Daily Manna 10 February
MEMORY VERSE: “How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!” (Lamentations 2:1).
READ: Micah 5:1-8
How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion
With a cloud in His anger!
He cast down from heaven to the earth
The beauty of Israel,
And did not remember His footstool
In the day of His anger.
2 The Lord has swallowed up and has not pitied
All the dwelling places of Jacob.
He has thrown down in His wrath
The strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
He has brought them down to the ground;
He has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
3 He has cut off in fierce anger
Every horn of Israel;
He has drawn back His right hand
From before the enemy.
He has blazed against Jacob like a flaming fire
Devouring all around.
4 Standing like an enemy, He has bent His bow;
With His right hand, like an adversary,
He has slain all who were pleasing to His eye;
On the tent of the daughter of Zion,
He has poured out His fury like fire.
5 The Lord was like an enemy.
He has swallowed up Israel,
He has swallowed up all her palaces;
He has destroyed her strongholds,
And has increased mourning and lamentation
In the daughter of Judah.
6 He has done violence to His tabernacle,
As if it were a garden;
He has destroyed His place of assembly;
The Lord has caused
The appointed feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion.
In His burning indignation He has spurned the king and the priest.
7 The Lord has spurned His altar,
He has abandoned His sanctuary;
He has given up the walls of her palaces
Into the hand of the enemy.
They have made a noise in the house of the Lord
As on the day of a set feast.
8 The Lord has purposed to destroy
The wall of the daughter of Zion.
He has stretched out a line;
He has not withdrawn His hand from destroying;
Therefore He has caused the rampart and wall to lament;
They languished together.
9 Her gates have sunk into the ground;
He has destroyed and broken her bars.
Her king and her princes are among the nations;
The Law is no more,
And her prophets find no vision from the Lord.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion
Sit on the ground and keep silence;
They throw dust on their heads
And gird themselves with sackcloth.
The virgins of Jerusalem
Bow their heads to the ground.
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
The French philosopher, Voltaire was quoted as saying that “A hundred years from my death and the Bible will be a museum place”. It was reported that a hundred years after his death, the French Bible Society set up its headquarters in Voltaire’s old home in Paris. God worked against Jacob (Israel) and Judah in the time of their apostasy. He also poured out judgment upon the people because they had rebelled against His will. The beauty of Israel was always unmatched because the glory of God radiated in it.
The daughters of Zion were a special breed, beauty personified and cynosure of all eyes. But when sin was found in Israel, all that made her attractive died. The beauty faded off. This is what happens when God withdraws His presence and favour. Some people are like Voltaire. They brag about their huge success in their fields of endeavour, careers, families, etc. and attribute none of such to God’s special favour. Instead, they turn such blessings into instruments of disrespect for God.
In the twinkling of an eye, all they boast of is gone. To ensure our ‘beauty’ (whether they are career progress, family, financial or academic successes) remains, we must always hold in optimum reverence the Source – the almighty God. Those who may have erred wilfully or in ignorance can seek His mercy today. Take a moment and pause; reflect on how the enemy has entered and then turn to the Lord. Return to the true Source of beauty and regain your radiating power from the Almighty.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Beauty is vain without God’s glory.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Matthew 27 – 28
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – Vanity of Boasting – by Pastor Enoch A.
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Daily Manna 10 February 2021
