Jeremiah

Listen to today’s reading:

Jeremiah 31:13

Then young women will dance and be glad,
young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

Psalm 47:1

Clap your hands, all you nations;
shout to God with cries of joy.

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

Today’s Reading:

Greg Halman, Oscar Taveras, Tommy Hanson, José Fernández, Yordano Ventura, and Tyler Skaggs. The sting of death has been very real in the last decade in the major league baseball community with these six men. All of these players were active on the roster at the time, passing away so suddenly. Even closer to home as a ministry in Full Count, we have already experienced in our short time together a couple of practicing ministry members leave this world as well. We are told in scripture to weep with those who weep over these terrible situations (Romans 12:15). It’s painful to see such young men leave us so early. Any and all death is dreadful. In Jeremiah 9, we are introduced to a prophet in tears for Israel through a very painful time of much loss. The prophet Jeremiah came onto the scene prophesying captivity and destruction of Israel and their nation. In much of the Old Testament, scripture indicates that the suffering of the nation of Israel was a direct result of disobedience to the Lord. As Israel became wicked and wandered away from God, the Lord would pour out judgement. Jeremiah called the people of Israel adulterers, liars, deceitful, and committers of iniquity. So what was the result? Jeremiah 9:21 says, “Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses…” Death, and even pain and suffering for that matter, is in fact a direct consequence of our sin from the beginning of creation - and all men are appointed to die once (Genesis 2:17, Romans 5:12, Hebrews 9:27). Our sadness was brought onto us by our own doing… In the timeline here, God was about ready to bring into light man’s tangible way of redemption from themselves to restore hearts to joy soon after the days of Jeremiah. Of course, this wouldn’t happen until, as we know today, the deliverance out of the Babylonian captivity. But nevertheless, Jeremiah 23:5 says, “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.’” Through time, there was no shortage of kings that have had their flaws. All of them failed to maintain a righteous kingdom. We know that God said to Jeremiah “cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh…” We know now of the beautiful truth that Jesus – God in the flesh – came to save us from our sin and establish a kingdom that is “not of this world,” into a world stained with sin, pain, death, and tears (John 18:36). Jeremiah continued to write for God to the people, saying through the deliverance, we will share in the new kingdom in a new way: “I (the Lord) will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.” We have so much hope for the days to come even through momentary affliction and even staring right into earthly death as we trust in our new King. In the new heaven and new earth, “he (God) will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4). Although we still die today, it’s promised that we will rise (1 Corinthians 15:52). As God promised through the prophet Hosea in Hosea 13:14, “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.” Jesus said in John 11:26, “whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” …Do you? Through Jesus, we are redeemed from death to life – spiritually and physically – and our sadness will be turned into perpetual joy!

Today’s Prayer Guide:

Praise – Praise God for showing us how we cannot deliver ourselves from pain and death – that in his great wisdom, he gave us what we wanted but he didn’t leave us in our distress forever.

Confession – Confess to God that you have “drawn strength from mere flesh,” and have trusted in it for comfort.

Ask – Ask the Lord to give you a heart for those in pain – to help you to shed tears for those experiencing loss. Ask him to empower you to go to those who don’t know Jesus and share his power to redeem them from death into eternity.