The Daily Fountain Daily Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 3 September 2019 – The Coming Captivity
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TOPIC: The Coming Captivity
READ: Jeremiah 16:1-13 King James Version (KJV)
1 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying,
2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”
3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land:
4 “They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”
5 For thus says the Lord : “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the Lord , “lovingkindness and mercies.
6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.
7 Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother.
8 Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”
9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
10 “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’
11 then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord ; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law.
12 And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.
13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favour
THE MESSAGE:
Due to the coming captivity of Judah through the Babylonians, God warned Jeremiah not to marry (verse 2), nor take part in funeral rites (verse 5) or joyous occasions (verse 8). God promised to take away peace, joy and gladness from the people.
Also Read: Anglican Communion 3 September 2019 – The Coming Captivity
He asked Jeremiah to tell the people when they inquired the reasons for all these that their fathers forsook God, served and worshipped other gods and did not keep His word. God promised to take them to captivity where they would have opportunity to serve other gods (verses 10-13). He accused the people of even doing worse than their fathers by walking according to the imagination of their own evil hearts.
Our God is a consuming fire. Though God is very merciful, He is ever ready to punish every sin and disobedience if there is no repentance. We are in the end times.
The handwriting is on the wall about this. God has been warning men over the years about the coming disaster through the Second Coming of Christ. Many are paying deaf ears to these warnings. God shall not be blamed if He allows captivity to overtake us. Run from the coming wrath of God.
God warned through Amos 5:18-20 about the Day of the Lord. He also declared in 2 Corinthians 6:2 that this is the acceptable time and the day of salvation. Take the opportunity you have now and repent. Tomorrow may be too late.
PRAYER: Lord, help us to run away from the wrath to come.
