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.

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

God sent Jeremiah to prophesy that He was going to smash Jerusalem like a clay pot.  Jeremiah told the leaders of the people this was going to happen because they and the people had turned to worshiping other gods, going so far as to sacrifice their children to those gods.  It seems to me that Jeremiah was pointing out to them that the sacrifice of children should have made them realize that these gods were bad and that worshiping them would lead to destruction.  I believe we should heed the same warning regarding belief systems who have “prophets” who speak of abortion in sacramental terms.

Later in today’s passage. Jeremiah prophesies against the rulers of Jerusalem.  Once again, Jeremiah has previously prophesied that the coming destruction cannot be avoided, but here he prophesies that if the leaders obey God’s commands the destruction will be forestalled.  The context of the passage implies that the rulers of Jerusalem were doing the opposite of what God called them to do.  In the same way, I fear that most of our political leaders, and even most of our religious leaders, are violating the commands which God lays out here.  And we must call on them to do what is just and right, to do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.  I believe that most of those in positions of leadership on both sides of the illegal immigration debate in this country are guilty of violating these commands.  Those who oppose enforcing immigration laws do so because they benefit from the suffering inflicted on those who sneak into this country against the law.  Some benefit because they can hire them to work for a lower wage.  Some benefit because they earn money from trafficking them.  On the other side, many of those who seek tighter enforcement of immigration laws have no concern for the suffering of those in other countries.

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

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

As I read today’s passage it seems to me that Jeremiah began his career as a prophet believing that the people would listen to the prophecies which God gave him and turn from their sins.  Perhaps he even began to prophesy as part of King Josiah’s reforms, or perhaps he inspired those reforms.  I think he saw what was going on under King Josiah and hoped that the people would follow through and put aside all of their idol worship and truly turn to God.  When he saw that this was not going to be the case, he tried to keep silent but found that he could not.  I understand that.  I also from time to time vow to let things go and find that I cannot.  Of course, I don’t have the excuse that the Holy Spirit is working through me. I’m just opinionated and stubborn. By the way, that is not me being self-deprecating.  I have never had any reason to believe that I am a prophet, and many of the things I cannot keep my mouth shut about are things which have no bearing on serving God (and some of the things I say I know are things which God would not want me to say).

When reading the Book of Jeremiah, it is important to realize that the Book was not written down as Jeremiah made these prophecies.  Most of it was written down shortly before the fall of Jerusalem (or possibly written down about then after the original copy was destroyed).  As a result, not all of the prophecies are recorded in the chronological order they were given.  In any case, Jeremiah prophesied to King Zedekiah, the last king before the fall of Jerusalem, that the fall and destruction of Jerusalem was no longer avoidable.  Yet, just a few sentences later, he prophesies that if the rulers of Jerusalem begin administering justice every morning and rescue people from the hand of the oppressor God will not follow through.  All of this is consistent with what Jeremiah prophesied a few chapters back when God told him that if a nation He had decided to destroy turned away from their sin to Him, He would relent.  So, while I look at our society and think that perhaps we have gone too far and it is too late to avoid the coming disaster and suffering, this passage suggests that there is always time to benefit from doing God’s will and, if people turn to Him, they always have an opportunity to avoid the worst of the suffering.

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

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

In today’s passage, Jeremiah speaks of how he tried to avoid being persecuted for speaking God’s word.  After being persecuted for speaking God’s message to the people of Jerusalem, Jeremiah tried keeping a low profile and not speaking of the coming destruction.  However, he found that he was unable to do so, he felt compelled to speak out against the sins and injustices he saw going on around him.  He could not listen to others proclaiming that all would be well when he knew that if the people did not change their ways destruction would come upon them. Despite the fact that part of him wished he had never been born, Jeremiah praised the Lord.

Today I am again struck by the fact that despite Jeremiah repeatedly saying that the destruction of Jerusalem was inevitable, he also says that it can be avoided.  Jeremiah tells them that if they do what is just and right, kings of David’s line will continue to rule in Jerusalem.  His prophesies that death and destruction are inevitable come from his awareness that they will NOT do what is just and right.  He knew that the people of Jerusalem would not turn from their sins.  We are approaching the same place in this nation.  But even once that place is reached, there is hope for individuals.  Let us turn from our sins and seek to call others to do the same.

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

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.  I am back from vacation, but back to doing my daily readings a few days earlier than planned.  I will continue to try to be a few days ahead so that I can publish on time if anything comes up.

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

As I read the writings of Jeremiah I see him prophecy against two forms of idolatry.  He prophesied against those who worshiped the nation of Judah and the Temple, who failed to understand that just because God’s Temple was in Jerusalem did not mean that God would protect the city.  He also prophesied against those who joined in every worship fad which came along.  These were not the equivalent of having loud, electrified worship teams leading the Christian worship service, singing the latest contemporary Christian songs (although some of those fads may lead towards what Jeremiah is prophesying against, but that is a different discussion).  No, Jeremiah was prophesying against those who partook in pagan practices.  

I cannot decide if Jeremiah’s prophecies against these two forms of idolatry were directed to the same group of people, or if they were two different groups.  Based on what I see in our society today, I would guess that his prophecies were directed at multiple groups.  There were those who fully joined in his condemnation of the pagan worship practices, but thought he went too far when he said Jerusalem would fall because its people failed to deliver justice to the poor and powerless.  There were those who fully joined in his condemnation of the failure of Jerusalem’s people to deliver justice to the poor and powerless, but thought he went too far by condemning pagan practices.  And there were those who thought that by condemning pagan practices he was taking part in denying justice to the poor and powerless.  Each group failed to understand that they were no better than the others.  If you believe that the failures of others plays a more important role in the breakdown of society than your own failures, Jeremiah was talking to you.