Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Jeremiah 52 New International Version

Jeremiah 52

New International Version (NIV)

The Fall of Jerusalem

52 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. ²He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim had done. ³It was because of the Lord’s anger that all this happened to Jerusalem and Judah, and in the end he thrust them from his presence.

Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
⁴So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. They encamped outside the city and built siege works all around it. ⁵The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
⁶By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. ⁷Then the city wall was broken through, and the whole army fled. They left the city at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians^[a] were surrounding the city. They fled toward the Arabah,^[b] ⁸but the Babylonian^[c] army pursued King Zedekiah and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered, ⁹and he was captured.
He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him. ¹⁰There at Riblah the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he also killed all the officials of Judah. ¹¹Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon, where he put him in prison till the day of his death.
¹²On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ¹³He set fire to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down. ¹⁴The whole Babylonian army, under the commander of the imperial guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. ¹⁵Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city, along with the rest of the craftsmen^[d] and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon. ¹⁶But Nebuzaradan left behind the rest of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and fields.
¹⁷The Babylonians broke up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried all the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. ¹⁹The commander of the imperial guard took away the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, dishes and bowls used for drink offerings—all that were made of pure gold or silver.
²⁰The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands, which King Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed. ²¹Each pillar was eighteen cubits high and twelve cubits in circumference^[e]; each was four fingers thick, and hollow. ²²The bronze capital on top of one pillar was five cubits^[f] high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar. ²³There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; the total number of pomegranates above the surrounding network was a hundred.
²⁴The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers. ²⁵Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and seven royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land, sixty of whom were found in the city. ²⁶Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²⁷There at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed.
So Judah went into captivity, away from her land. ²⁸This is the number of the people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile:

in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

²⁹in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year,

832 people from Jerusalem;

³⁰in his twenty-third year,

745 Jews taken into exile by Nebuzaradan the commander of the imperial guard.

There were 4,600 people in all.

Jehoiachin Released

³¹In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, he released Jehoiachin king of Judah and freed him from prison. ³²He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table. ³⁴Day by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his death.

Footnotes:

Jeremiah 52:7 Or Chaldeans; also in verse 17
Jeremiah 52:7 Or the Jordan Valley
Jeremiah 52:8 Or Chaldean; also in verse 14
Jeremiah 52:15 Or the populace
Jeremiah 52:21 That is, about 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference or about 8.1 meters high and 5.4 meters in circumference
Jeremiah 52:22 That is, about 7 1/2 feet or about 2.3 meters

Psalm 4 (New International Version)

Psalm 4

For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm of David.

1 Answer me when I call to you, O my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; be merciful to me and hear my prayer.
2 How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame [a] ? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods [b] ? Selah

3 Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD will hear when I call to him.

4 In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent. Selah

5 Offer right sacrifices and trust in the LORD.

6 Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.

7 You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.

8 I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

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Monday, October 14, 2013

Join us as we take some time to pray for the protection of our Schools.

Here's a declaration that some have been using:

We pray the PEACE, PROTECTION, PROVISION, PURITY AND PRESENCE OF GOD for ______________ school -- over every administrator, teacher, student and the families associated with this school, in Jesus Name.

AFWIS Joins Operation World in Prayer for Russia - Volga Federal District - Europe

Published on Operation World (http://www.operationworld.org)

Oct 14: Russia, Volga Federal District

Russia, Volga Federal District

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Russia

Europe

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Geography

Area: 17,075,400 sq km
The world’s largest country, extending across 9 time zones between the Baltic and the Pacific. The Russian Federation is composed of 83 administrative districts, including 46 oblasts (provinces), 21 republics, 9 territories, 4 autonomous okrugs, 1 autonomous oblast and 2 federal cities.
Population: 140,366,561 Annual Growth: -0.39%
Capital: Moscow
Urbanites: 72.8%
HDI Rank: 71 of 182 (UN Human Development Reports 2009)

Peoples

Peoples: 162 (47% unreached) All peoples
Unreached Peoples Prayer Card

Official language: Russian; local languages in autonomous republics Languages: 135 All languages

Religion

Largest Religion: Christian

Religion		Pop %	Ann Gr
Christians	93,905,229	66.90	0.0
Evangelicals	1,636,627	1.2	2.3

