Jeremiah 39 - Outline

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

January 4, 2013


 *AUG 7 - JEREMIAH 39 - JERUSALEM BESIEGED: RIGHTEOUSNESS VINDICATED*


 *1. 39:1 (39:1-4, ESV) CAPTIVITY: JERUSALEM TAKEN. “In the ninth year of
Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
and all his army came against Jerusalem and besieged it.” *Father, You are
the God Who calls the things that are not as though they *were*! Three
years before Jerusalem fell, You called it as *already done*! You are *
Sovereign*! You are *Omniscient*! *Hallowed be your :name!*


 *2. 39:5 (39:5-7) CAPTIVITYY: JUDGMENT ON ZEDEKIAH. “But the army of the
Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And
when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, at Riblah, in the land of Hamath; and he passed sentence on him.” *O
Father, You Who revealed Yourself in Christ, how powerful is Your Word! How
swiftly it runs! How accurately does it come to pass! How fearful and
awesome are Your ways! *Your :kingdom come!*


 *3. 39:8 CAPTIVITY: JERUSALEM DESTROYED. “The Chaldeans burned the king’s
house and the house of the people, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.” *On
with mighty irresistible power progresses the fulfillment of Your Word,
Father. All Your promises to Your people are certain! *Your :will be done,
As in heaven, so on earth!*


 *4. 39:9 CAPTIVITY: FINAL DEPORTATION. “Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of
the guard, carried into exile to Babylon the rest of the people who were
left in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the people who
remained.” *How stern are Your ways, O Father! How just Your punishments!
How fearful Your Name, Jehovah Father, our Elohim, our Sovereign Lord! O
may Your fear always be ours as it was for Isaac. *Our :daily :bread Give
us this day.*


 *5. 39:10 CAPTIVITY: A REMNANT LEFT. “Nebuzaradan, the captain of the
guard, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing,
and gave them vineyards and fields as the same time.” *Again, what mercy
and grace do we see in You Father, toward the poor! Build in us this same
attitude. Live out Your Covenant Love (CHEsed) through us! *And forgive us
our :debts, As we also have forgiven our :debtors.*


 *6. 39:11-12 (39:11-14) CAPTIVITY: JEREMIAH SPARED. Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon gave command concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain
of the guard, saying, 12 “Take him, look after him well, and do him no
harm, but deal with him as he tells you.” *Imagine Your faithfulness O
Father, on our behalf! We marvel how You can incline the heart of the
heathen for good toward Your people! You also spare us! *And bring us not
into temptation!*


 *7. 39:18 (39:15-18) CAPTIVITY: PROMISE TO EBED-MELECH. “For I will surely
save you, and you shall not fall by the sword, but you shall have your life
as a prize of war, because you have put your trust in me, declares the
LORD.” *Father, You spoke Your word of comfort and strength to one of Your
servants through Your prophet! How gracious! Indeed You do see the sparrow
fall! *But deliver us from the evil one!*


 *NOTE**: C.H. Spurgeon Quotes: *I would to God that saints would cling to
Christ half as earnestly as sinners cling to the devil. If we were as
willing to suffer for God as some are to suffer for their lusts, what
perseverance and zeal would be seen on all sides!


 *Our Psalm for the day: 37:4-5; (37) “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he
will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him, and he will act.” * Yes, these are faithful and true words
from You, O Father! *23-24 “The steps of a man are established by the LORD,
when he delights in his way; 24 though he fall, he shall not be cast
headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand.” *Faithfulness! Faithfulness is
Your Name, O Jehovah Father. Hallelujah! For *You* are worthy!


 Subject: The great riddle of the prosperity of the wicked and the
affliction of the righteous, which has perplexed so many, is here dealt
with in the light of the future; and fretfulness and repining are most
impressively forbidden. It is a Psalm in which the Lord hushes most sweetly
the too common repinings of His people and calms their minds as to His
present dealings with His own chosen flock and the wolves by whom they are
surrounded. It contains eight great precepts, is twice illustrated by
autobiographical statements, and abound in remarkable contrasts.


 37:1. *Neither be You envious against the workers of iniquity. *Who envies
the fat bullock the ribbons and garlands which decorate him as he is led to
the shambles? Yet the case is a parallel one; for ungodly rich men are but
as beasts fattened for the slaughter.


 37:2. *And wither as the green herb. *How complete an end is made of the
man whose boasts had no end! Is it worth while to waste ourselves in
fretting about the insect of an hour, an ephemera which in the same day is
born and dies? Whining believers there is a living and incorruptible seed
which lives and abides forever; why should they envy mere flesh, and the
glory of it, which are but as grass, and its flower?


 37:4. *Delight yourself also in the Lord. *In a certain sense, imitate the
wicked; they delight in their portion - take care to delight in yours, and
so far from envying you will pity them. There is no room for fretting if we
remember that God is ours.


 37:6. *And He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light. *The more
we fret in this case, the worse for us. Our strength is to sit still. The
Lord will clear the slandered. If we look to His honor, He will see to
ours. It is wonderful how, when faith learns to endure calumny with
composure, the filth does not defile her, but falls off like snowballs from
a wall of granite.


 37:9. *But those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the
earth. *Passion,
according to Bunyan’s parable, has his good things first, and they are soon
over; Patience has his good things last, and they last forever.


 37:10. *For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. *O wherefore,
tried believer, do you envy one who in a little while will lie lower than
the dust? *Yes, you shall diligently consider his place, and it shall not
be. *His house shall be empty, his chair of office vacant, his estate
without an owner; he shall be utterly blotted out, perhaps cut off by his
own debauchery, or brought to a deathbed of penury by his own extravagance.
Gone like a passing cloud - forgotten as a dream - where are his boastings
and hectorings, and where the pomp which made poor mortals think the sinner
blest?


 37:16. *A little that the righteous man has is better than the riches of
many wicked. *We would sooner hunger with John than feast with Herod;
better to feed on scant fare with the prophets in Obadiah’s cave than riot
with the priests of Baal. A man’s happiness consists not in the heaps of
gold which he has in store. Content finds *multum in parvo, *while for a
wicked heart the whole world is too little.


 37:36. *Yes, I sought him, but he could not be found. *Moved by curiosity,
if we inquire for the ungodly, they have left no trace; like birds of ill
omen, none desire to remember them. Some of the humblest of the godly are
immortalized, their names are imperishably fragrant in the church, while of
the ablest of infidels and blasphemers hardly their names are remembered
beyond a few years. Men who were in everybody’s mouths but yesterday are
forgotten tomorrow, for only virtue is immortal.


 37:40. *And save them, because they trust in Him. *Faith shall insure the
safety of the elect. It is the mark of the sheep by which they shall be
separated from the goats. Not their merit, but their believing, shall
distinguish them. *(From “The Treasury of David” by C.H. Spurgeon, abridged
by D.O. Fuller)*



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