Thursday, September 22nd

Thursday, September 22nd

Jeremiah 13:1-11
1 This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water." 2 So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist. 3 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: 4 "Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks." 5 So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me. 6 Many days later the LORD said to me, "Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there." 7 So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless. 8 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9 "This is what the LORD says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt - completely useless! 11 For as a belt is bound around a man's waist, so I bound the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to me,' declares the LORD, 'to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.'

Wicked (adj.):

1. Evil by nature and in practice.


2. Having committed unrighteous acts.


3. Intensely or extremely bad or unpleasant in degree or quality.


4. Morally bad or wrong.


5. Highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust.

Ruin (noun):

1. Total destruction or disintegration, either physical, moral, social, or economic.


2. A cause of total destruction.


3. The act of destroying totally.


4. A destroyed person, object, or building.


5. The remains of something destroyed, disintegrated, or decayed.

If I were to go after pride, if I were to do the morally wrong things… I will be brought to total destruction. God has done it before. Pride is wicked.

Genesis 6:5-7
5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth - men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air - for I am grieved that I have made them."

Something that caught my eye is how God wiped out animals with man. He was grieved so much to the point that he didn’t want the other creatures outside of man. A complete start over of the world.

Genesis 38:10 What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.

Matthew 13:47-50
47 "Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 24:10-14
10 At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11 and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Luke 11:37-41
37 When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. 38 But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.

39 Then the Lord said to him, "Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give what is inside the dish to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

If those in the society of the day where highly respected for their religiosity and knowledge of the word, and God saw them as full of greed and wickedness, how much more do I have to be concerned about my own heart? I could try to list every scripture that talks about wickedness in the bible, but being that there are over 450 scriptures that contain the root word of “wicked,” I would be here a while. Pharisee’s liked to look good to those around them. I like to look good. Am I Pharisee? That is a good question. I like to tell myself that I am not, but really… think about it. It is a question that should be asked on a continual basis, simply because there is not all that much different righteous and wicked, at least on the surface. Johnny Out.