Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 51-52.

At the height of Babylon’s power, Jeremiah prophesied that it would fall and be completely destroyed, never to rise to power again.   Jeremiah told the world that for all of Babylon’s power it could not escape the Lord’s judgement against it.  There were those who would believe that the fall of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the temple there, meant that the gods of Babylon were more powerful than God.  God gave Jeremiah the prophecy about the fall of Babylon before the fall of Jerusalem in order to provide evidence for those who worshiped Him that Babylon’s gods were not more powerful than He was.   We live in a time when people believe that God is no longer relevant, but this is not true.  The God who told us of Babylon’s fall before it reached the height of its power continues to work in the world today.  History follows the course which He has laid out for it.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 49-50.

I mentioned yesterday that it is unclear when Jeremiah made the prophecies against the nations surrounding Judah.  These are relevant today because today’s passage contains more “undated” prophecies (that is, we do not know when during Jeremiah’s career he made these prophecies).  In today’s passage these other nations all thought that they had not suffered the fate of Israel because their gods were able to protect them.  Yet God gave Jeremiah a prophecy predicting that they would suffer the fate which they thought their gods had protected them from.  Even Babylon, through whom God brought punishment upon Jerusalem for its people’s sins, would face God’s judgement.  At the same time, God would provide relief to His people.  In the same way today, God will bring judgement upon the nations which oppose His will, while rescuing those who faithfully repent of their sins and turn their faces towards Him.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 45-48.

There are two parts to today’s passage.  The first, and shorter, portion, is Jeremiah’s prophecy to his assistant and scribe, Baruch.  Baruch apparently had ambitions to do great things, as he came from the aristocracy of Judah.  Jeremiah gave him a prophecy from God telling him that such things were not a possibility in his time on this earth, but that God would ensure that he escaped with his life from the various situations in which he found himself (this was apparently a reference to the persecution Baruch and Jeremiah faced, the fall of Jerusalem, and the murder of the Babylonian governor).

The rest of the passage consists of various prophecies against Judah’s neighbors.  When I have thought about it, I have always thought of these prophecies as being made after Jeremiah was taken to Egypt.  As I read today, I realized that these were probably prophecies made earlier in Jeremiah’s career.  For example, it strikes me that the prophecy regarding Egypt was likely made before the Battle of Carchemish.  I realized that the reference made to the Battle of Carchemish here was an editorial comment by the scribe (probably Baruch) telling us that this prophecy started to be fulfilled with Pharaoh’s loss at Carchemish.  Secular biblical scholars often point to Jeremiah’s prophecies concerning Nebuchadnezzar invading Egypt and state that they were not fulfilled.  Interestingly, I discovered over the last few days that Nebuchadnezzar, despite being the longest reigning king of Babylon is also the least documented of Babylonian kings.  This lack of Babylonian documentation about Nebuchadnezzar’s reign means that all we know about his military exploits is that the Babylonian Empire at the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was no larger than during the reign of his father.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 42-44.

After the murder of the man the Babylonians appointed as governor over Judah, the Jews remaining in Judah came to Jeremiah seeking to know God’s will for them.  In particular, they wanted Jeremiah to ask God where they should go and what they should do.  They swore that they would act in full accordance with whatever Jeremiah told them was God’s will for them.  When Jeremiah brings God’s answer to them it is clear that both God and Jeremiah knew how they would respond…which was by refusing to abide by the answer they received.  Every time I read this I come away with the impression that those who came to Jeremiah had already made up their minds as to what they were going to do before they spoke with him.  Which leads me to wonder why they came to Jeremiah in the first place.

We don’t have any basis to determine why they came to Jeremiah when they had already decided on a course of action.  What we do know is what they did after rejecting what God told them through Jeremiah.  First they accused Jeremiah of lying when he said that God had told them to stay in Judah.  Then, once they were in Egypt, instead of listening to Jeremiah’s messages from God, they resumed making sacrifices and offerings to idols.  So, the people consulted Jeremiah to learn what God’s commands for them were.  But, when he did not tell them what they wanted to hear, they rejected not only Jeremiah, but God as well.  We must be careful when we ask for God’s guidance to listen and obey what He tells us.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 36-38.

The first thing I thought about when I read today’s passage was that everything in this book up to this point would have been first written down when Jeremiah dictated the scroll to Baruch.  My second thought was that most of this book was derived from the second scroll which Jeremiah dictated to Baruch.  The next part I want to comment on gives us an insight into the political divide in Jerusalem.  When Baruch read Jeremiah’s scroll at the temple, Micaiah heard everything he read and went to the “all the officials” and told them what he had heard.  The officials sent for Baruch and had him read the scroll for them.  When they heard what Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch, they were frightened.  They were frightened because they feared the Lord.   They knew the king would react badly, but they knew that they had to tell him what Baruch had read to the people.  So, they told Baruch that he and Jeremiah should go somewhere to hide and tell no one where they were going.  Then they went to tell the king about what Baruch had read in the temple.

