Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 13-15.

I struggle with today’s passage.  For most of this passage, Jeremiah prophesies destruction upon the people for their sins.  He reports that God has told him not to pray for the people because He (God) is going to destroy them with famine, plague, and the sword.  Jeremiah defended the people by saying that the prophets were telling them that they would not see the sword or suffer famine.  God responded that those prophets were lying because He (God) had not sent them.  Further God told Jeremiah that those prophets would perish by famine and the sword, as would the people who listened to them.  The point here being that we should be very careful about listening to people who claim to speak on behalf of God, especially when they tell us that our sins will not lead to our destruction.  Then God tells Jeremiah that even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Him, He would not relent on the suffering and destruction which was coming to this people.  I believe we are fast approaching a time, if we are not already there, when Jeremiah’s prophecy here will apply to our society today.

So far, the passage is clear, if very scary; people have been so sinful for so long that the suffering which God warned would result from such sinfulness cannot be turned aside.  However, after having told Jeremiah that such is the case, God tells him

If you repent, I will restore you
that you may serve me;

Which tells us that Jeremiah, at least, can avoid the coming suffering (avoid is probably not quite the right word, but I am going to go with it for today).  I believe that God’s message here was not just for Jeremiah, but for anyone who would listen to it, but God knew that few would actually do so.  And that is where we stand today, our society is going headlong  down the road towards suffering and destruction and time to turn aside is running out, if it has not already run out.  However, God will use and protect those who repent and speak worthwhile words, instead of the worthless words so many today speak.  If we wish to serve God, we must speak His words so that people are drawn towards us (insomuch as that draws them to God), but we must be careful not to be drawn towards the sins of our society.

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