Theme: CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE
Text: “So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.” – 2 Kings 17:41.
Comment: The text for the day refers to what was happening in the land of Israel when the Assyrians deported the Jews from Judah and brought people they had conquered from other nations to stay in the land. This was a punishment from God in that the Jews “left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.” (2 Kings 17:16, 17) However, when lions started attacking these strangers in the land of Judah, they sought to know how the God of the land should be served. The Jews had to send a priest to teach them how to serve the true God. Unfortunately, instead of serving God Almighty wholeheartedly, they mixed the worship of God with the worship of their own gods. Herein lies the low regard which the Jews had for the descendants of these strangers, called the Samaritans. This is the point in the text for today. We should not dilute our faith by indulging in mixed worship. – See Deuteronomy 10:12; 1 Kings 18:21.
Theme: COMMENTARY ON HEBREWS 11:32 - 40
Text:“For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.” – Jeremiah 32:3.
Comment: Because the king and people of Judah had given themselves to the worship of the devil, God Almighty used Jeremiah the prophet to warn them, telling them that if they would not repent, He would make Jerusalem and the temple they took pride in to suffer the fate of Shiloh, where the name of God was in earlier times before it was destroyed and abandoned. (Joshua 18:1; 19:51; 1Kings 14:2.) For warning the people against sin the leaders determined that Jeremiah must die. (Jeremiah 26:1-10) However, some of the elders, together with Ahikam, an officer of the king, intervened to prevent them from their wicked plot.
Again, when the Chaldeans besieged Jerusalem, Jeremiah was instructed by God to tell them to submit to their rule to avoid death and destruction. This was seen as treason for which the leaders of the people convinced King Zedekiah to cast Jeremiah into.a well. But God also delivered him. When we stand up for the truth, even in the face of danger, God will give us victory in the end. St. Paul in his writings recalled God delivered them “from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us” (2 Corinthians 1:10).. He added that God Almighty shall deliver him “from every evil work, and will preserve him unto his heavenly kingdom. – 2 Timothy 4:18