Which brings us to the other political faction, the king and his attendants (note this king was King Jehoiakim).  Unlike the officials, the king and his attendants were completely unmoved by the words of Jeremiah’s prophecies.  Perhaps unmoved is the wrong word, Jehoiakim burned the scroll upon which Baruch had recorded Jeremiah’s prophecies, almost as if by doing so he could erase them.  Then the king sent someone to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch, but they were unable to locate them.  Later in this passage we see the same divide after Zedekiah became king.  In fact, we see the same divide today.  Those who read Scripture and fear the Lord from those who dismiss the Scripture and try to make it not exist.  The former seek to protect those who speak God’s word while the latter seek to persecute them.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 33-35.

I want to start with something of which I only want to make a short mention.  Jeremiah prophesied that as long as night follows day, God will not reject the descendants of Jacob.  He may from time to time inflict disaster upon them when they fail to follow His commands, but He will always restore them again in due time.

Now to the part of this passage which speaks to me more today.  King Zedekiah sought to respond to Jeremiah’s prophesies (and likely other prophets giving similar prophesies) and restore a level of justice to Jerusalem and Judah by getting the “elites” to free their Hebrew slaves.  I suspect that there was a lot of popular support for this movement.  So, in the face of popular outcry, the “movers and shakers” of Jerusalem very publicly entered into a covenant to free their slaves, and even did so in the face of the public view.  However, as soon as the glare of public attention turned to something else, they found ways to quietly re-enslave those they had freed.  I believe that some of those who freed, and then re-enslaved, their slaves believed they were doing a good thing when they released their slaves, and justified re-enslaving them as doing what was best for “everyone”.  However, many of them did so to receive the accolades of being righteous, with no intention of changing their ways.  There are two lessons for us here.  First, such acts of “righteousness” have no lasting value.  If you are going to vow to change your ways, don’t find excuses to return to your old ways.  Second, God is not fooled when we act one way in public, but completely differently when we think no one is looking (and we should not be fooled by others who do likewise).

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 31-32.

Jeremiah had repeatedly prophesied that disaster would come upon Jerusalem and vehemently rejected as false prophets those who gave the people of Jerusalem cheery prophecies.  However, in today’s passage. Jeremiah does give a prophecy of hope.  He does not offer them a chance to avoid the disaster which he had previously prophesied, but he prophesies that the disaster will not be the end for the people of Israel.  God promised that He would call them back to Him.  He would establish a new covenant with His people.  Under His new covenant, people would be held accountable only for their own sins, not for the sins of their parents and other ancestors.  More importantly, God promised that He would put His law and instructions into the hearts and minds of those who turned to Him under this new covenant.  If we repent and seek God, He will directly teach us His laws and we will not need to rely on anyone else to know them, or to know Him.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 28-30.

In today’s passage, Jeremiah addresses false prophets in both Jerusalem and among those already exiled to Babylon.  Apparently, these “prophets” were telling their audiences that Babylon would fall in a short time; the prophet in Jerusalem whose prophecies were, at least partially, recorded here said that the power of Babylon would be broken within two years time.  Jeremiah responded that historically, the prophets whom God had sent prophesied war, disaster, and plague.  Therefore, he said, those who prophesy peace must be held suspect until their prophecies were fulfilled.  A corollary to the false prophecies of peace for Jerusalem was that those already exiled would soon return.

However, Jeremiah prophesied that those already exiled should reconcile themselves with remaining in exile because God was not going to bring them back until seventy years had passed.  Further Jeremiah told the exiles to seek the peace and prosperity of the city in which they found themselves, even though they were living in exile.  They were foreigners living in a land which was not their own, but God told them to seek the peace and prosperity of the land to which He had sent them.  In the same way, we who serve Christ are foreigners in a land which is not our own.  Yet we also should seek its peace and prosperity.

The final point I want to make is that the people in Jerusalem, and even the exiles themselves, thought that the exiles were abandoned by God.  But the message God gave them through Jeremiah said that nothing could be farther from the truth.  God had plans for them, plans for them to prosper and have a future.  God has similar plans for us.  He told the exiles that they would seek Him, and that when they did so with all of their heart, they would find Him.  So, God has plans to prosper us.  Seek Him, seek Him with all of your heart.  No matter how far you think you are from Him.  He is closer than you can imagine.

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