Tues.’s Devo -Our Present Rest - Our Future Reward

Read: Jeremiah 22:1-23:20; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12; Psalm 83:1-18; Proverbs 25:11-14 God told Jeremiah to go and speak directly with the king and tell him to change what he was doing. He needed to start judging fairly and protecting the poor, widow and the orphan - those who can’t care for themselves. He needed to stop murdering innocent people. He warned him that if he didn’t change, his palace would become a pile of rubble. The royal palace would be dismantled and burned. People would talk about it and say: ‘see what happens to a nation that breaks its covenant with the living God?’ Jeremiah told them not to mourn the dead king but to weep for the captive king for he would never return to his palace. The dead king would be Jehoiakim who built his palace with slave labor. It was a beautiful palace but his palace didn’t make him a good king like his father Josiah. No one would mourn his death. His son, Jehoiachin, the captive king, would be carried off with his mother into Babylon and die there. He was the broken jar that Jeremiah prophesied about in chapter 19. When he is shattered, the people will be scattered. He would die a failure with no children to succeed him on the throne. God always leaves us with hope. God spoke of the day when Ezra would lead his people back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and return to their own land. God pronounced his judgment on the priests and false prophets. These were the ones responsible to teach the people the truth about God and what He was saying. They gave the people false hopes and made up what they said. They were about to see the true words of the Lord in their lives. Paul commended the church at Thessalonica in a second letter. He continued to hear about their steadfast faith in the Lord in the midst of persecution and hardships. God was using their trials to make them strong, but he would punish their persecutors. He encouraged them with the God’s rest for now, his glorious coming and their future reward. Lord, may we live in the present with our hope in the future. Thank you for your rest and your grace to continue pressing on. You are our reward.