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

I am not sure how I am going to write today’s blog because there are two different, but related, things going on in today’s passage.  While King Jehoiakim was reigning, Jeremiah went to the temple and prophesied that the people must turn from their sins, or Jerusalem would be completely destroyed.  The religious establishment, and the people who regularly worshiped in the temple, wanted to lynch him for this prophecy, claiming that Jeremiah was committing treason, but the political establishment (or, at least a faction of the political establishment) intervened.  However, the passage also tells us that another prophet, named Uriah, had prophesied similarly to Jeremiah and King Jehoiakim had sent agents after him to Egypt to bring him back and execute him.  I have long wondered what point the passage was trying to make by bringing up Uriah.  Why did Jeremiah survive, while Uriah was put to death?  So, when Uriah heard that the king wanted to kill him, he fled to another country.  When Jeremiah was threatened, he stood up, repeated his prophecy, and told the people he was innocent of treason.  I do not know the Uriah would not have been killed if he had not fled, but fleeing did not save him.  Jeremiah stayed and continued to speak the words God gave him, despite repeated threats on his life.  We learn here that we must never shrink, or run, from opposition which arises from speaking God’s word.  We may suffer and die, but running will not save us from that.

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