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

In today’s passage Jeremiah says that God deceived him, other translations say that God persuaded him, to speak words proclaiming violence and destruction.  So whenever he speaks he is insulted and put down.  This led Jeremiah to try keeping quiet, but he found that he could not.  God’s word became a fire eating him up from the inside until it would burst forth once more.  Those who heard his words tried to use them against him, they tried to find something Jeremiah said which they could use to condemn him, but Jeremiah was careful to speak only the words which God had given him.  So, those who sought to persecute him failed and were brought low.  I want to point out that Jeremiah makes this proclamation the day after he had been put in the stocks and beaten.  We may find ourselves in the same position today.  When we speak the words which God gives us, there are many in our society today who will try to use the words we speak against us.  We must be careful to only speak the words which God has given us.  If we do so, He will stand with us and our persecutors will fall.

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