Piece by piece Jeremiah
overlooked and wrote about the destruction that he saw within the
city of Jerusalem. At that point he realized that nothing was sacred
including the tabernacle, the altar, the feasts and the Sabbaths. All
of them were unprotected by the hand of God when judgment came. In
chapter two and verse nine Jeremiah adds gates, bars, kings and
princes to his list. We read:
Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has
destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are
among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her
prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
The verse begins, “Her gates are
sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars.” As
Jeremiah looked over the city, he noticed the gates. More than likely
these gates used to be filled with traveling patrons during the day,
and served as protective forces at night. Now they were “sunk
into the ground”, and the
“bars” attached to
them which once served to keep out enemies were “broken and
destroyed”.
The verse goes on
to say, “Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles:...”
Not only were the protective devices such as the gates and bars
destroyed, the “king” and “princes” were “among
the Gentiles” which means “exiled” to other countries.
Those who used to be in charge and oversee the country were no where
to be found. Their thrones were deposed, and their power stripped,
and now they were under the control of leaders from foreign lands.
Finally
the verse says, “the law is no more; her prophets also
find no vision from the Lord.” Where
the law of God was once in place, it is “no more”.
Even the sacred law of God was put away. The “prophets”
who were left among them “find no vision”
which means “no prophetic word” or “leading” from the Lord.
God was silent, and though He spoke volumes through Jeremiah in the
book called after his name, none of the remaining prophets heard any
word or saw any vision from God. The people of Jerusalem were left to
fend for themselves.
Empathizing
with Jeremiah is not difficult as we allow our minds to imagine what
he was seeing. Devastation to everything that was good and right must
have been one of the reasons they called Jeremiah “the weeping
prophet”. If we allow ourselves to think about what he observed and
consider what it would be like for us should this happen today, we
might be inclined to pray for our country more. Jeremiah gave warning
after warning and yet the people would not yield. May our thoughts
and prayers have better results as we ask the Lord to be merciful
unto us before we too see what Jeremiah saw.
Next
time we will see what happened to the daughters and young women of
Jerusalem, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be
Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the
Mount” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ;
www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at
www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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