Thursday

10- October

Jeremiah 11-12; Ps 119:73-80; Rev 2

Jeremiah 11: How did God view His people who faithfully served Him?

Jeremiah 12: What did Jeremiah want God to do to the people? What was God’s answer to Jeremiah?

Revelation 2: Revelation 2: Why does Jesus commend the three churches in this chapter and what is his warning to them?

Journal Prompt: The church at Ephesus is warned about having lost their first love.  Consider your relationship with the Lord.  Have you lost your first love? If not, how have you managed to keep it vibrant?  If you have, what can you do to rekindle it?

Answers:

Jeremiah 11: The faithful to God were regarded as a green olive tree that produced good fruit. The olive tree produced fruit for many uses for the people. It symbolized prosperity and divine blessing. The people were meant to be useful for God and a blessing to Him. Instead, they brought Him disappointment and would suffer for it.

Jeremiah 12: Jeremiah wanted God to pluck up the people and destroy them.  God told Jeremiah he was wearied and giving up in the easier battle so how could he contend in the greater battle. God had already committed judgment on His people and on those who caused them to sin and who made them desolate.

Revelation 2:

	Commendation	Warning	Command	Reward
Ephesus	Hard work, perseverance, patient endurance, getting rid of false prophets	They abandoned their first  love.	Repent and do the works they used to do.	Eat of the tree of life
Smyrna	They endured tribulation and poverty with faith	They will be thrown into jail by Satan.	Be faithful unto death.	Crown of life
Pergamum	They held fast to Jesus’ name in spite of the evil around them.	They have some in their congregation who are not holding to the gospel.	Repent	Receive the hidden manna, they will receive a new white stone with their name written upon it.
Thyatira	Their works, their love and faith and service and patient endurance,	They tolerate ‘Jezebel’ a prophetess who practice sexual immorality and ate food sacrificed to idols and lead others to do the same.	Hold fast to what they know to be true.	Authority over the nations and the morning star.