Daily Manna 5 April
KEY VERSE: “Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD” (Jeremiah 8:14).
READ: JEREMIAH 8:13-22 (KJV)
13 “I will surely consume them,” says the Lord.
“No grapes shall be on the vine,
Nor figs on the fig tree,
And the leaf shall fade;
And the things I have given them shall pass away from them.” ’ ”
14 “Why do we sit still?
Assemble yourselves,
And let us enter the fortified cities,
And let us be silent there.
For the Lord our God has put us to silence
And given us water of gall to drink,
Because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 “We looked for peace, but no good came;
And for a time of health, and there was trouble!
16 The snorting of His horses was heard from Dan.
The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of Hisstrong ones;
For they have come and devoured the land and all that is in it,
The city and those who dwell in it.”
17 “For behold, I will send serpents among you,
Vipers which cannot be charmed,
And they shall bite you,” says the Lord.
18 I would comfort myself in sorrow;
My heart is faint in me.
19 Listen! The voice,
The cry of the daughter of my people
From a far country:
“Is not the Lord in Zion?
Is not her King in her?”
“Why have they provoked Me to anger
With their carved images—
With foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past,
The summer is ended,
And we are not saved!”
21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt.
I am mourning;
Astonishment has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead,
Is there no physician there?
Why then is there no recovery
For the health of the daughter of my people?
Read yesterday’s Daily Manna here
During the year 2020 lockdown occasioned by the Coronavirus pandemic, many cities stood still. The frequent carnivals and parades could not hold and the clubs and pub houses were shut. The best hospitals in the world and their doctors could not help to prevent the avalanche of deaths that visited the cities. Israel, in our reading, was on lockdown. “the LORD our God hath put us to silence… because we have sinned against the LORD” (Jeremiah 8:14).
During this period of lockdown, nothing worked. There was no peace nor healing to those who were sick. Poisonous serpents were in the cities, hurting people. The sky over them was closed and their agrarian economy was shut down. The physicians were in the cities with their medications, yet the health of the daughter of Zion was not recovered, despite the balm that was in Gilead. Believers should not just lament when calamities and death visit their cities.
They should encourage people to repent and turn away from evil. Locking down the cities and investing in scientific research for the production of a vaccine is good. Beyond that, we should seek spiritual solution to our problems. We must learn from the pandemic and the deaths that followed.
We must understand that we cannot continue to ignore God and His righteous commandments, and expect that all will be well. Hard is the way of transgressors, and God is angry with the wicked everyday (Psalm 7:11). To avert God’s judgment, we must come to Him in true repentance and ask for mercy.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: We can avoid spiritual lockdown by living upright.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: JOHN 13 – 15
Thank you for studying today’s Daily Manna – Spiritual Lockdown – by Pastor Enoch A.
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Daily Manna 5 April 2021
