DCLM Daily Manna Thursday 16 March 2023
Topic: Ignorant Persecutors
Text: Jeremiah 20:1-6 (KJV)
Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.
2 Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.
3 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib.
4 For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.
5 Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.
6 And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies.
KEY VERSE
“Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.”
(Jeremiah 20:2)
DCLM Daily Manna Thursday 16 March 2023 MESSAGE
Those who persecute saints are spiritually ignorant. They do not see behind the scenes, where the Lord is busy using the persecution to mould mighty personalities. They fail to discern the presence of God as He fashions the fulfilment of prophecy through the victimization of His unyielding and unbroken messengers. It is the Lord who laughs last.
That was the scenario that played out between Jeremiah, the prophet of God and Pashur, the chief governor of the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. Unhappy at the declaration of the prophet that Judah would go into decades of exile, Pashur clamped Jeremiah into jail, after smiting him. But the unshaken servant of God held to the word the Lord asked him to reveal to the nation. God rewarded him by revalidating earlier prophecies and presenting a new message of doom for Pashur, his tormentor.
When going through trials in the course of the Great Commission and while living righteously, the believer must not be blind like the persecutors. He must see the Lord in the whole process. He must behold Him protecting His Word and the messenger. He must observe Him restraining the enemy from destroying and discouraging us from working for the Kingdom. He must have attentive ears to hear His voice as He assures that He will never forsake His own.
In all history, persecution, rather than bring down the Church, fired God’s people to greater realms of service, sacrifice and separation from the world. The conclusion, then, is that persecution is the tool heaven wrests from the hands of the enemy to strengthen us and to enlarge the frontiers of our preaching. The Lord exploited it to develop the early Church and the disciples. He has not abandoned that effective strategy.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Persecution promotes God’s people in ways that perplex their persecutors.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Numbers 26-28
