Heralds Digest

““But do not fear, O My servant Jacob, And do not be dismayed, O Israel! For behold, I will save you from afar, And your offspring from the land of their captivity; Jacob shall return, have rest and be at ease; No one shall make him afraid.” ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭46:27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ http://bible.com/114/jer.46.27.nkjv Drifting away from the path of light promises fun, but delivers fear. The farther the soul drift away from the Lord, the deeper the heart sink into fear. The only way out of the sting of fear is a covenant relationship with the God of heaven. The scriptures say ' For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind '. No matter how far drifted away the heart of man, covenant relationship with God gives power over the fear of defeat, love over the fear of rejection, and sound mind over the guilt of our past. When the Creator of heaven and earth, who has the power to punish the king of Babylon in the life and affairs of His redeemed serva...

“And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the LORD. “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.” ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭45:5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ http://bible.com/114/jer.45.5.nkjv Unlike the reluctant Jonah with the gospel message, the motivation of real ministers of the gospel is the all-round prosperity of the people. Gospel messages are meant for the salvation and deliverance of the people from the bondage of sin and wickedness. Therefore, success in the ministry is often measured by the metrics of physical, material, and empirical manifestation of spirituality in the life and affairs of the people. While reasonable monitoring of success in ministry is necessary for planning and preservation of the church of Christ against the activities of all adversaries, good success is measured only by godly assessment of the minister's motivations. Baruch and prophet Jeremiah needed a shift in their ex...

“so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and dwell. For none shall return except those who escape.’ ”” ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭44:14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ http://bible.com/114/jer.44.14.nkjv Escape from physical adversity into a state of material affluence is often misconstrued as evidence of prosperity. Whereas, the converse is mostly true - material affluence without spiritual sensitivity is an evidence of destruction, and that with no escape route. The remnant of Judah have gone into the land of Egypt with an escape mindset, from the hands of king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Whereas the transient escape will soon be terminated by the same hands of king Nebuchadnezzar, even in the land of Egypt. As always, escape to Egypt may offer temporary respite from physical and emotional troubles, a voyage against the perfect will of God in life leads to destruction and death...

“Now it happened, when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, for which the LORD their God had sent him to them, all these words, that Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘Do not go to Egypt to dwell there.’” ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭43:1-2‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ http://bible.com/114/jer.43.1-2.nkjv Careful observation of the content of the petition to prophet Jeremiah in the previous chapter and the response after the revelation from the prophet shows the difference in the revered portion of the two parties. The petition says ' pray for us to the Lord your God (42:2) ', whereas the response declares ' the LORD our God has not sent you..(43:2) '. When the petitioners' revered portion is attached to Egypt, the intention of all petitions is clearly a solicitation for the God of heaven to bow to the idolized portion in...

“For I will surely deliver you, and you shall not fall by the sword; but your life shall be as a prize to you, because you have put your trust in Me,” says the LORD.’ ”” ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭39:18‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ http://bible.com/114/jer.39.18.nkjv Self confidence is good because it provides the basis of trust in one's ability to personally seek self's personal wellness. However, ability to trust in God above self decreases with increasing measure of self confidence. Unlike king Zedekiah, a palace steward, Ebedmelech from Ethiopia, has little or no confidence in his ability to save self from the impeding invasion. Therefore, he has no resistance to giving his life away to faith in God's word, as prophesied by prophet Jeremiah. The scripture declares that believers must be able to lose their lives in order to gain them. Unfortunately, the fear of economic instability, security threat, and future uncertainties often prevent absolute confidence in the promises of God, especially when He le...

“Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with bronze fetters to carry him off to Babylon.” ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭39:7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ http://bible.com/114/jer.39.7.nkjv Human senses, including the sense of sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste, add tremendous spice to the living comfort of all. And anyone with impaired physical senses will miss out on productive relationship with fellow men, unless a reliable compliment is provided for companionship. Unfortunately, active physical sights have always constitute a well of distraction to spiritual sensitivity. Obedience to the will of God is readily unattractive to men whose eyes are set on human opinion and sensible assessment of call to divine engagement. Despite an uncompromising declaration of the counsel of God to king Zedekiah to surrender to the king of Babylon, he wasted about 18 months of the Chaldean besiege behind the walls of Jerusalem. Instead of leading his army to have faith in the plan and purpose of God before the penetrati...

“Then Zedekiah the king sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance of the house of the LORD. And the king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me.”” ‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭38:14‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ http://bible.com/114/jer.38.14.nkjv The worth of a carnal man is limited to the value of his physical and material possessions. These possessions hinder the minds to the things of the spirit, especially when the exposition comes from someone who is comparatively lower in terms of personal assessment. For example, the princes of Judah had no respect for prophet Jerusalem nor for the word of God, as long as those declarations are coming from someone considered ' a drowning man '. But king Zedekiah said " I will ask you something... ". Apart from the appreciation of the great substance in Jeremiah's exposition to the king's life and the prospect of the kingdom, it must be a great relief to appropriate the actual worth the man of God....