24 April Daily Manna
TEXT: Jeremiah 19:1-15
KEY VERSE: “Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents.” – (Jeremiah 19:4)
Before the “unsinkable” Titanic sank in April 1912 in the Atlantic Ocean, warnings were sent to alert the crew and passengers that they were speeding into an iceberg. But the messages were ignored. In fact, when a nearby ship sent an urgent warning, the captain of the Titanic was talking about the time chauffeurs were to meet arriving passengers at the dock and what meals were to be ready.
Preoccupied with trivia, the Titanic captain responded to the warning: “Shut up, I am talking, you’re jamming my signals”.
Jeremiah went with certain elders among the priests to the valley of Hinnom, a place that was notorious for the most hideous sin – the sacrifice of innocent children to heathen gods. Jeremiah, as commanded by God, broke a bottle symbolically at the venue to demonstrate how severe the coming divine judgment upon Judah would be for their idolatry and disobedience to the commandments of God.
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24th April Daily Manna – Israel was receiving some kind of final warning after ignoring several others earlier. At this time, God was about to deliver them into the hands of merciless Chaldeans who would lay siege to the city until the people began to practise cannibalism. Severe hunger was waiting for them. This warning was again ignored until the inevitable happened; Israel went into a long captivity to Babylon.
Often times, people are warned ahead of danger and refusal to heed such warnings has led to loss of life and property. Today, sinners ignore warnings from evangelists and preachers of the gospel regarding the coming judgment. Like the captain of the Titanic, they are driving fast to their doom without paying heed to the danger ahead.
Don’t put off salvation. The door of grace is still open today for as many as would come in.
24 April Daily Manna: THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The route to hell comes after plying the road of procastination.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Romans 13-16
