus those that are simply wise in their own falsehoods. Help me to live in a way that glorifies Your kingdom through Your wisdom and not my own, so that I do not become one that produces falsehoods about the wisdom You’ve bestowed on me, Father.

ATTITUDE (verse 18): For many years in my faith journey up until just a few months ago, this verse was me. I was not living with a joyful heart and I was allowing any and all grief to settle on me and block out all the joys that You and this life were bringing to me. I fell into a deep pit of depression and isolation that I felt I would never get out of. Thank You so much for showing me Your way out of that deep pit, Father. Thank You for providing other Godly men in my life through the Real Men 300 that supported me and used Your word to build me back up in Your ways, Father. Help me to ensure those attitudes of old never arise in me again. Help me to ensure that joy never goes away from me again and that my heart stays healthy so that I can focus on the amazing joys You have brought into my life regardless of what the world and enemy will try to distract me with.

COMMAND (verses 11-12): Father, in these verses You tell us how we should be treating Your people who are dealing with brokenness, shame, and humiliation. You tell us to not treat these wounds as superficial; that they are in fact real and we should treat them as such. The wounds of the heart, like those mentioned here, are deep wounds that have typically gone on for a long time, so treating them superficially is just going to do more harm than good. Help me to recognize when a child of Yours is wounded, Father. Help me to ensure that I never treat those wounds superficially like I have in the past with statements like “get over it” or “it’s not that bad” or something like that. Help me to be there for Your broken children like You have been there for me, Father.

EXAMPLE (verses 4-6): In these verses, You give us so many examples to live by, Father. You tell us that if we fall that we should get back up again. If we turn away from You for any reason, that we should always turn back to You. If we live in a deceitful way that we should give that up and turn back to You. That we should regret the evil things we do and ask for Your forgiveness in those matters. Help me to follow this example You’ve given us, Father. I’ve often struggled with getting stuck in my sinful, selfish, and worldly ways in the past. Help me to no longer live like that, so that even when I do make mistakes, I quickly recognize those mistakes, feel regret for those mistakes, and quickly turn my focus back onto You for restoration. Thank You for always being there to help me recover from my mistakes no matter how often I screw up, Father. You have shown me so much grace and love throughout my life. Thank You!

*DAILY NOTE: I’ve lived in so many falsehoods in my life, which I could “justify” in a sense before coming to faith, but ever since coming to faith I just have excuses and selfish reasons as to why I continue to do those things. I know that Your ways are better than my own and the world’s, yet I continue to fall into those traps. Thank You for teaching me Your ways, Father. Thank You for never giving up on me. Thank You for providing Your great wisdom and truths to my broken self, so that I may slowly but surely fix my broken ways in this life. Continue to teach me in a way I understand, so that I may begin to glorify You in this life through my actions, 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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