Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 7-9.

Jeremiah prophesied against those who came to the temple to worship God.  They thought they were gaining God’s blessing by coming to the temple to offer sacrifices to God, without reforming their ways.  They thought that by offering sacrifices to God on the Holy Days, while stealing and murdering, committing adultery and perjury the rest of the time.  Jeremiah warned them that they were arousing God’s anger, but not because they were causing any harm to Him.  No, God was angry because they harmed themselves with their sins.  This passage presents two important lessons.  God does not give us commands arbitrarily.  He does not tell us “Do this, don’t do that,” just to make us jump to His tune.  He tells us “Do this” because He knows we will be better off if we do so.  And He tells us “Don’t do that” because He knows we will suffer if we do that.  God’s rules are not intended to limit our enjoyment of life, they are designed to enhance it.  But the prophet has a second message for us here: following the commands which cause other people to think we are righteous benefits us less than following those which no one notices us doing. Going to Church every Sunday won’t do you any good if you take advantage of people with limited options to save money.

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