August 15
Today’s Bible Reading:
Jeremiah 18-20; Psalm 93; John 17
Journal Entry on a passage from today’s reading:
Topic: Judgment
SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 18:1-8, 19:10-11
18: 1 This is
the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will
give you my message." 3
So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping
from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another
pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
5 Then the
word of the Lord came to me: 6
"O house of Israel Israel
19: 10
"Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, 11 and say to them, 'This is
what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as
this potter's jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. (Jer 19:10-11 NIV)
OBSERVATION:
Today’s reading in Jeremiah is chapters 18-20. The prophetic
imagery in these chapters seems to depict God’s chosen people Israel . In a
broader sense these passages could be speaking of the USA today—as
clay being shaped. In verse 4 the pot being shaped by the potter had become marred
and needed to be reshaped. When other hands have been allowed to shape the clay
it is as if God the potter in verse 15 saying, “my people have forgotten me;” but
destruction is not yet. The people—the nation—may yet repent and place
themselves once again in the hands of the Potter. There comes a day eventually
when the shape is set in the kiln. That may be seen as the day of no
return.
APPLICATION:
In Jeremiah chapter 19 the Lord tells Jeremiah to take the
finished clay jar and break it while the people watch and in verse 11 says, “I will smash this nation… just as this potter's jar is smashed and
cannot be repaired.”
When will my nation the USA reach the point of no return?
Have we already reached that point? I do not believe so. There seems no doubt,
however, that we have been increasingly rejecting the shaping of the hand of
The Potter in favor of other hands shaping us in ways that have marred us. Woe
to us if we become hardened in the kiln of human experience and history.
PRAYER:
Lord have mercy on the land of my birth, a nation conceived
in liberty and ordained by You. Raise up leaders that will lead us in Your
ways—in true principles of rightness and justice. Open the eyes of our
spirits—the individual spirits that collectively comprise our population—to
see, understand and repent beforeYou. Keep us from ever reaching the hardness
of that point which leads only to broken destruction.
By Your mercy in the name of Jesus I pray. Amen. -AP
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