Key Verses: Jeremiah 11:3-5
“…Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God, that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.’ Then I answered and said, ‘So be it Lord [Amen].'”

The discovery of the lost book of the Law (probably Deuteronomy) happened on Jeremiah’s watch (read 2 Kings 22:8-13). It taught about the curses for disobedience and the blessings for obedience to the words of the covenant. Many times Israel had said “Amen,” or “So be it Lord!” They would be blessed for a time and then break the covenant and suffer the curses they would bring upon themselves. The Lord’s “green olive tree” (spiritual Israel), which He had planted and which, from time to time, had produced “lovely and good fruit,” would now be broken down and burned. How sad and how unnecessary!

The first 6 verses of Jeremiah 12 are addressed to Anathoth, Jeremiah’s hometown. Jeremiah proclaimed his message from God with a broken heart. In today’s reading Jeremiah asks 12 questions. Four question words are used: “What,” “Why,” “How,” and “Where.” The “When” question is conditional upon the response of the people. The final words of Jeremiah 13 are, “O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean?”

PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Yes, yes Lord God, I ask to be made clean and to be kept clean through the washing of the blood which Your Son and my Saviour shed on the Cross. I pray for grace to “walk in the light as He is in the light,” and then I experience 24/7 that “the blood of Jesus Christ [Messiah] cleanses us…” (1 John 1:5-10). With my faith in Jesus Christ, the final Sacrifice for sin, I trust You, Lord! AMEN!!!

100 PERSONAL WORDS:
It was a great comfort to me to hear my Father, Rev. Dr. Roy Mainse, preach a message from 1st John on “cleansing.” My father had returned from his mission in Egypt and had taken on the responsibility of Pastor of two churches. I moved back home with Dad and attended both churches, where I heard the same message twice. That particular message has stuck with me ever since. He said that the word “cleanseth” (he used old King James english) is in the present perfect tense in the original Greek language. I learned that as I asked God for cleansing (Jeremiah’s question, “Will you still not be made clean?”), I have been made clean and I am being made clean constantly in God’s sight. The Greek verb “cleanseth” means that it has happened and that it continues to happen. I had been struggling with this issue during that first year after I had made my lifetime decision to serve Christ fully. I know that in my eyes and experience I am a sinner, but God sees me through the cleansing blood of Jesus and only in Jesus am I made pure and holy.

Yours for daily shining the light of God’s Word into our personal lives!

David