Dr Paul Allen

In the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah expresses his feelings of being deceived by God in Jeremiah 20:7 . Here is the verse: Jeremiah 20:7 (NIV): "O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me." In this verse, Jeremiah expresses his deep frustration and betrayal, feeling that God has enticed him into a problematic and unrelenting prophetic ministry that has brought him nothing but mockery and suffering. Jeremiah felt deceived by God because of the intense and relentless opposition, suffering, and ridicule he faced as a prophet. Here are several vital reasons why Jeremiah felt this way: Unpopular Messages : Jeremiah delivered messages of impending doom and judgment to the people of Judah, calling them to repentance for their sins. These messages were unpopular and often met with hostility and rejection. Personal Suffering : Jeremiah experienced significant personal suffering due to his prop...

The psalmist said, “Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.” (Psalms 144:1) This is our calling too as believers, except not in the physical sense of war. (I’m speaking here of the spiritual battle we’re in, not about those called to the military.) Moses said after the exodus, “The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is His name” (Exodus 15:3) — and that means that everyone in His kingdom is drafted. Child of God, you are consigned to military service! Change your thinking, comrade in arms. You’re in the army now. You’re in the Army Now So say the words of the Old Testament: “Let the saints rejoice in His honor and sing for joy on their beds. May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all His saints.” (Psalm...

When we read the prophets, we are often in pearl-hunting mode. The vast bulk of the prophets feels like a confusing, murky mess, but every now and then we’ll stumble across an encouraging verse such as “in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isa. 30:15). Or perhaps we’ll come across a spectacular prophecy about Christ: “I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land” (Jer. 23:5). But what if the whole of the prophets were profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness? What if every verse of the prophets was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope? Wait, those questions sound vaguely familiar . . . (see Rom. 15:4; 2 Tim. 3:16). To unlock the whole of the prophets, we must grasp the pattern of judgment unto restoration. This simple three-word phrase captures t...

A common theme among the biblical prophets is that God is sovereign over all nations. To most who read these pages that seems obvious. But in the ancient world, most nations had their own gods.  So when a nation went to war, the people prayed to their own gods; if a nation was defeated, so were their gods. Clearly they were not as strong as the gods of the ascendant nation. But the God of Israel keeps telling her that he is the God over all the universe, over all the nations. He is not a tribal deity in the sense that they own him or that he is exclusively theirs.  That is why in many chapters of Isaiah and Jeremiah God insists that he himself is the One who is raising up Assyria or Babylon to punish the people. In other words, the defeat of Israel does not signal the defeat of God. Far from it: this God keeps insisting that if Israel is defeated and punished, it can only be because he has ordained it—and he does this by utilizing the very nations Israel fears. But there is an...

It is not unreasonable to assume that the text of Jeremiah, as we have it, was in existence somewhere around 580 BC, with the possible exception of Jeremiah 52, which probably came later. (In fact, note Jer 51:64c, “The words of Jeremiah end here.”) But this does not mean that there is a chronological order to all the contents of this book. Chapters 36 and 45 are both dated “in the fourth year of Jehoiakim” (605/604 BC), but the intervening chapters, 37–44, report incidents that occurred in 586/7 BC and following. Two scrolls There still is the issue of the two scrolls. Clearly, chapter 36 tells how Jeremiah was ordered by Yahweh to prepare a scroll with “all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the [other] nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah until now” (Jer 36:2). Baruch, the son of Neriah, assisted Jeremiah in this task: “Baruch, at Jeremiah’s dictation, wrote in a scroll-book all the words of Yahweh which [Jerem...

According to legend, Qu Yuan was a wise and patriotic Chinese government official who lived during the time known as the Warring States period (475-246 bc). It has been said that he tried repeatedly to warn his king about an impending threat that would destroy the country, but the king rejected his advice. Eventually, Qu Yuan was exiled. When he learned about the fall of his beloved country to the foe he had warned about, he ended his life. Qu Yuan’s life resembles some aspects of the life of the prophet Jeremiah. He too served kings who scorned his warnings, and his country was ravaged. However, while Qu Yuan gave in to his despair, Jeremiah found genuine hope. Why the difference? Jeremiah knew the Lord who offers the only true hope. “There is hope for your descendants,” God had assured His prophet. “Your children will return to their own land” (Jeremiah 31:17). Although Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 bc, it was later rebuilt (see Nehemiah 6:15). At some point, we all find ou...

