Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise. Behold, they say unto me, “Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.” As for me, I have not hastened from being a pastor to follow Thee: neither have I desired the woeful day; Thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was right before Thee. Be not a terror unto me: Thou art my hope in the day of evil. Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
Jeremiah 17:14-18
Confusion
Watched for My Halting
“For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. ‘Report, and we will report it.’ All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, ‘Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.’ But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
But, O LORD of Hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see Thy vengeance on them: for unto Thee have I opened my cause.
Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for He hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.” Jeremiah 20:10-13 (KJB)
Jeremiah is one of my favorite prophets. These prophecies have long been a source of encouragement, and strengthening of my faith in the awesomeness of God, and His mercy and grace.
He was born into a family of the priesthood, was probably expected to be a priest of the temple by his father. God had another plan and purpose for Jeremiah. He had a heart for God. He saw the evil of His day, how the people of God had turned their back on the LORD of Hosts, worshiping Him in hypocrisy, while worshiping Baal of the heathen neighbors; offering child sacrifices to the fires of their altars.
Many of Jeremiah’s friends (familiars) and those who feigned being with him was watching him, waiting for him to fail, even to fall from what God called him to do. His calling was to call the people of Judah to repentance and faith in God alone. They were to put away their idols; the physical ones and the ones of their own hearts.
Reading Jeremiah, as a matter of fact, as I read the whole of Scripture I have come to the conclusion that the people of the Bible are really no different from the people of 2019 in the United States of America.
We have Christians feigning worship to God while at the same time harboring idols of heart, mind, and of the physical kind (materialism). God is today calling His people, calling the true Christian of 2019 to repentance. Turn back to God. Believe His word. His word is the truth. It is the absolute truth. Anything that is contrary to the Bible is a lie.
Let us put away our idols. Whether we like, or want to admit it or not, there is Baal worship in our land. Children are being offered on fiery altars, slain, and slaughtered in death clinics, supposedly for women’s health. More for personal convenience, and supposed “women’s rights”.
O Christian, Hear the word of the Lord. He loves you with an everlasting love; but He loves you too much to leave you in your sin. If you are His He will do whatever it takes to make you holy.
If you are without God, you do not know Him. He has made the way for you to come to Him. That Way, the only Way is through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ His only begotten, and Holy Son. Call on His name to day.
I for one will not halt from preaching, and teaching the Bible as the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God; and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, God the Son who died that Adam’s race might be saved.
Words of the Prophets – Jeremiah
Sweet Sleep
“I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore My bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD. Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? For the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks. For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.” Jeremiah 31:18-26 (KJV)
Confidence and/or Confusion
“In Thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.” Psalm 71:1 (KJV)
The LORD is the place for our trust. We far too often place our trust, our confidence in our own abilities. We are blessed, and we are a blessing unto the Lord Jehovah when we affirm with our words of prayer and praise that our trust is in Him. That is what the Psalmist is affirming here.
Will I daily; and will you daily affirm with me that our trust is in the LORD? I pray that you will, and speak it loudly to Him, and show it loudly to Him and the rest of the world as well.
If we will not walk with Him, putting our trust, our confidence in Him and His Word then we will be put to confusion. Confusion is not of God. The apostle Paul has written,
“For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.” 1 Corinthians 14:33
When a professing Christian is not putting their trust in God, but walking after their own lust, and passions they will be confused, there will be confusion in the world concerning what Christianity is; and it is quite obvious we have that today. Trusting the LORD means believing His word, and living according to what He says, not what the rest of the world is living and saying.
Have confidence in the LORD and His Word; and you will not be confused.
Psalm 71:1
The following is a quote from a study on Psalm 71 and verse 1 from The Treasury of David, by C. H. Spurgeon. The quote is by Musculus.
“In Thee, O LORD, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.” Psalm 71:1 (KJV)
“In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.” As if he should say: O Lord, permit not those who put their trust in thee to be confounded, and to be held up as a laughing-stock. I have placed all my hope in thee, and thou art that God who, for the sake of thy goodness and truth, hast never deserted those who hope in thee. If thou shalt suffer me to be confounded, the enemies to triumph, and my hope to be placed in thee in vain, certainly this shame shall fall upon thine own name … Let us, therefore, learn from this place to be more anxious about what may happen to the name of God through us, than to our own; whether it be through us in doing, or in us in suffering. The prophet is fearful lest he should be confounded on account of his hope placed in God, although it was not in his own power, nor could he prevent it…
It is necessary, first, that we should be of those who place their hope in God, then it is necessary that this piety of our hearts should not be confined to ourselves only, but should be known to all those who come in contact with us, even our opponents and enemies; else it is not possible for us to dread this kind of confusion feared by the prophet, when nobody knows that our hope is placed in God. No artist suffers confusion, if he has never shared the good opinion of his fellow men. To no sick man can it be said, Physician, heal thyself, if his reputation for medical skill has never stood high. So of those, it cannot be said, They hoped in God, let him save them if he will have them, of whom it was never remarked that they placed any hope in God. This solicitude, therefore, belongs only to those whose hope is in the Lord: upon others it cannot fall. – Musculus.
Trust that endures and provides is only in the LORD.
-Tim A. Blankenship
The Fire and Hammer 