The Lord has brought it about and has done as He said.
– Jeremiah 40:3
This is the conclusion by the captain of the guard who takes Jeremiah at the beginning of this chapter and summarizes what has happened in Jerusalem just like God had said. He has brought judgment upon the people and their sin and he’s using Babylon to do it and we’ve prayed in different ways in this journey through the Book of Jeremiah in light of God’s judgment upon his people for their sin.
Jeremiah 40:3 challenges us to have complete trust in God’s promises.
But the direction I want to lead us to pray today is more general. Based on verse 3, “The Lord has brought it about and has done as he said,” when I read this verse, I can’t help but think about all the promises of God, promises of judgment and promises of blessing, promises that fill God’s Word for God’s people. That’s part of the problem here in Jeremiah. They didn’t trust the promises of God.
They trusted in other gods and other nations to protect them or provide for them and I just want to encourage you today to put all your trust in the promises of God, realizing we are tempted every day not to do that. You think about the temptation to sin. It’s a temptation to trust in yourself more than God and his Word and his promises to you, that he desires your good. That’s the first sin in the world.
Genesis 3, Satan’s saying, “God doesn’t want what’s best for you. Eat this piece of fruit.” So how do you fight that temptation? With trust in the promises of God, that his Word is good for you, that he’s working for your good and calling you to not eat that piece of fruit, and then think about walking through trials in this world. When we walk through challenges today, we will be tempted to not trust in God or maybe even just to forget God’s promises that he’s with us and for us and will give us everything we need so I just want to encourage you today to trust on the promises of God.
Jeremiah 40:3 reminds us God is worthy of our absolute trust.
What he has said he will do. Just apply that all day long to his promises in your life. Oh God, we praise you for your faithfulness to your Word. We praise you for the reliability of your Word. What you have said you will always do. We confess we are prone to not do what we say we’ll do. Even if we have good intentions, we sometimes lack the ability to do all that we want to do. God, you have no lack of ability, no lack of integrity. You are perfect in power and wisdom and your purposes are perfect.
We praise you, oh God, for your faithfulness to your promises and so, God, we pray that all day long today you would help us to remember your promises to us, that you’re with us, for us, working for our good, that you promise to supply all of our needs according to the glorious riches we have in Christ Jesus, that you promise us wisdom as we need it. You promise us peace that passes all understanding when we fix our eyes on you. Lord, you promise us strength and our weakness.
You promise us to help in every way we need it. God, we praise you for all these promises. We pray you’d help us to live in light of them all day long and we praise you, Jesus, for making these promises possible for us through trust, through faith in you, and what you did on the cross for us. We praise you for the gospel today.
Prayer for the Levantine Bedouin People
And, God, we pray for the spread of that gospel to people who’ve never heard it in the world.
Please, oh God, for the Levantine Bedouin people of Lebanon, the West Bank, Gaza, and the Negev Desert region of Israel, God, we pray for this people group of 1.6 million who has not been reached with the good news of your grace, your promise to forgive sins and give eternal life to all who trust in Jesus. God, we pray for the spread of that promise in the gospel to the Levantine Bedouin people. Please, oh God, bring it about, that they might live in light of the promises we are able to live in today.
We pray all this according to your Word in Jeremiah 10:3, praising you for your faithfulness to do all that you say you’ll do 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.
