One doesn’t have to be a serious Bible student very long to realize that Scripture has its own vocabulary. The terms it employs have the same, consistent meaning across the whole of the Bible, but those terms are almost always digressing from the definitions assigned by the world. And equally God’s Word is at odd with the world’s notion of the standard by which to operate and measure things by. In most corners of secular life one would never measure the quality of a leader by the degree to which they reflect the qualities of a shepherd. Worldly leadership is more often characterized by that one person leading the charge up the hill whether or not everyone else comes along; biblical leadership takes their time ensuring everyone eventually arrives at the same place together.
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Something worth exploring is why some of the nations specifically mentioned in Scripture still exist in one form or another and why others have completely disappeared. A big part of the answer is that God’s work has not yet been completed in every detail where those who are still around are concerned, and the ones no longer with us serve as an example of when God’s work IS completely fulfilled. Look as one might, the Philistines are not to be found today. They were so completely destroyed that it took modern archeology to confirm their existence.
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I find it deeply perplexing when a believer can clearly articulate how the work of Christ comes in two parts corresponding to His First Coming as the “Suffering Servant” and His Second Coming as the “Conquering King”, but doesn’t understand God’s dual work with literal Israel. Buying into a number of false doctrines ranging from Replacementism to Dominionism to Triumphalism and all manner of variations, they think the Church has replaced Israel, God is through with Israel, and anything in Scripture referring to “Jacob” or “Israel” is now referring to the Church. I think this deception can only be maintained by a kind of “myopia” where you don’t read everything God has to say about Israel. How far would you have to stray from the plain meaning of these verses to have them apply to anything but literal Israel?
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Baruch was a faithful companion and partner in Jeremiah’s ministry. Unlike the vast majority of his day, he didn’t forsake God, or His Word, or His prophets. It’s a natural, human tendency to begin to think that in the face of such overwhelming spiritual unfaithfulness, that surely being the rare exception will bring personal, tangible benefits. Like the Prodigal Son’s brother who never left his father’s side, you tend to think of yourself as more deserving of something here and now as well as what you know you’ll eventually inherit.
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This is like a real-world application of the old adage, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. God is explaining that He has just demonstrated what happens when His people no longer serve and worship the One True God alone and should therefore have no difficulty applying the right lesson to their own worship and service. We not only have the biblical examples which are supposed to serve as a reminder and testimony for us, but the whole of history to reinforce the same principles over and over again. And yet many generations have not learned the essential lesson and have oft repeated the same mistake. Although things began right, although a spiritual birth provided a people or movement established on the right path, it has often ended with subsequent generations serving something else “they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers“.
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Throughout Scripture Egypt is used to represent the greater spiritual picture of the old life before Christ. It represents the world we were saved out of and the place the unfaithful and backsliders always want to return to when circumstances in this present life seem too difficult. The problem, however, is that just as remaining in the old life would inevitably result in death, so does returning to it. The very things we think are overwhelming so as to drive us back to Egypt don’t go away, they merely follow us there and with an even greater intensity.
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Up until this time, those paying special attention to God’s Word might have wondered which prophet had spoken falsely, Jeremiah or Ezekiel. After all, there did not appear to be any way Jeremiah’s claim that Zedekiah would be captured by the Chaldeans and would meet the king of Babylon “eye to eye” and then taken to Babylon :”(Jeremiah 32:4-5)”: could be compatible with Ezekiel’s claim that God would “bring him to Babylon in the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, thought he will die there“. :”(Ezekiel 12:13)”: Every detail came true exactly as predicted. Zedekiah did see Nebuchadnezzar personally just prior to losing his eyes in Israel and was subsequently taken to die in Babylon, a place he never saw because of that inflicted blindness. There was no “contradiction” at all in God’s Word spoken through two different prophets, just two different perspectives on the same thing.
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