Bible Reading: Jeremiah 14:1-9
Key Verse: Verse 3 – “And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.”
Key Words: they were ashamed and confounded
The truth is you don’t find unemployment in the Bible. But for those of you who may be unemployed, that really doesn’t make you feel any better, does it? But you do find times of leanness where famine has ravished the land. This is certainly a hard time for those who experience such as this. It’s during these times that we “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
In such situations Satan means it for bad but God can take it and use it for good. Such an example of this is during the time of the Irish Potato Famine (1846 – 1851) which resulted in a 30 percent drop in the population of the west of Ireland. The prolonged suffering of the Irish peasantry had broken the survivors in body and spirit.
John Bloomfield, the owner of Castle Caldwell in County Fermanagh, was working on the recovery of his estate when he noticed that the exteriors of his tenant farmers' small cottages had a vivid white finish. He was informed that there was a clay deposit on his property of unusually fine quality. To generate revenue and provide employment on his estate, he built a pottery at the village of Belleek in 1857. The unusually fine clay yielded a porcelain china that was translucent with a glass-like finish. It was worked into traditional Irish designs and was an immediate success.
Today, Belleek's delicate strength and its iridescent pearlized glaze is enthusiastically purchased the world over. This multimillion-dollar industry arose from innovative thinking during some very anxious times.
So today, if you are going through the famine of unemployment take heart; don’t give up. God can take it and bring good from it. We read in Proverbs 3:7-8, “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.”
What to do:
✞ “He that endured to the end shall be saved.” Keep enduring.
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