“The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” ( Proverbs 15:35 ) The God who created and made all things is not only omnipotent, He is omnipresent. “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him” ( 2 Chronicles 16:9 ). David’s insightful Psalm 139 is certainly one of the most striking affirmations of God’s omnipresence . “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee” ( Psalm 139:8-12 ). God’s omnipresence, however, should not be understood in a panth...

“Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” ( Jeremiah 29:12-13 ) There are many promises and instances of answered prayer in the Bible. Unfortunately, many of us really don’t seem to believe them and therefore don’t experience the answers to our prayers. Halfhearted praying may sometimes secure partial answers, but God exhorts us to pray wholeheartedly. “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” ( James 5:16 ). The principle is timeless and is stressed often in the Word. “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not” ( Jeremiah 33:3 ). God’s resources are unlimited, but our motives must be pure, and our prayers must be from the heart. “Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering” ( James 1:6 ). “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts”...

“Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” ( Jeremiah 23:29 ) One of the most picturesque of the figures used to describe the Holy Scriptures is that of the hammer striking and shattering a rock. In this text, however, the “rock” is literally a mighty rock mountain. Furthermore, the effect of the hammer is to “break in pieces.” This phrase actually is a single Hebrew word which normally means “disperse,” or “scatter abroad,” usually used in describing the worldwide dispersion of the children of Israel. It was used even earlier for the first dispersion at Babel: “So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth” ( Genesis 11:8 ). Perhaps most significantly of all, it is used in the prophecy of Zechariah 13:7 : “Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” This verse was quoted by the Lord Jesus just after the last supper and applied to Himself: “All ye shall be offended because of me t...

“Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” ( Jeremiah 20:9 ) When God’s Word really becomes a part of one’s soul, that one can never be the same again. As dejected Jeremiah said in his imprisonment: “The word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily” ( Jeremiah 20:8 ), he testified; so he said: “I will not . . . speak any more in his name.” But he could not quit! God’s Word was burning in his bones, and he must let it out. “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” ( Jeremiah 23:29 ). The psalmist David had a similar testimony. “I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue” ( Psalm 39:2-3 ). When the resurrected Ch...

English: Their are thousands of artworks created in the art world depicting St Paul. This painting was created by the famous artist called Rembrandt. It hangs on the walls of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) When we describe God we use words like: Omnipotent . Omnipresent. Omniscient. He is all-powerful, all-present, and all-knowing. Where do these words come from? These words express the upper limit of our ability to understand power, wisdom, and time. When Scripture tells us about the power, wisdom, and eternal nature of God, how else could we describe him? Here are some of the ways the Bible helps us understand our awe-some God: 1. Isaiah 55:8–9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  Verse eight is “a direct statement about God’s transcendence. His natur...

“Give glory to the LORD your God , before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.” ( Jeremiah 13:16 ) The figurative representations of Christ as the foundation rock of the great spiritual house of God ( Matthew 16:18 ; Ephesians 2:20 ; 1 Peter 2:6 ) and also as the water-yielding rock of sustenance in the wilderness ( 1 Corinthians 10:4 ) are two of the great symbols of the Bible . But for those who reject Him, He becomes “a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense. . . . And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken” ( Isaiah 8:14-15 ). Not only will the stone cause such a one to stumble, but Jesus said, “And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder” ( Matthew 21:44 ). This figure is taken from the fall of the great image in Nebuchadn...

Image via Wikipedia "And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God ; walk before me, and be thou perfect." ( Genesis 17:1 ) This is the first of 48 occurrences of the designation of God by the term "Almighty," in the Old Testament . There are also nine times in the New Testament where God is called "Almighty" plus once where He is called " omnipotent ."  The last time it occurs is very near the end of the Bible, telling us that there is no special temple in the holy city, "for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" ( Revelation 21:22 ). Thus, in the first and last books of the Bible , and often in between, we are reminded that our God is an omnipotent God.  As Jeremiah prayed; "Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee" ( Jere...

English: A woman smoking crack from a glass pipe. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Lamentations 2:11–12  My eyes fail from weeping,  I am in torment within;  my heart is poured out on the ground  because my people are destroyed,  because children and infants faint  in the streets of the city.  They say to their mothers,  “Where is bread and wine?”  as they faint like the wounded  in the streets of the city,  as their lives ebb away  in their mothers’ arms. Jeremiah ’s words are laced with emotion . And stewing just beneath his grief was an anguished question: How could God have permitted these children to suffer? All people—including children—are born into sin (see Ro 5:12). The sin of Adam and Eve infected each succeeding generation, leading to the suffering and consequences that sin produces. While these children had not participated in the specific sins that incited God’s wrath, they were not themselves sinless. Unfortuna...