Jeremiah 33:9
9 And
[Jerusalem] shall be to Me a name of joy, praise and a glory before all the
nations of the earth that hear of all the good I do for it, and they shall fear
and tremble because of all the good
and all the peace, prosperity, security and
stability I provide for it.
Psalm 105:1-4
Oh, give
thanks to the LORD!
Call
upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!
2 Sing
to Him, sing psalms to Him;
Talk of
all His wondrous works!
3 Glory
in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD!
4 Seek the LORD and His strength;
Seek His face evermore! NKJV
Jesus
spoke of His desire that we would all be
in unity. And what does the scripture say that He prayed?
John 17:20-26
20
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me
through their word; 21 that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and
I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You
sent Me. 22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be
one just as We are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made
perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have
loved them as You have loved Me. 24 Father, I desire that they also whom You
gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have
given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous
Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known
that You sent Me. 26 And I have declared
to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me
may be in them, and I in them." NKJV
Unity….Faith……Glory…..Jesus said, “I do not pray for
these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word (message) 21 that they all may be one, as
You, Father, are in M, and I in YOU; that they also may be one in Us, that the
world may believe that You sent. 22 And
the glory which You gave Me I have given them. That they may be one just as We
are one: 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one,
and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You
have loved Me.
I take
you back to the moment when Jesus rode into Jerusalem. People were laying palm
leaves and their outer garments or tunics on the pathway……….and was being laid
down toward Antonia Fortress. But Jesus had to have gotten off the
donkey………pushed through and broke the line right in front of the temple and
went in to do some things.
Matthew 21:6-17
6 The
disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey
and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. 8 A very
large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the
trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and
those that followed shouted,
"Hosanna
to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord!"
"Hosanna
in the highest!"
10 When
Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is
this?"
11 The
crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in
Galilee."
12 Jesus
entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He
overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling
doves. 13 "It is written," he said to them, "'My house will be
called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a 'den of robbers.'"
14 The
blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when
the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did
and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of
David," they were indignant.
16
"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him.
"Yes,"
replied Jesus, "have you never read, "'From the lips of children and
infants
you have
ordained praise'?"
17 And
he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night. NIV
What will we recognize in another
person? Will
jealousy reveal its ugly head or will people see Jesus in us? Over the weekend
we had were invited out to this new restaurant we had not been to before. It was great
food, a really awesome atmosphere and the time flew by so quickly. In the upstairs dining area there was one wall of all different kinds and styles of
mirrors. Some had gold frames, some were of black frames, and some were
antique-like frames. It was done so well and the decorating style had a
wonderful appeal for the eyes to take in for that size of wall. With all the
different sized mirrors, the arrangement of them certainly made the room look
bigger. And I thought of Jesus and how He reflected God to those around Him.
In the
amount of time of Jesus’ life and His ministry to those around Him, the
children certainly had praise in their mouths. I could see those money-changers
being driven out. Jesus was re-directing them from the money venture that they
had imposed in that place. In Jesus, we saw how zealous He was that the temple
would become what it was always to be……….a House of Prayer and a place where
even the children would raise their voices in praise to God. The children had
to have danced around Jesus when He was disturbing those upright tables and
bringing all that money to the floor of the Temple. Jesus was there to show the
way. As Jesus was spoken of by the prophets, Jesus was now speaking His
language toward that which revered God, lifted His Holy Name, and brought glory
to HIM.
For
people were all watching and saw what might have seemed like a great disturbance at the same time many were trying to direct Jesus to Antonio Fortress.
The city was full of people for the Passover that was about to begin. Jesus was pointing the way to God and how God
was to be given all the praise for who He was. He was pointing to JUSTICE AND GOVERNMENT THAT was of God Himself! Jesus was pointing to prayer/relationship.........not taking over a government that was representing man.
Our assignment is to recognize
and know Jesus has come, tell others about Him, give them the salvation message
and show them His love. We are to direct them, not to the hurts from the world but the power of God that supersedes every name in the earth, (on it and in it)
Ministry is that which points every person back to Jesus,
the plan of Redemption, and once obtaining Salvation, to walk as He, Jesus, Who
was, is, and is to come and always will be Holy!
Jesus
did not command people by rules or regulations. He came to set people free from
religiosity. You know that which is, children hidden in the back rooms, dim
lights, slow music to begin worship……….okay, enough worship, let’s talk money………announcements.
Message and done. Oh, did we have time for prayer tonight?
We were
told in Jeremiah 33:3 amp…that we
are to call to God and He would answer us and show us great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which we do not know or
recognize, have knowledge of and understand.
In my
estimation of the passage, it is for us to call to God……Jeremiah 33:2-9
2
"The Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth-Jehovah is his name-says this:
3'Ask me and I will tell you some remarkable secrets about what is going to
happen here. 4 For though you have torn down the houses of this city, and the
king's palace too, for materials to strengthen the walls against the siege
weapons of the enemy, 5 yet the Babylonians will enter, and the men of this
city are already as good as dead, for I have determined to destroy them in my
furious anger. I have abandoned them because of all their wickedness, and I
will not pity them when they cry for help.'
6
"Nevertheless, the time will come when I will heal Jerusalem's damage and
give her prosperity and peace. 7 I will rebuild the cities of both Judah and
Israel and restore their fortunes. 8 And I will cleanse away all their sins
against me and pardon them. 9 Then this city will be an honor to me, and it
will give me joy and be a source of praise and glory to me before all the
nations of the earth! The people of the world will see the good I do for my
people and will tremble with awe! TLB
In
spending time over this passage……one thing was evident and that was that God
Himself wanted to show the people what trouble they were in and how the whole
of what they had done to themselves would play out.
