I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 45-48.

    Today’s passage is a record of prophecies which Jeremiah made earlier in time than the things recorded in yesterday’s passage. It starts with a message for Baruch, who assisted Jeremiah in many ways throughout his ministry. It appears that Baruch was an ambitious man. Jeremiah tells Baruch to put aside his ambitions because the future which would soon arrive would not provide an opportunity for Baruch to become accomplish great things. However, God promised Baruch through Jeremiah that He would preserve his life throughout all of the coming disruptions. I suspect that God’s word for Baruch is his word for all of us, although the reasons may be different. We should not seek great things for ourselves. Rather we should seek to bring honor to God in all that we do.

    While Jehoiakim, who had been put on the throne by the Pharaoh, was king, Jeremiah prophesied against Egypt. It seems likely that this prophecy was a warning to Jehoiakim against counting on Egypt to defend Jerusalem against Babylon. While Nebuchadnezzar did not completely conquer Egypt, he did invade it far enough to fulfill Jeremiah’s prophecies about that event. Jeremiah also prophesied that the Philistines and the Moabites would be invaded and destroyed as nations. He said that the Philistines would cease to exist, but that Moab would be restored in the future. The Philistine people did cease to be a distinct ethnic group shortly after this, while the Moabites were still a people when the Jewish Exiles returned.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 42-44.

    The remnant left in Judah after Gedaliah, the governor appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar, was killed went to Jeremiah to ask God what they should do. They swore that they would do what God told them to do through Jeremiah. After ten days, Jeremiah received an answer from God, so he called the remnant to him for the answer. The answer from God which Jeremiah gave them was that they should stay in Judah. Additionally, Jeremiah prophesied to them the bad things which would happen to them if they did not obey God and went to Egypt anyway. Further, Jeremiah told them that he knew they were not going to listen to what God had said. And indeed, Jeremiah was correct, they did not do as God had said. The people, or at least their leaders, did not like the answer Jeremiah gave them. Looking at their response, one wonders why they went to Jeremiah in the first place. There is an important lesson for us in this. When we know what God wants us to do, we need to trust Him and do it, even when we are afraid of the consequences. The results of doing what God wants us to do will always be better than the consequences of doing something else instead.

    Once the remnant arrived in Egypt, Jeremiah confronted them over their continued idolatrous practices. The people responded that they were going to continue these idolatrous practices because they, and their ancestors, had always followed these practices, besides which when they had practiced them in Judah they had been prosperous. It is interesting to note that they first said that they had always done these things, then they tried to claim that trouble only came upon them when they stopped doing them. They changed their story in the middle because they realized that Jeremiah had been among those who had told them troubles were going to come upon them because of these idolatrous practices, so they tried to claim that the troubles came about because they had listened to him. This too is human nature. We frequently repent of our sins too late to avoid their consequences, then we blame the consequences of our sins on the fact that we stopped practicing them.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 39-41.

    Jeremiah had warned King Zedekiah that he should surrender to the Babylonians. He had done so as a prophecy from God. Jeremiah had even warned King Zedekiah what would happen if he did not do so and promised him, again as a prophecy from God, that if he surrendered nothing bad would happen to him (aside from being taken captive). However, King Zedekiah was more afraid of what would happen if King Nebuchadnezzar turned him over to the Judeans who had previously gone over to the Babylonians (and perhaps King Zedekiah was also more afraid of certain members of his own court). As a result, King Zedekiah refused to surrender and, when the Babylonians were breaking through the last defenses of the city, attempted to flee the city. He was captured and suffered the fate which Jeremiah had prophesied.

    After the fall of Jerusalem, the Babylonians appointed Gedaliah (it amuses me that my default reading of this name sounds like a type of onion) governor over Judah. When those who had been leading guerilla forces against the Babylonians, and those who had fled the country to avoid the war, heard that Gedaliah was appointed governor they began to return. The guerilla leaders met with Gedaliah and most of them accepted his assurance that the Babylonians would not seek retribution for their actions during the war. What role Jeremiah’s earlier prophecies which had said the same thing played in them believing this is unclear (the context and their later actions suggest that it played some role). Unfortunately, one of the guerilla leaders chose not to accept this opportunity to live in peace. That one, named Ishamel, killed Gedaliah and fled. His motives are unclear. There is a report that Ishmael was paid by the ruler of a neighboring nation to kill Gedaliah, but we are also told that Ishmael was a member of the royal family. Furthermore, he took captive the king’s daughters (it is not clear which king) and other members of the royal household who had been left in Gedaliah’s care. This last action suggests that he had plans to set up a “court in exile”.

