When troubles and
difficulties come, how widespread are the effects of it? Sometimes it
is limited, but during the days of Jeremiah the people of Jerusalem
and Judah felt the repercussions throughout all their land. In
chapter one and verse twenty, Jeremiah shared just how close and
abroad those effects were. He wrote:
Behold, O LORD; for I
am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned
within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaves,
at home there is as death.
The
verse begins, “Behold,
O LORD; for I am
in distress: my bowels are troubled;” In
personified fashion, Jerusalem calls out to the LORD to “behold”
or “to see, look at, inspect, perceive, consider”
their conditions. He says they are in “distress” which
means to “bind, shut up, cramp or be in straits” and he uses
“bowels” which is symbolic for the deepest seat of
emotions to let they LORD know they are “troubled”.
The verse goes on to say, “mine heart is turned within me; for I
have grievously rebelled:” Jeremiah adds that their “heart
is turned” which means “turned back or reversed” like as in
a total change of direction. After the destruction they have endured,
it appears that repentance is upon their hearts for they recognize
they “have grievously rebelled”. In Hebrew the phrase
“grievously rebelled” is “marah, marah” as though to
say, we have rebelled and been disobedient to God so greatly that it
is worth stating twice.
Finally the verse says, “abroad the sword bereaves, at home
there is as death.” Jeremiah concludes this
verse by sharing the perpective of two places. The first is “abroad”
which refers to those outside of the city. These people are affected
by the “sword” that “bereaves” or “makes
childless, miscarries, or makes them barren”. The second refers to
“home” or “within the house or family” and states that
they are experiencing “death” or “within the realm of
dying, state of death, or violent death”. In other words, anywhere
they are, terrible troubles surround them.
Have
we ever been so troubled that we have called upon the LORD to
“behold”
or “look upon and consider” us? Have we ever experienced anything
like the anguish that those within Jerusalem and Judah were
undergoing? Perhaps as we consider this horrific lament of Jerusalem
we too would like to think about the possibility that we have
“grievously
rebelled”,
and if so, our best position would be to let our
“heart turn within”
us. May the Lord Jesus bring us to that heart changing state.
Next
time we will see how glad the enemies of Jerusalem are because they
were suffering, 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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