Challenge for Prayer

Pray for a vision for outreach. Many churches, especially newer groups, have ambitious goals for evangelism and church planting – locally, regionally and nationally. Pray that this new spirit of faith and expectancy will result in great fruit from the effective proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. Pray for:
a) Church planting. Thousands more churches need to be planted; 90% of Russians still have no meaningful link to any kind of church – Orthodox, Protestant or otherwise. There is one Protestant church for every 18,000 people in Russia, and 42 of Russia’s 125 largest cities had no evangelical church as of 2009. The NT Church of Perm – which meets in what was once Lenin’s Palace of Culture – planted 300 daughter churches from 1991 to 2009 and aimed to plant 100 more in 2009 alone. The goal of Russian Baptists, together with SGA, is to see a Bible-preaching church accessible to each of Russia’s 100,000 communities.
b) A vision for social transformation and activism. Newer churches and younger people in particular are engaging with many needs of society – ministry to the poor, to widows and orphans, to those in prison, to those with HIV/AIDS and to drug addicts. Such ministry is also winning evangelicals a better name with the government and opening doors for collaboration with the Orthodox Church. Pray for the passion, the funding and the people to be sufficient in order to see a powerful gospel impact in this way.
c) An indigenous, trans-denominational network to emerge. Most of the larger groups have an admirable desire to plant new congregations; getting them to work together would be a true answer to prayer. There needs to be initiative and funding for research and publicity as well as envisioning for Russian believers.
d) Missions mobilization. For years, Russian culture and language dominated while those of ethnic minorities were suppressed. Nearly 20% of the population are non-Russian and speak 100 languages. Pray for a mission vision in the Russian Church, and for the ability to bridge the cultural and social barriers Russian missionaries face; the legacy of imperialistic Tsars, Russian Orthodoxy and Communists puts them at a disadvantage. Ukrainians are more active than Russians in cross-cultural outreach in Russia. Pray for the launching of many more Russian mission agencies.
For an additional 11 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.

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The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of Russia.

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Volga Federal District

Russia

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Challenge for Prayer

Bashkortostan is home of the Bashkort (Bashkir), a Turkic people related to the Tatar. They are 30% of this republic and number another 600,000 in neighbouring regions and countries.
a) The Bashkirs became Muslim in the 13th Century, but the old paganism/folk religion remains strongly entrenched. Pray for binding of the powers that hold them.
b) There were nearly 50 congregations of evangelicals by 2010 – up from only one in 1991. But Bashkir-speaking congregations number only a handful. Registration of churches is very difficult, and the authorities are obstructive. There is response among university students. Pray for planting and growth of mature Bashkir churches; Baptists in particular have a vision for a church planting movement among Bashkirs.
c) The Bashkir OT is underway, with the NT recently completed. UBS assist nationals in this project, made difficult by lack of adequate theological vocabulary in Bashkir.
For an additional 5 Challenges for Prayer see Operation World book, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM.

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The Operation World book, CD-ROM, and DVD-ROM provide far more information and fuel for prayer for the people of Volga Federal District.

Who can open the doors of your "Prison"

Jeremiah 51 New International Version

Jeremiah 51 New International Version (NIV)

51 This is what the Lord says:

“See, I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer
    against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai.^[a]
²I will send foreigners to Babylon
    to winnow her and to devastate her land;
they will oppose her on every side
    in the day of her disaster.
³Let not the archer string his bow,
    nor let him put on his armor.
Do not spare her young men;
    completely destroy^[b] her army.
⁴They will fall down slain in Babylon,^[c]
    fatally wounded in her streets.
⁵For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken
    by their God, the Lord Almighty,
though their land^[d] is full of guilt
    before the Holy One of Israel.

⁶“Flee from Babylon!
    Run for your lives!
    Do not be destroyed because of her sins.
It is time for the Lord’s vengeance;
    he will repay her what she deserves.
⁷Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand;
    she made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
    therefore they have now gone mad.
⁸Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken.
    Wail over her!
Get balm for her pain;
    perhaps she can be healed.

⁹“‘We would have healed Babylon,
    but she cannot be healed;
let us leave her and each go to our own land,
    for her judgment reaches to the skies,
    it rises as high as the heavens.’

¹⁰“‘The Lord has vindicated us;
come, let us tell in Zion
what the Lord our God has done.’

¹¹“Sharpen the arrows,
    take up the shields!
The Lord has stirred up the kings of the Medes,
    because his purpose is to destroy Babylon.
The Lord will take vengeance,
    vengeance for his temple.
¹²Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon!
    Reinforce the guard,
station the watchmen,
    prepare an ambush!
The Lord will carry out his purpose,
    his decree against the people of Babylon.
¹³You who live by many waters
    and are rich in treasures,
your end has come,
    the time for you to be destroyed.
¹⁴The Lord Almighty has sworn by himself:
    I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts,
    and they will shout in triumph over you.

¹⁵“He made the earth by his power;
    he founded the world by his wisdom
    and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
¹⁶When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar;
    he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain
    and brings out the wind from his storehouses.

¹⁷“Everyone is senseless and without knowledge;
    every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
The images he makes are a fraud;
    they have no breath in them.
¹⁸They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
    when their judgment comes, they will perish.
¹⁹He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
    for he is the Maker of all things,
including the people of his inheritance—
    the Lord Almighty is his name.

²⁰“You are my war club,
    my weapon for battle—
with you I shatter nations,
    with you I destroy kingdoms,
²¹with you I shatter horse and rider,
    with you I shatter chariot and driver,
²²with you I shatter man and woman,
    with you I shatter old man and youth,
    with you I shatter young man and young woman,
²³with you I shatter shepherd and flock,
    with you I shatter farmer and oxen,
    with you I shatter governors and officials.