    The remaining guerilla leaders gathered their men and pursued him. When they overtook Ishmael, those he had taken captive escaped and fought against him. Ishmael was defeated, but he escaped with a small band of men. The entire group, those who had pursued Ishmael and those whom he had taken captive, were afraid of what the King of Babylon would do when he discovered that Gedaliah had been killed, so they made plans to flee to Egypt. Their fear was not baseless. Throughout history, various rulers have decided to kill such people to keep them from leading a revolt, or being used to lend legitimacy to an uprising.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 36-38.

    The first thought I had when I read today’s passage was how Jehoiakim’s response to the reading of a scroll was different from his father Josiah’s reaction. Admittedly the scrolls were different; the one read to Josiah was the Book of the Law (possibly Deuteronomy, possibly the entire Pentateuch, possibly some other compilation of the Laws of Moses), the one read to Jehoiakim was the words of prophecy which Jeremiah had spoken. However, when Josiah heard God’s Words as given in the Book of the Law, he immediately recognized the judgment which God would be bringing on the people of Jerusalem for their violation of God’s commands. In response to that recognition, he began to mourn for the people and sent to inquire of God what he should do. Jehoiakim on the other hand was read a scroll spelling out the coming judgment and giving the course of action which God desired. Rather than react as his father had in seeking to do God’s will, Jehoiakim made a game out of destroying the scroll which gave him these dire warnings. Josiah took the word of God seriously and recognized how badly he had transgressed against God. He sought how he could be made right with God. His son, Jehoiakim, treated the word of God as a joke. He responded by acting as if he could make the consequences of violating God’s word go away by destroying the scroll on which they were written.

    I want to point out that both Josiah and Jehoiakim had advisers who thought the word of God was important. In both cases, as soon as those advisers became aware of the existence of the scroll they brought it to the king’s attention. Josiah chose to be influenced by those good influences, Jehoiakim chose to follow the path of less savory advisers. It is worth noting that Josiah certainly had members of his court who encouraged him to follow the path his father and his son followed. The difference between Josiah and Jehoiakim was whose advice they chose to take. Each of us faces a similar decision. It is up to us to decide which group we are going to allow to influence our behavior; those who love God, or those who despise Him.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 31-32.

    Jeremiah prophesied that God would make a new covenant with the people of Israel. Traditionally, Christians have interpreted this to have been fulfilled with the death and resurrection of Jesus. I tend towards this interpretation, but, if so, that means we need to give some thought to what the prophet means when he talks about aspects of this new covenant. Jeremiah says that God will put His law in our minds and write it on our hearts. That is fairly straightforward. However, then Jeremiah tells us that we will not need to teach our neighbors or call on them to know the Lord because they will already know Him. That part seems problematic. There are certainly people today who do not know the Lord and it seems like there are people who do know the Lord who need to be taught.

    Having said that, it seems to me that my understanding of how God intends for the Church to be structured fits right into that. God has provided the Bible to us in a way that each of us can read it on our own and learn His intentions and desires. It does not take special training to understand what the Bible says to us. Each and every one of us can go to the Bible and see what God has to say for ourselves. We do not need someone to interpret what it means. As for the place where Jeremiah says that everyone will know the Lord, he actually says that all of the “people of Israel” will know the Lord. In terms of the New Covenant of Christianity, “the people of Israel” are the Church, those who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior.

    I want to point out that this interpretation leaves something to be desired. For me, filling that hole can be dealt with by recognizing that many of the prophecies in the Bible have more than one valid interpretation. God promises that He will never abandon the descendants of Jacob, that Israel will never cease to be a nation. This is consistent with what we see in the world today. Israel was a nation without land for centuries, but once more it has land in which it exists. More importantly, in the prophecy from Jeremiah God stated that He will never reject all of the descendants of Israel. We see this fulfilled in those Messianic Jews who are followers of Christ. In every generation there have been Jews who have come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 28-30.

    At the end of yesterday’s passage, Jeremiah had employed another one of his metaphors. He had put on a wooden yoke to indicate that the Kingdom of Judah, and many of the surrounding nations would be bound to serve the king of Babylon. Another prophet, Hananiah, contradicted Jeremiah’s prophecy and said that God would break the yoke of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah exclaimed that he desired for Hananiah to be correct, however, the prophets who preceded the two of them had all prophesied war and destruction. Therefore, the burden of proof was on any prophet who prophesied peace. Hananiah then broke the yoke which Jeremiah was wearing, and repeated his prophecy that God would likewise break the yoke which Babylon had put on the people of Jerusalem. Jeremiah did not immediately respond to this confrontation, and thus escalate it. He went on his way. Later he prophesied that Hananiah was lying and offered as support for his statement the prediction that Hananiah would die before the year was out. Which happened just as Jeremiah had predicted.
    There are two key elements here for us today. When the prophet who disagreed with him began to physically interfere with his message, Jeremiah did not respond in kind. He went on his way and allowed the situation to de-escalate. Second, the burden of proof rests on those who claim that God is not calling us to repentance. Jeremiah’s message was that we had better change our ways because terrible times are coming. Hananiah’s message was that there is no need to change, God is going to come to our rescue as we are. When things are bad and there are more storm clouds on the horizon, our default should be to examine ourselves and look for the sin in our life from which we need to repent.

