The Planter: Day Two

Prayerful Request

We ask for wisdom, guidance, and understanding. That we have eyes to see and ears to hear no more, nor no less than as is Your will. Thank you, Father. We ask this in Yeshua’s precious name. Amen.

The word planter is only used in the Bible one time, and it is used in the plural form. I find that significant, because that means that there is not a single planter, as there is only one shepherd, one savior, one father, one light; you get my point. Broken down, plant is used forty-two times, plantation is used once, planted is used thirty-nine times, plantedst twice, planters ones, planteth five, planting two, and plantings one.

Of course, that may be nothing more than a mere coincidence, but I think it is worth noting. Of all the times he speaks of planting seeds, and the fact that he made the man of Genesis 2:6-7 to fulfill the need of Gensis 2:5. There are many planters, but only once is a plantation mentioned.

So, let’s go there. Open your bibles to Jeremiah 31:5: “They shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.” Plant here, if you take it back to the Hebrew is pronounced naw-tah’ and, according to the Strong’s Concordance, is a primitive root  prop to strike or fix; specific to plant (literally or figuratively). The attached words here being fastened and plant(er). What kind of a seed planter for god would you be if you weren’t firmly planted in His Word?

Now what is He talking about when he mentions eating them as common things? Well, we’ll have to go to His Word to find out. Let’s back up to the beginning of the chapter. Actually, let’s back up even further, as chapters thirty and thirty-one are both concerned with restoration of the people. The thirtieth chapter of Jeremiah ends with a highly important bit of knowledge: “The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until He have done it, and until He have performed the intents of His heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.” Consider here means, “understand.” So, take the final verses of Chapter 30 and compare them to Jeremiah 23:19-20. Keep reading, and see what He has to tell us. In verse 22, He tells us that if “they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My People to hear My words, then they should have turned from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.” What is His counsel? What is His word? It’s His letter to you. It’s your Bible. That is what His planters are to be striking or fixing in—His word; His Counsel.

As that takes us back into thirty-first chapter, and He tells us in Verse 3, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” What does that mean, exactly, that He has drawn us? Let’s look to the Hebrew word from which it was translated: mậshak, meaning to sow, to develop, forbear. If it is with lovingkindness which with he sows us, then are we not His tools, just as he spoke of a need for in Genesis 2:5 and fulfilled in Genesis 2:6-7? I don’t know. What do you think, friend? Pray on it. Let it ruminate and we’ll come back to it again tomorrow.

Study

Jeremiah chapter thirty is all about the people’s restoration. Take a look at 30:18-22. Who do you believe he is referring to? Pay special attention to the twenty-first verse.

Devotional: What was Jeremiah’s mission? Remembering back to the devotional of yesterday, read for yourselves Jeremiah 26: 2-6.

The Planter: Day One

Prayerful Request

We ask for wisdom, guidance, and understanding. That we have eyes to see and ears to hear no more, nor no less than as is Your will. Thank you, Father. We ask this in Yeshua’s precious name. Amen.

Genesis is always a healthy place to begin a Bible study, so that’s exactly what we’re going to do. In Genesis chapter two, we are introduced to the creation of Adam. His creation stems from an apparent void spoken of in Genesis 2:5, which reads, “And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.”

Study

Today, you should do a study on the days of creation as given in Genesis chapters one and two. Pay close attention to the order. I’ll leave it up to you (and God’s will) for you to decide whether the man spoken of in Genesis 2:7 was created to fill the void as spoken of in Genesis 2:5. Note the relation of that man’s creation as it aligns, chronologically, to the seventh day, mentioned in Genesis 2:3.

The man that would be created then was to fulfill that very purpose: to till the ground. Is that you? Let’s see if the next verse is familiar to you. Genesis 2:6-7: “But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of the life; and man became a living soul.”

Everything has a beginning, based on a void that needs or calls to be filled. What about you? Why did you pick up this book? Were you looking for an answer, instruction, just something to fill your time with? Even I have to look inside myself for this question. Why am I choosing to write this devotional? To fill a void that I see outside of myself or to fill a void that I feel inside? While I cannot answer the question for you, I can quite certainly assure you that I am beginning this journey with trepidation but with a sense of fulfillment. I revere Our Father, and I understand that judgment begins on the pulpit.

With that in mind, let’s end today with a small devotional.

Devotional – What does God tell us in Jeremiah 8:7-9?

When I was a little girl, I hungered desperately for God’s word. I envied the children at school who “got to” complain about going to Sunday School. For me, there would have been no greater pleasure. For my whole life, I have struggled to stay quiet when people have spoken against God or Biblical truths. There is nothing more frustrating to me than when people criticize the choices that God has made or the laws that He has set forth. Who are we to judge Him?

What about you? Think of society’s turn from faith. Do you ever find yourself justifying God’s law to other Christians? Where do you turn when you have questions? To God’s Word first or to man’s?

My goal, by the end of this devotional, is to strengthen your confidence in turning to Our Father’s Word directly. How many times did Jesus begin an answer with the equivalent of “Have you not read?” Well, have you, my friend? Have you read His Word, or do you just read of His Word? He left it for you, because He would only be with us for a short time. He rent that veil and invited you to His throne. I believe His Word is that door. Knock and it shall open. Did the scribes transcribe His Letter to us in vain, or will His Children read it?