You shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, cursed be the man who does not hear the words of this covenant that I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt from the iron furnace saying listen to my voice and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people and I will be your God, that I may confirm the oath that I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey as at this day.” Then I answered, “So be it, Lord.”
– Jeremiah 11:3–5
I don’t know if you caught all that, but God is saying that the man who doesn’t hear the words of God’s covenant, of God’s commands to his people, and God’s promises to his people of a land flowing with milk and honey, to not hear God’s Word in such a way that they’re not able to obey God’s Word, that’s a curse, which means the opposite is a blessing. To hear God’s Word is a blessing. To be able to obey God’s Word is a blessing.
Jeremiah 11:3–5 teaches us that obeying God’s Word is a blessing.
Realize today, the blessing you have in your life to be able to hear the Word of God, what a gift of God’s grace. What an expression of God’s love that we have his Word. So let’s hear it. Let’s take full advantage of this blessing, of this revelation from God to us of commands that are for our good, that lead to our life, that lead to, to use Old Testament imagery, a land flowing with milk and honey, that lead to our good when we hear and obey his Word. So let’s steward this blessing we have and let’s spread this blessing to others.
There are so many people around us who don’t know the Word of God, who’ve not heard the Word of God, and as a result, can’t experience the blessing of knowing God and walking with God. So let’s spread his Word today. Let’s encourage others with his Word. Let’s encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ with his Word today knowing there’s a blessing in that, and let’s share his Word with people who don’t know Jesus today, knowing there’s a blessing that we’re spreading in that. Obviously, as we pray every day on this podcast, let’s pray and give and live for the spread of this blessing to all the peoples of the world.
Jeremiah 11:3–5 encourages us to be faithful stewards of God’s Word.
God, we praise you for your word. We praise you for the blessing it is just to hear it, just to have it, even specifically to have it in our language, in a language we can understand. God, we pray for every people group in the world who doesn’t have your word in a language they can understand. God, please change that. Please bless, lead, guide, and direct all the efforts of your church today, including each of our lives toward that end that your Word might be made known to all the peoples of the world.
God, we pray that you’d help us to steward this gift we have in your Word. Not to treat your word lightly or casually, but to meditate on it, memorize it, digest it, study it, learn it, and obey it. God, help us to hear and obey your Word today and tomorrow and the next day, and help us to spread it. We pray, oh God, that your blessing might spread through us. We pray for your power, your anointing, to share your Word with others today, to build up other brothers and sisters in Christ today with encouragement from your Word, and to share your Word with people who don’t know you.
Prayer for the Gilaki People
God, we pray specifically today for the Gilaki people of Iran, for all three million of them, most of whom have little to no knowledge of your Word. God, please cause the blessing of your Word to spread to the Gilaki people of Iran. We pray all this according to your Word, which we love, in Jeremiah 11:3–5. In Jesus’ name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
