Thurs.’s Devo - The Coming of Christ

Read: Jeremiah 23:21-25:38; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17; Psalm 84:1-12; Proverbs 25:15 God spoke about the false prophets of Israel. He told the people that He didn’t send them. They were not speaking God’s words. If they had been, their words would have caused the people to repent and turn back to him. The prophets deceived the people with their false dreams that were meant to cause the people to forget God. God’s true prophets told His words. God would punish every false prophet that gave the people false hope and took all their responsibility away. They were responsible for the outcome of their nation and it was not good. The people didn’t really want to know what God had to say, they just wanted to know that everything was going to be ok. The king of Babylon came and took Jehoiachin, the king of Judah to Babylon along with the officials and craftsmen of Judah. God showed Jeremiah a vision of two baskets of figs placed in front of the Lord’s Temple in Jerusalem. One was filled with fresh ripe figs and the other with bad rotten figs. The good figs represented the exiled that God sent to Babylon, the best of the bunch. He would watch over them and bring them back. God would give them hearts to love and honor Him. The bad figs were king Zedikiah and the officials left in Jerusalem and those who live in Egypt. He would make them an object of horror and a symbol of evil to every nation on the earth. They would be disgraced and mocked wherever they were scattered. They will vanish through suffering death in the land God sent them. When Nebuchadnezzar became king of Babylon, King Jehoiakim had been king of Judah for 4 years and Jeremiah had been prophesying the same thing for 23 years. The people had not listened to Jeremiah’s prophecies but had ignored them. They had refused to turn from their evil ways and continued to worship idols. Because of this, God was gathering an army from Babylon against them and the surrounding nations. Their entire land would become a desolate wasteland. They would serve Babylon for 70 years. Then God would punish the king of Babylon and his people for their sins and make Babylon a wasteland. God told Jeremiah to take the cup of God’s anger and cause all the nations to drink from it. He took the cup to Jerusalem and the other towns of Judah and told their officials and kings to drink from the cup. He took the cup to Pharaoh in Egypt and had him and his attendants and official and all his people drink from it. He also gave it to all the kings of the land of Uz and the kings of the Philistine cities to drink. He gave it to the nations of Edom, Moab, and Ammon and the kings of Tyre and Sidon and Dedan, Tema and Bus. He gave it to the kings of Arabia and Zimri, Elam and Media and the kings of the norther countries. Finally he had the king of Babylon himself drink from the cup. This is the last cup of God’s judgment on the earth. In Thessalonians, Paul clears up some of their questions about the second coming of Christ. He told them not to believe those who said that the day of the Lord had already begun. Even if they claimed to have a revelation or vision saying it was. That day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed - the Anti-Christ. He will defy god and worship of any god except himself. He will proclaim himself to be God. He can only come when God says it is time for him to come. Jesus will return and slay him by the breath of his mouth and the splendor of his coming. The anti-christ will counterfeit the miracles of Christ and use every kind of deceit to deceive the people into believing he has power. Our comfort comes from Christ who is the true God who gives us eternal comfort and strength to walk through the life he has given us. Lord, thank you that we were called to live in this world at this time. May we do our part to further your Kingdom on the earth.