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.

    God sent Jeremiah to the Temple with a message for the people of Jerusalem. Jeremiah went and prophesied that if they did not turn from their sins and obey God, He would bring disaster on Jerusalem and destroy the Temple. However, those who heard him speak only paid attention to the second part. They accused Jeremiah of being a traitor because he prophesied that God would destroy the Temple. There were other prophets giving similar prophecies during this time. King Jehoiakim had at least one of those prophets killed. Nevertheless, there were some government officials who stood up for Jeremiah and prevented the mob from killing him.
    There are a couple of lessons here. We must be willing to stand up against popular opinion to express God’s word, even when that popular opinion is backed by both violence and government sanction. Further, we must be willing to stand up against the crowd when they are bent on committing an injustice, again, even in the face of possible government sanction. Finally, we should be prepared to listen to unpopular opinions and consider whether God is calling us to change our behaviors.

    Once again in today’s passage, Jeremiah acts out the message which God has given him. In this case Jeremiah wears an ox yoke in order to make the point that Judah and its neighbors must submit to King Nebuchadnezzar. This was certainly an unpopular opinion and many of those who opposed Jeremiah’s message would have argued that it was better to die in war against King Nebuchadnezzar than to submit to him. They might even have had a point if they were arguing for living according to God’s commands rather than submitting the King Nebuchadnezzar. However, the Book of Jeremiah tells us that they were claiming that they should resist King Nebuchadnezzar in order to pursue their own desires and wishes.