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August 23rd

The bible reading comes from Jeremiah 49,50.

Judah and Israel had been taken captive by the Babylonians. This prophecy of Jeremiah is about God’s judgment upon Babylon for sure. Just like His judgment upon Egypt for their unbelief and their brutality toward His people. Within this prophecy, God would give his exiled people hope for their deliverance from the power of Babylon and their restoration to the promised land.

Now...These Judean exiles lived far away from their homeland, but they cried day and night when they remembered Zion. Listen to the text...“In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, the people of Israel and the people of Judah shall come together, weeping as they come, and they shall seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, “Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.’”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭50:4-5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Did you catch that hope...brothers and sisters of Israel and Judah “will come together”. They had been divided now in exile, in Babylon they were coming together. They had fought against one another for generations now.

That’s not the way of the original promised land kids. They fought for each other not against each other. They provided for and protected one another in the beginning. But for years and years, they have sided against one another and plotted with each other's enemies to take down one another’s security and economy.

But now, under the disciplining hand of God, once separated and divided, Israelis and Judeans “were coming together”.

How many parents and children “came back together”? Wonder how many estranged brothers and sisters and cousins “came back together” under the pressure of the Babylonian exile. Apparently many came back together.

Jeremiah even prophesied “how” those reunions would happen and how they would look. Words like “weeping” were used, indicating a repentance, a brokenness over personal sin...sin against God...and sin against each other.

I have seen that and been in the midst of it myself, Friends. Ive seen separated husbands and wives come back together weeping and asking each other for forgiveness. I have been broken over my sin against a brother...in the midst of a church service...in my car on the road...in my office counseling others, the Spirit would convict me of my need to make some things right between myself and a brother or sister....and I would go weeping and we came back together...revived with new joy snd strength to serve Christ.

Judah and Israel would “come back together”... “weeping”...because they were “seeking to come back to the Lord”.

That’s how we pray and how we counsel ourselves and others dealing with division and disharmony in the family...” come back” to the Lord”...or “come” to the Lord...”He wants to be the balm of Gilead that heals and repairs and restores marriages, families, and church families. He wants to be the Savior of your relationships. And Jeremiah foretells of “another group” of Judeans in Babylon...“They shall ask the way to Zion”, ““with faces turned toward it,” saying, ‘Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten...

‭‭Jeremiah‬ 50:5

In those days prior to Judah’s deliverance from Babylon, prior to Babylon’s ruin at the hands of the Medo-Persian Empire, there will be “Judeans ask the way to Heaven”. With sincerity and faces that say...I want God...I don't just want to know some things about Him...I desperately want to Know Him Personally...please show me the way...

Oh, friends, that’s spiritual awakening on the heels of revival in the hearts of contrite and repentant believers.

Lord do that again in our day...in our lives, families, and churches...do it again...and start with me and mine.

Have a great day