In the
course of this reading, we know the prophet Jeremiah was to call upon God in
prayer as we all are called to pray! In
this we have the Holy God, His character, we have His covenant, and we have His
glory. In the crucifixion of Jesus we saw the crown of thorns that surrounded
His head…..His whole thinking process that represented man in his sickness, his
disease, his lack of strength because of hurtful experiences or painful
memories of things past.
I do not
know about you, but I want to know my future. And I can declare all those
promises but they will not supersede my prayer time with God.
2 Peter 1:3-4
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. NIV
It is that abide
word again. It is that declaring those promises to Him, but also communicating….”Father,
this is my heart today!”
So when
we ask God……our Father will show us what things we have gotten ourselves into
that will probably one day be a message to others……”Don’t do what I did”……”but
seek God with all your hearts”.
In the
Amplified, verse 6 and following reads this way: (Jeremiah 33:6) Behold, [in
the future restored Jerusalem] I will lay upon it health and healing, and I
will cure them and will reveal to them the abundance of peace (prosperity,
security, stability) and truth. 7
And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to be
reverse and will rebuild them as they were at the first. 8 And I will cleanse
them from all the guilt and iniquity
by which they have sinned against Me, and I will forgive all their guilt and iniquities by which they have sinned
and rebelled against Me. 9 And [Jerusalem] shall be to Me a name of joy, praise
and a glory before all the nations of the earth that hear of all the good I do
for it, and they shall fear and tremble because
of all the good and all the peace, prosperity, security and stability I provide for it.
In
short, yes a timely word indeed to what was about to transpire in the seeing of
those who had fallen away. For those who had come from the “old man” to become
the new man in Christ experience this. For calling on God and His holiness
(righteousness) we take hold of that new covenant man, and experience health and
healing. In each of our lives, our serving becomes that when we partake of His
broken body and shed Blood. In that we experience His prosperity, His security
and the truth (revelation knowledge).
From verse 7 the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to be reversed.
We as individuals will praise God for His goodness, no longer held in
captivity.
“JUDAH”-
was considered the noble one. What occurred before Joseph in Egypt, Judah was
the one that truth would be revealed. Judah did not desire harm on another as
we look back at Genesis 37:26-28
26 So
Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother
and conceal his blood? 27 Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let
not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh." And his
brothers listened. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled
Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for
twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt. NKJV
As we
read throughout Genesis and of Jacob’s family, who had become Israel…….yes that
name change, remember?
Jacob’s
oldest son Reuben gave up his birthright to lead the family by engaging in
incest. (Remember what we had read on Esau and Jacob? The birthright was to be
given Esau, but he lost it because his need for a bowl of lentil soup. (Genesis 25:31-34) 31 Jacob replied, "First sell me your
birthright." 32 "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What
good is the birthright to me?" 33 But Jacob said, "Swear to me
first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. 34
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and
then got up and left. So Esau despised
his birthright. NIV
Genesis 27:36
36 Esau
said, "Isn't he rightly named Jacob? He has deceived me these two times: He took my birthright, and now he's taken
my blessing!" Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved any blessing
for me?" NIV
Simeon
and Levi committed murder. So it was in Judah to receive that blessing from the
father. Judah was one who was seen as the “lion”…..and the image of that was
painted for us in……Revelation 5:5
5 Then
one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of
Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its
seven seals."NIV
In
Moses' dying blessing (Deuteronomy 33:7) he prays: "Hear Lord the voice of
Judah (in prayer) and bring him (marching at the head of the tribes back again
victorious) unto his people."
As do each of us have a place in the body of Christ, those of the spiritual reside in
the place of praise to our God, we have the place of authority and royal
priesthood. As that of Israel…….we are those united as one family in God. When
we recognize His voice, obey His commands, we know He is delighted that we are
following in the way we are to go. (Psalm 37:23) God does not kill, steal or
destroy. Anything or anyone declaring these things are not of God, but of the
devil. It is in our recognizing Him, and telling others about Him, that they
hear that spiritual joy in our voices. We dance like David danced, and we will
never back down when giving truth of Jesus Christ the Lord of glory. We have
the opportunity to have a birthright in God through Jesus………and have the
blessing too!
When we
are in unity…….that harmony……..we co-operate with God and receive His
instructions for our lives. And as we keep leaning on…….our trust growing in
Him, we grow in faith!
9 And
[Jerusalem] shall be to Me a name of joy, praise and a glory before all the
nations of the earth that hear of all the good I do for it, and they shall fear
and tremble because of all the good
and all the peace, prosperity, security and
stability I provide for it.
And that
holy house……that noble sanctuary is to God a name of joy, praise and glory
before all the nations of the earth that hear of all the good that God does for
it………..and we His people shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all
the peace, prosperity, security and stability
God our Father provides for it. Amen.
And this he [Moses] said of
Judah: “hear O Lord, the voice of Judah (prayer), and bring
him to his people! With his hands he contended for himself; but may You be a
help against his enemies.”
Father,
may our voices be heard as one in unity……..not of noise, or of confusion. But no
matter whether we are yellow, black, white, red……..we all matter in Your sight.
We desire to be that one with Jesus…..abiding in that place of “fearing You in
all Your glory and holiness” and trembling because of Your great good to us.
May our eyes always be opened to see You in our lives and may we never act like
the “lost”. May we hold You in high esteem because You are God. That we hold
our gaze upon You who is awesome in splendor, power and might. We desire to be
prayer warriors who tremble in Your presence………and seek Your plan, seeing our
place and stand to defend with the Word of God that prevails. May we ever be mindful,
if God be for us, who can (possibly) stand
against us? He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all---how
will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? God, You are
our JUSTICE. In Jesus name we stand as One. Amen.
