READING:
One-year plan: Jeremiah 17-22
Two-year plan: Isaiah 52:13-55:13, 1 Thessalonians 2:17-3:13
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Have you ever seen repeated phrases and ideas in the scriptures? Look at these texts, and note the similarities about God, the Divine Warrior:
- Deut 4:34 “Or has a god attempted to go and take a nation as his own out of another nation, by trials, signs, wonders, and war, by a strong hand and an outstretched arm, by great terrors, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?”
- Deut 5:15a “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.”
- Deut 26:8 “Then the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, with terrifying power, and with signs and wonders.”
- Psalm 136:10-12 “He struck the firstborn of the Egyptians . . . and brought Israel out from among them . . . with a strong hand and outstretched arm.”
- Jer 21:4-5 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will repel the weapons of war in your [Judah’s] hands . . . . I will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with anger, rage, and great wrath.’”
Look at the texts closely, noting the change in Jeremiah 21. The same God who delivered Israel from Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm — the One who was Israel’s Divine Warrior — is the God who turned on His people with the same righteous ferocity in Jeremiah’s day. Even the reversal of the phrases (from “strong hand and outstretched arm” to “outstretched hand and a mighty arm”) suggests something is now different.
God is both deliverer and judge. He can intervene to free from bondage, or He can step in to send into exile. He will fight for us, or He will sometimes fight against us. He makes the call. Though His love for His people and His commitment to His Word always lead Him to guard His remnant, we are foolish to assume that God will not fight against us in judgment when we turn to idols of our own making.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you fighting against God by your own actions today?
PRAYER: “God, thank You for delivering me. Help me to follow You faithfully.”
TOMORROW’S READING:
One-year plan: Jeremiah 17-22
Two-year plan: Isaiah 56-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12
MEMORIZATION VERSE (August 16-31)
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.” (Heb 4:15)
