Psalm 141:3 is a prayer that I pray quite often!
3 Set a guard, O LORD, before my mouth; keep watch at the door of my lips.
"Guard" is the Hebrew word, "shomrah", which means: to guard, to watch "to exercise great care over." "Keep watch" is the Hebrew word, "natsar", which means: to keep, to watch over, to guard from danger, to keep close, to keep secret; the door of my "lips", the Hebrew word, "saphah", which means: speech, language. The psalmist is asking the LORD to help Him control his tongue, so that he can control his life! Proverbs 18:21:
21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].
Being slow to speak, and then speaking the Word of God, will go a long way in making Psalm 141:9-10 a reality for us!
9 Keep me from the trap which they have laid for me, and the snares of evildoers. 10 Let the wicked fall together into their own nets, while I pass over them and escape.
In John 18:6, when Jesus asked them who they were looking for, this happened!
6 When Jesus said to them, I am He, they went backwards (drew back, lurched backward)and fell to the ground.
Why did this happen? A little word study will help here! Jesus did not really say, "I am He". "He" was added by the translators to try and clarify the idea. It didn't work! The actual reply that Jesus made was, "I am"! This phrase in the Greek is "ego' eimi'", which reveals His eternal nature! Remember in Exodus 3:14, when Moses asked God for a Name to give, and God said, "I AM that I AM! THAT is why these people fell backward! They were in the presence of God! Jesus restated this in John 18:37:
37 Pilate said to Him, Then you are a King? Jesus answered, You say it! [You speak correctly!] For I am a King [Certainly I am a King!] This is why I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth [who is a friend of the Truth, who belongs to the Truth] hears and listens to My voice."
Well, that pretty much divides the group, doesn't it?! DO YOU believe that Jesus is Who the Word of God says He is? Agreeing with the Word of God is a GOOD thing! AMEN!
Jeremiah 45 is all about Jeremiah's faithful assistant, Baruch. I like what I found in the Bible Exposition Commentary:
Jer 45 gives us insight into the man Baruch. As we noted earlier, he had a brother on the king's official staff who probably could have secured a good job for him in the palace. Instead, Baruch chose to identify with Jeremiah and do the will of God. We thank God for all that Jeremiah did, but we should also thank God for the assistance Baruch gave Jeremiah so the prophet could do his work. Moses had his seventy elders: David had his mighty men; Jesus had His disciples; Paul had his helpers, such as Timothy. Titus, and Silas: and Jeremiah had his faithful secretary.
Not everybody is called to be a prophet or apostle, but all of us can do the will of God by helping others do their work. Baruch was what we'd today call a "layman." Yet he helped a prophet write the Word of God.
Baruch was discouraged about the future of the nation because of what the prophecies of Jeremiah declared was going to take place. he had ambitions for his life and was disappointed! God DID promise him this, though, in verse 5:
5 And should you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not; for behold, U will bring evil upon all flesh, says the LORD, but your life I will give to you [as your booty and] as a [snatched] prize of war wherever you go.
Jeremiah 25 is prophesying what will take place to the Jews in the first part and to the Gentile nations in the last part. Hidden in the middle is the "secret" that the captivity of Israel would last 70 years! Verse 11-12:
11 And this whole land shall be waste and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12 Then when the seventy years are completed, i will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, says the LORD, for their iniquity, and will make the land [of the Chaldeans] a perpetual waste.
THIS is what Daniel was reading when he realized that the seventy years were nearly up (Daniel 9:1-2). God's Word IS True because it is TRUTH (John 17:17)! You can count on it! AMEN!
Shalom in Him!