    Later, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles living in, or near, Babylon. His message was one of hope, but not the message they wanted to hear. They wanted to hear that Jerusalem was going to throw off Babylonian control and they would soon be able to go home. They had plenty of people among them willing to tell them that such was the word from God. Jeremiah told them that they would not soon be returning to Jerusalem. However, Jeremiah also told that that if they were faithful and lived their lives patiently serving God where He had put them, God would look out for them. Jeremiah’s message to them is one for those who seek to serve God in all ages:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

IF we seek God with our whole heart, with our entire being, we will find Him.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 26-27.

    Jeremiah went to the courtyard of the Temple and prophesied that, if the people did not listen to the prophets whom God had sent to them and follow God’s law, the Temple and all of Jerusalem would be destroyed. The people who were worshiping in the Temple at the time were infuriated that Jeremiah said that the Temple and Jerusalem would be destroyed. They did not pay attention to the core of his message, which was that this destruction could be avoided if people would faithfully follow God’s will. Of course, that was because to do so would have been to admit that they needed to change their behaviors. It is worth noting that it was the religious leaders, and the most “religious” people who wanted to put Jeremiah to death for his prophecy, while it was members of the secular authorities who came to his defense. Which group do we find ourselves in? Do we call for the “death” of those who prophesy that destruction will come on our nation if we do not start following God’s law? Or, do we humbly repent of our sins and seek to identify where we have failed to do God’s will in our lives so that we can change?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 23-25.

    Jeremiah focuses his condemnation on the leaders of the people of Jerusalem. He calls them out for their encouraging the people to do wrong. He puts a special emphasis on the religious leaders. Jeremiah tells us that the religious leaders were dishonest and committed adultery. But, not only did they sin themselves, they encouraged the people to sin. They told the people who were sinning that no harm would come to them from their sins. Jeremiah recounts how the prophets made up stories about being given a message from God when they had not listened to what God had to say. I see the same thing going on today, religious leaders telling people that no harm will come to them from sinning, telling people that there is no need to turn from their sin because God loves them the way that they are. It is true that God loves people the way that they are, but He does not want them to remain in their self-destructive lifestyles. Because He loves them He wants them to turn from their sins, which are gradually destroying them. If we truly love them, we will want the same.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 19-22.

    Throughout the Book of Jeremiah the prophet says that it is too late for Jerusalem to avoid the coming disaster. Yet, he also says that if the people and the rulers turn from their sins and begin obeying God it will not happen. This is not a contradiction. Jeremiah knows that not enough of the people of Jerusalem, especially among the ruling class, will turn from their sins. He points out that many of the people of Jerusalem, again, especially among the ruling class, publicly worship God while practicing idolatry in private. Among those in the ruling class, they worshiped God as part of their public duties, but worshiped idols with their friends and neighbors in their private life. The key thing in Jeremiah’s condemnation of the people of Jerusalem was that their worship of God was purely ceremonial. Jeremiah points out that there is a connection between the idolatry of the ruling class and the way in which they oppress the rest of the people.

    Repeatedly the prophet addresses those among the people of Jerusalem who were sure that God would never let Jerusalem fall. The argument that God would not let Jerusalem fall was based on the idea that the ceremonies which God called His people to perform needed to be performed at the Temple (or, at least many of them did). One of the themes throughout the Book of Jeremiah is that those ceremonies are less important to God than for people to live righteously. Jeremiah repeatedly told the people that they had it wrong. The ceremonies (singing praise songs, reading Scripture, offering sacrifices, etc) were not ends in themselves. They were extensions of leading a holy life, of treating our fellow man the way God intended. The people thought that as long as they practiced the ceremonies which God had directed they were, more or less, doing the most important part. It was OK that they were performing ceremonies to other gods on the side and using their power to lord it over others. It is the same mentality that led Mafia bosses the think they were good Christians because they went to mass every Sunday, while ordering people beaten up or murdered during the week. The same mentality that leads certain businessmen to think they are good Christians because they teach Sunday School, while bribing government inspectors or cheating their customers during the week.