The Strand Study Bible

JEREMIAH JEREMIAH wanted the captivity to endmore than Jeremiah did.The persecution he took for predicting the Babylonian captivity was relentless. He would have loved for Hananiah’s false prediction to be true ( the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied ). However, they were not true. The captivity would not end and Jerusalem would be destroyed seven years later in 586 BC (II Ki 25). 28:10 The reason Hananiah could brake the yoke was because it was made of wood. The next yoke that God would place upon him and the surrounding nations, however, would be made of iron (vs 13-14). For every action (Hananiah pushed against God’s ordained will) there is an opposite, but not always equal, reaction (God pushed back). Take gravity as an example. An object (be it a bird or a plane) can only resist the resistance of gravity for so long. Then it must succumb. Why? Because gravity is a fixed law, ordained of God, and you can only resist a fixed law until its resistance to you prevails. Both God and His laws are fixed. They are ordained. Resist them and for awhile it can appear that you are winning, but in the end you will lose every time. Fact: When it comes to resistance, something always gives. Will that something be what you are resisting against or will that something be you? That, my friend, will all depend on who or what you are up against. NOTE - Remember Sir Isaac Newton’s fixed laws of motion (first compiled in his work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687)? The three fixed laws of motion are: 1. The law of inertia Any object not causing “friction” is at rest. Why? Because it does not resist the laws of God. Take the planets in our solar system that revolve around our sun as an example. Although they are very large objects, because they are ordained to be there ( Gen 1:14a,b ), they rotate in space around God’s sun without any resistance. Newton stated his first law this way: First law : If there is no net force on an object, then its velocity is constant. The object is either at rest (if the velocity is equal to zero), or it moves with constant speed in a single direction. You can sum up Newton’s first law as follows: Don’t cause “friction” with the laws of God and you will remain at rest. 2. The law of impulse and momentum (collisions and impacts) Any object not at “rest” is causing friction. Why? Because it resists the laws of God. Take asteroids and meteors in our solar system as an example. Although they too are planetary items in our solar system just like our planets, unlike our planets they are rogue (not in God’s will, probably due to an earlier rebellion in our planetary system due to Satan’s rebellion on this same earth eons of time ago – Ezk 28:12 ). Thus, they fly throughout our planetary system causing havoc. Just look at the craters on the moon, on other planets, and even on our own planet. Newton stated his second law this way: Second law : The acceleration a of a body is parallel and directly proportional to the net force F acting on the body, is in the direction of the net force, and is inversely proportional to the mass m of the body, i.e., F = m a . In other words, force ( F ) = the object’s ( m ) acceleration. You can sum up Newton’s second law as follows: Cause friction with the ordained laws of God and you will not remain at “rest; ” you will accelerate in a direction of motion that… you do not want to go . 3. The law of interaction (action-reaction law) Any object resisted against “will” resist back. Take water as an example. A swimmer can only resist the resistance of water for so long. Then he must succumb. Why? Because water is a fixed resistance, and you can only resist a fixed resistance until its resistance to you prevails. Resist the laws of God (cause friction) and God “will” resist back. Take the asteroids and meteors in our solar system as an example. Although they fly throughout our planetary system causing havoc, they cannot alter the direction of ordained objects that they resist. If you’ll notice, our moon, thought pelted with asteroids and meteors for eons of time, still revolves around our earth according to God’s will (Gen 1:14-18). No matter what kind of damage the moon has received by rogue objects in space, the moon remains fixed. The same is true for our own planet. No matter what kind of damage our planet has received by these rogue objects in space our planet still revolves around the sun ( SON – Mal 4:2 ) according to God’s will. Meaning: You can resist God’s will (cause friction against His laws), but you cannot win. Why? Because God’s laws are fixed, ordained, and thus greater than we are; and the harder we push against them the harder they push back… until we are either broken ( Psa 51 :1- 17 ) or ruined ( Rom 1: 18- 32 ). Newton stated his third law this way: Third law: When a first body exerts a force F 1 on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force F 2 = - F 1 on the first body. This means that F 1 and F 2 are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. Depending on the object you are pushing against will determine who will win in the “resistance” game. You can sum up Newton’s third law as follows: Don’t resist God’s ordained laws (cause friction with God) because He is bigger, stronger, and smarter than you are. He “will” push back and He “will” eventually win . Just ask Hananiah. He went from resisting a wooden yoke to now resisting an iron one. Resistance towards God’s always leads to a greater resistance towards you ( Exo 4:21 ). NOTE – If you and I are going in a direction opposite of the laws of God, the net force applied to you and I by the laws of God will produce a proportional acceleration. 29:1 Chapter 29 records for us Jeremiah’s letter to the people who had been taken captive during Nebuchadnezzar’s second invasion in 597 BC (vs 1-4). What he tells them to do is to settle down in Babylon, get married and establish homes (vs 5-6); and whatever they do don’t rebel and instigate revolt during their captivity (vs 7). Why? Because this was God’s will for their lives –to learn from their correction (unlike those who were left behind – vs 16-19), and to learn to be content. 1187

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