²⁴“Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia^[e] for all the wrong they have done in Zion,” declares the Lord.

²⁵“I am against you, you destroying mountain,
    you who destroy the whole earth,”
declares the Lord.
“I will stretch out my hand against you,
    roll you off the cliffs,
    and make you a burned-out mountain.
²⁶No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone,
    nor any stone for a foundation,
    for you will be desolate forever,”
declares the Lord.

²⁷“Lift up a banner in the land!
    Blow the trumpet among the nations!
Prepare the nations for battle against her;
    summon against her these kingdoms:
    Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a commander against her;
    send up horses like a swarm of locusts.
²⁸Prepare the nations for battle against her—
    the kings of the Medes,
their governors and all their officials,
    and all the countries they rule.
²⁹The land trembles and writhes,
    for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand—
to lay waste the land of Babylon
    so that no one will live there.
³⁰Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting;
    they remain in their strongholds.
Their strength is exhausted;
    they have become weaklings.
Her dwellings are set on fire;
    the bars of her gates are broken.
³¹One courier follows another
    and messenger follows messenger
to announce to the king of Babylon
    that his entire city is captured,
³²the river crossings seized,
    the marshes set on fire,
    and the soldiers terrified.”

³³This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says:

“Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time it is trampled;
the time to harvest her will soon come.”

³⁴“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us,
    he has thrown us into confusion,
    he has made us an empty jar.
Like a serpent he has swallowed us
    and filled his stomach with our delicacies,
    and then has spewed us out.
³⁵May the violence done to our flesh^[f] be on Babylon,”
    say the inhabitants of Zion.
“May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,”
    says Jerusalem.

³⁶Therefore this is what the Lord says:

“See, I will defend your cause
    and avenge you;
I will dry up her sea
    and make her springs dry.
³⁷Babylon will be a heap of ruins,
    a haunt of jackals,
an object of horror and scorn,
    a place where no one lives.
³⁸Her people all roar like young lions,
    they growl like lion cubs.
³⁹But while they are aroused,
    I will set out a feast for them
    and make them drunk,
so that they shout with laughter—
    then sleep forever and not awake,”
declares the Lord.
⁴⁰“I will bring them down
    like lambs to the slaughter,
    like rams and goats.

⁴¹“How Sheshak^[g] will be captured,
    the boast of the whole earth seized!
How desolate Babylon will be
    among the nations!
⁴²The sea will rise over Babylon;
    its roaring waves will cover her.
⁴³Her towns will be desolate,
    a dry and desert land,
a land where no one lives,
    through which no one travels.
⁴⁴I will punish Bel in Babylon
    and make him spew out what he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
    And the wall of Babylon will fall.

⁴⁵“Come out of her, my people!
    Run for your lives!
    Run from the fierce anger of the Lord.
⁴⁶Do not lose heart or be afraid
    when rumors are heard in the land;
one rumor comes this year, another the next,
    rumors of violence in the land
    and of ruler against ruler.
⁴⁷For the time will surely come
    when I will punish the idols of Babylon;
her whole land will be disgraced
    and her slain will all lie fallen within her.
⁴⁸Then heaven and earth and all that is in them
    will shout for joy over Babylon,
for out of the north
    destroyers will attack her,”
declares the Lord.

⁴⁹“Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain,
    just as the slain in all the earth
    have fallen because of Babylon.
⁵⁰You who have escaped the sword,
    leave and do not linger!
Remember the Lord in a distant land,
    and call to mind Jerusalem.”

⁵¹“We are disgraced,
    for we have been insulted
    and shame covers our faces,
because foreigners have entered
    the holy places of the Lord’s house.”

⁵²“But days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will punish her idols,
and throughout her land
    the wounded will groan.
⁵³Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens
    and fortifies her lofty stronghold,
    I will send destroyers against her,”
declares the Lord.

⁵⁴“The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
    the sound of great destruction
    from the land of the Babylonians.^[h]
⁵⁵The Lord will destroy Babylon;
    he will silence her noisy din.
Waves of enemies will rage like great waters;
    the roar of their voices will resound.
⁵⁶A destroyer will come against Babylon;
    her warriors will be captured,
    and their bows will be broken.
For the Lord is a God of retribution;
    he will repay in full.
⁵⁷I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
    her governors, officers and warriors as well;
they will sleep forever and not awake,”
    declares the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty.

⁵⁸This is what the Lord Almighty says:

“Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled
and her high gates set on fire;
the peoples exhaust themselves for nothing,
the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.”

⁵⁹This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign. ⁶⁰Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon—all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. ⁶¹He said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. ⁶²Then say, ‘Lord, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it; it will be desolate forever.’ ⁶³When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. ⁶⁴Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will bring on her. And her people will fall.’”

The words of Jeremiah end here.