[Ohio-Communities-of-Faith] DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24

[Donnie Parrett]

DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR WEDNESDAY AUGUST 24

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

There is unwavering peace today when an uncertain tomorrow is trusted to an
unchanging God.

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DAILY DEVOTION

Learn to Write in the Sand


Two friends were walking through the desert.
During the journey, they had an argument; and one friend slapped the other
one in the face. The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying
anything, wrote in the sand: "Today my best friend slapped me in the face."
They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take
a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started
drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near
drowning, he wrote on a stone: "Today my best friend saved my life."
The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I
hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?"
The friend replied, "When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand
where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does
something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever
erase it."
Learn to write your hurts in the sand and to carve your blessings in stone.

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DAILY BIBLE READING

Jeremiah 40-42 New King James Version
Jeremiah with Gedaliah the Governor
40 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan the
captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him bound
in chains among all who were carried away captive from Jerusalem and Judah,
who were carried away captive to Babylon.

2 And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him: "The Lord your
God has pronounced this doom on this place. 3 Now the Lord has brought it,
and has done just as He said. Because you people have sinned against the
Lord, and not obeyed His voice, therefore this thing has come upon you. 4
And now look, I free you this day from the chains that [a]were on your hand.
If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will look
after you. But if it seems wrong for you to come with me to Babylon, remain
here. See, all the land is before you; wherever it seems good and convenient
for you to go, go there."

5 Now while Jeremiah had not yet gone back, Nebuzaradan said, "Go back to
Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has
made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people.
Or go wherever it seems convenient for you to go." So the captain of the
guard gave him rations and a gift and let him go. 6 Then Jeremiah went to
Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, to Mizpah, and dwelt with him among the people
who were left in the land.

7 And when all the captains of the armies who were in the fields, they and
their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed to him men, women, children,
and the poorest of the land who had not been carried away captive to
Babylon, 8 then they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah-Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah the son of
Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah[b] the son of a
Maachathite, they and their men. 9 And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son
of Shaphan, took an oath before them and their men, saying, "Do not be
afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of
Babylon, and it shall be well with you. 10 As for me, I will indeed dwell at
Mizpah and serve the Chaldeans who come to us. But you, gather wine and
summer fruit and oil, put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities
that you have taken." 11 Likewise, when all the Jews who were in Moab, among
the Ammonites, in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the
king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them
Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, 12 then all the Jews
returned out of all places where they had been driven, and came to the land
of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruit in
abundance.

13 Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces
that were in the fields came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, 14 and said to him,
[c]"Do you certainly know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites has sent
Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to murder you?" But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam
did not believe them.

15 Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah,
saying, "Let me go, please, and I will kill Ishmael the son of Nethaniah,
and no one will know it. Why should he murder you, so that all the Jews who
are gathered to you would be scattered, and the remnant in Judah perish?"

16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, "You
shall not do this thing, for you speak falsely concerning Ishmael."

Insurrection Against Gedaliah
41 Now it came to pass in the seventh month that Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal [d]family and of the officers
of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. And
there they ate bread together in Mizpah. 2 Then Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, arose and struck Gedaliah the
son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, and killed him whom the
king of Babylon had made governor over the land. 3 Ishmael also struck down
all the Jews who were with him, that is, with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the
Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.

4 And it happened, on the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, when as
yet no one knew it, 5 that certain men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and
from Samaria, eighty men with their beards shaved and their clothes torn,
having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand, to bring
them to the house of the Lord. 6 Now Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out
from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went along; and it happened as he
met them that he said to them, "Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!" 7 So it
was, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah killed them and cast them into the midst of a [e]pit, he and the
men who were with him. 8 But ten men were found among them who said to
Ishmael, "Do not kill us, for we have treasures of wheat, barley, oil, and
honey in the field." So he desisted and did not kill them among their
brethren. 9 Now the [f]pit into which Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies
of the men whom he had slain, because of Gedaliah, was the same one Asa the
king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah filled it with the slain. 10 Then Ishmael carried away captive all
the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king's daughters and all the
people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had
committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam. And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah
carried them away captive and departed to go over to the Ammonites.

11 But when Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces
that were with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah
had done, 12 they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of
Nethaniah; and they found him by the great pool that is in Gibeon. 13 So it
was, when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of
Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, that they were
glad. 14 Then all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from
Mizpah turned around and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah.
15 But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men and
went to the Ammonites.

16 Then Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that
were with him, took from Mizpah all the rest of the people whom he had
recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah after he had murdered Gedaliah
the son of Ahikam-the mighty men of war and the women and the children and
the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon. 17 And they departed and
dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, as they went on
their way to Egypt, 18 because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of
them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had murdered Gedaliah the son of
Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor in the land.

The Flight to Egypt Forbidden
42 Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the son of Kareah, Jezaniah
the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest,
came near 2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please, let our petition be
acceptable to you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, for all this
remnant (since we are left but a few of many, as you can see), 3 that the
Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we
should do."

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard. Indeed, I will pray
to the Lord your God according to your words, and it shall be, that whatever
the Lord answers you, I will declare it to you. I will keep nothing back
from you."

5 So they said to Jeremiah, "Let the Lord be a true and faithful witness
between us, if we do not do according to everything which the Lord your God
sends us by you. 6 Whether it is [g]pleasing or [h]displeasing, we will obey
the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with
us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God."

7 And it happened after ten days that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.
8 Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, all the captains of the forces
which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
9 and said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent
me to present your petition before Him: 10 'If you will still remain in this
land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and
not pluck you up. For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought
upon you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are
afraid; do not be afraid of him,' says the Lord, 'for I am with you, to save
you and deliver you from his hand. 12 And I will show you mercy, that he may
have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land.'

13 "But if you say, 'We will not dwell in this land,' disobeying the voice
of the Lord your God, 14 saying, 'No, but we will go to the land of Egypt
where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be hungry
for bread, and there we will dwell'- 15 Then hear now the word of the Lord,
O remnant of Judah! Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 'If you
wholly[i] set your faces to enter Egypt, and go to dwell there, 16 then it
shall be that the sword which you feared shall overtake you there in the
land of Egypt; the famine of which you were afraid shall follow close after
you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. 17 So shall it be with all the
men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there. They shall die by the
sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them shall remain or escape
from the disaster that I will bring upon them.'

18 "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 'As My anger and My
fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury
be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an
astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no
more.'

19 "The Lord has said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, 'Do not go to
Egypt!' Know certainly that I have [j]admonished you this day. 20 For you
[k]were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God,
saying, 'Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord
your God says, so declare to us and we will do it.' 21 And I have this day
declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God,
or anything which He has sent you by me. 22 Now therefore, know certainly
that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place
where you desire to go to dwell."

Footnotes
Jeremiah 40:4 Or are
Jeremiah 40:8 Jaazaniah, 2 Kin. 25:23
Jeremiah 40:14 Or Certainly you know that
Jeremiah 41:1 Lit. seed
Jeremiah 41:7 Or cistern
Jeremiah 41:9 Or cistern
Jeremiah 42:6 Lit. good
Jeremiah 42:6 Lit. evil
Jeremiah 42:15 Or surely
Jeremiah 42:19 warned
Jeremiah 42:20 Lit. used deceit against your souls